Gothic Novel Plot Point or Real-Life Scandal of the Clergy and Nobility of Wild Centuries Past?

 I take a guilty pleasure in fiction that ups the ante in terms of sheer outrageousness. 

Like, a nefarious Italian count with a secret? 

It’s a good start. 

With a weird entourage of animals? 

Even better. 

Who is a spy for a secret society against another secret society? 

Go on. 

Who challenges the hero to a duel for uncovering this secret? 

NOW you’re talking.*

*I just described Count Fosco of The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, on whom I wrote a previous post.

No genre better satisfies this desire for the outlandish than the early Gothic, with its haunted castles, duels, and vengeful counts, baronesses, and nuns. But truth is often stranger than fiction, and, well, rich and/or powerful people are and always have been WEIRD. Can you guess whether these far-fetched deeds were cooked up by Ann Radcliffe and her ilk or whether they were real, historical scandals, perpetrated by the eccentric ruling classes of ages past? Decide whether each is fact or fiction, then look at the answers below to see how you did. 

1. A young Spanish monk reveals to his superior that he is a) actually a woman in disguise, and b) in love with him. Both end up before the Inquisition.

2. During a religious procession, the crowd attacks a prioress, seeking justice for a young nun whom she is said to have murdered following the discovery that the sister was pregnant by a handsome Marquis. 

3. A princess accuses the nuns of a certain convent of myriad sexual transgressions, heresy, AND trying to poison her.

4. A vengeful pope orders his predecessor dug up from his grave and puts the corpse on trial. 

5. A young Italian noblewoman’s brother murders both her lover and her husband. 

6. A child of mysterious parentage is born to a prominent Italian family. A father and a son both claim paternity, but rumors fly that both are covering for their daughter/sister and her lover, said to be the child’s real parents. 

7. An Italian Marchesa conspires with a priest to abduct the young woman beloved by her son in order to prevent an inconvenient marriage.

8. After the sudden death of her fiancé, a young Sicilian bride finds herself unwillingly engaged to her former betrothed’s father, who fears the end of his line.

9. A German woman discovers that her husband, a French aristocrat, is a secret member of a band of outlaws, and must flee across France lest she become his next victim.

10. A professor challenges the author of a satirical novel to a duel to defend the honor of the dead author being satirized.

ANSWERS: See how you did.

1. FICTION

The Monk, by Matthew Gregory Lewis. And the identity/love reveal is just the second chapter! Highly recommended as a “so bad it’s good” kind of read. 

2. FICTION
   This is actually from the same book. It’s just that crazy. 

3. FACT
   It’s actually kind of wild.

4. FACT
   Lol yes this happened.

5. FACT
   Well, most likely. Details unclear.

6. FACT
   The Borgias again.

7. FICTION
   The Italian, by the mother of the Gothic herself, Ann Radcliffe

8. FICTION
   The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. And let me just say this is the least weird part of this plot. 

9. FICTION

The Grey Woman, a novella by the usually not-so-Gothic Elizabeth Gaskell

10. FACT
    I can’t give you an internet citation for this one because I found the challenge in the state archives of Milan, so you’ll have to take my word for it. (Ok, I might have a picture buried in my research materials but I'm not gonna look for it.) The author challenged was Guido da Verona; the satirized, dead author was Alessandro Manzoni. The duel may or may not have been a joke, but da Verona did cause a much bigger stir than he probably expected with the book.