The Gothic horror novel – “a story of terror and suspense usually set in a gloomy old castle or monastery … making free use of ghosts and demons along with scenes of cruelty and horror … and having a sinister, grotesque or claustrophobic setting” – was popular in the late eighteenth century and has been revived intermittently ever since; indeed, its conventions still animate many horror movies. Explore the ways in which Lem’s Solaris can be classified as a horror story and discuss how this can inform our intepretation of the novel as a consistent whole.
