The Midnight Bell is a gothic novel by Francis Lathom

Francis Lathom

Francis Lathom was a British gothic novelist and playwright.-Biography:Francis Lathom was born on the 14 July of 1774, either in Rotterdam, Holland, where his father, Henry, conducted business for the East India Company and returning to England around 1777, settling near Norwich, or he was born in...

. It was one of the seven "horrid novels"

Northanger Horrid Novels

The Northanger Horrid Novels are seven early works of Gothic fiction recommended by Isabella Thorpe to Catherine Morland in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey :*Clermont, a Tale by Regina Maria Roche. London: Minerva Press....

 lampooned by Jane Austen

Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...

 in her novel Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan was written approximately during 1798–99...

.

Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.

Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?

I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont

Clermont (novel)

Clermont is a Gothic novel by Regina Maria Roche. It was first published in 1798 by the sensationalist Minerva Press.- Plot :Clermont relates the story of the beautiful Madeline, who lives in seclusion with her eponymous father until they are visited by a mysterious Countess from Clermont's...

, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries

Horrid Mysteries

The Horrid Mysteries, subtitled "A Story From the German Of The Marquis Of Grosse" is a translation by Peter Will of the German Gothic novel Der Genius by Carl Grosse. It was listed as one of the seven "horrid novels" by Jane Austen in her Northanger Abbey and also mentioned by Thomas Love Peacock...

. Those will last us some time.

Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?

—Northanger Abbey, ch. 6

Subtitled "A German Story, Founded On Incidents in Real Life" it was first published in London by H. D. Symonds in 1798. It concerns the quest of the hero, Alphonsus Cohenburg, to regain his estates and stolen identity after his parents are murdered by his villainous uncle. The young man becomes a soldier, then a miner before marrying his true love Lauretta only to see her kidnapped by bandits. The latter third is set in the quintessentially gothic Cohenburg castle and features tales of ghostly apparitions who turn out to be diabolical Roman Catholic priests, another common gothic trope. The Midnight Bell of the title calls the villainous monks to their dark meeting place.

Editions

• 1968, London: Folio Press
• 1993, Skoob Books ISBN 978-1871438307
• 2007, Valancourt Books ISBN 978-1934555125