From the Cradle to the Grave: Tracing Gothic elements in Lemony Snicket's "The Bad Beginning" and Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book"

This work aims to demonstrate the long-running connection between the Gothic and children’s literature, starting from John Newbery’s “The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes” (1764) and reaching twenty-first century children’s fiction, passing through the Grimm’s fairytales and the “Golden Age” of children’s literature. Particular attention has also been drawn to how the genre engages young readers by balancing fear and entertainment, focussing on the techniques put into place by authors to render Gothic characters and motifs suitable for a younger audience. The second part of this research traces Gothic elements in two pillars of contemporary children’s fiction, namely Lemony Snicket’s “The Bad Beginning” (1999) and Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book” (2008). The two texts have been analysed in light of narrative structures, characterization, and thematic elements, drawing connections between the two contemporary texts and their literary ancestors.