Reddit reviews The Monk (Oxford World's Classics)

Hmm, well the thing about the Gothic revival (as you so call it- I would consider Frankenstein to have been in the Romantic era and Dracula and Jekyl and Hyde to have been Victorian) is that a lot of those novels took or straight up interpolate old folk songs and stories- however Gothic literature's revival was put in place by 18th century German writers which influenced the leading lights of the English movement- Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis for example- and these particular writers usually had an advantage in having been able to have read the new German Gothic novels, or German folk stories and poems.

Most of what I'm referring to is explained in detail in the introduction to this edition of Matthew Lewis' The Monk - the most controversial Gothic novel (or even book) of the age and was all written by a 19 year old who was severely bored and ennuied while travelling across Europe. I'd highly recommend it- it's quite erratic; bits of satire, horror and vividly camp sex scenes as well as having insanely bleak moments- but definitely undeservedly ignored and good fun and brilliantly violent.

While if you're looking for a broad overview of Gothic Literature I cannot recommend The Literature of Terror by David Punter any more- he's the expert on the Gothic and has saved my ass and several others many a time in a late night exam cram.

I found Nigel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter to be very readable. Uncomfortable, but has haunted me since I read it years ago.

EDIT: Matthew Lewis' The Monk was also a compelling read for me.