By Tom Downs

It’s little wonder that Southern writers have sculpted a unique and enticing form of Gothic literature. A menacing atmosphere pervades over the entire region. Trees, vines and swamps silently lurk, even in the cities, and the South’s intense, often tragic history never seems too far away. The setting calls for strange and disturbing tales.

An eerie mist surrounds the statues of angels and crosses on the tombs in the Metairie Cemetery.
© Richard Cummins Lonely Planet Images.

New Orleans: Gas Lamps, Anne Rice, Above-Ground Crypts

At night in New Orleans’ French Quarter, venture downriver from the Bourbon Street hoopla, along ancient blocks that quickly turn quiet, shadowy and moody. Gas lamps, cast-iron balconies, and the faint clip-clop of horse-drawn carriages conjure up a mysterious past. The brooding sultriness of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” is palpable. If it’s foggy or drizzly, dark silhouetted pedestrians seem to have emerged from the pages of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.

The cemeteries of New Orleans are closely connected to the city’s Gothic allure, for older, more haunted boneyards are hard to come by in North America. St. Louis Cemetery # 1, on Basin Street just outside the French Quarter, is a perfect example of astonishing beauty amid decay. It’s a ghostly cityscape of ornate and deteriorating above-ground crypts. You can pay your respects at the tomb of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau.

Galatoire’s is always a good place to nourish your soul. It’s one of New Orleans’ oldest, most venerable Creole restaurants. Come by for a langorous late lunch, when the dining room isn’t bustling with businessmen and tourists, and you’ll see why some locals dream of dying here over a plate of grilled pompano. Francophones refer to such a demise as a belle mort.

St Louis Cathedral and Andrew Jackson Statue in French Quarter.
© Richard Cummins Lonely Planet Images.

You can round out your Southern Gothic reading by stopping in at Faulkner House Books, located halfway down Pirate’s Alley in the shadow of the St. Louis Cathedral. The emphasis in this orderly little shop is on Southern writers, with a particular focus on Faulkner, who lived in the building for a brief time in the 1920s.

Louisiana’s Gothic Plantation Country

Once you've hit the books, hit the road and soak in the USA’s most enchanting region. Up the River Road from New Orleans, Louisiana’s Plantation Country hearkens back to pre–Civil War days. In Southern literature, stately plantation houses often stand in for the medieval castles so common in traditional Gothic tales and plenty of fine examples line both sides of the river. Among the more impressive are the San Francisco Plantation, with its “steamboat Gothic” architecture, and the Oak Alley Plantation, reached via a stunning, quarter-mile driveway completely shaded by grand old oak trees.

Highway 61: Mississippi's Blues Highway

Continuing north of Baton Rouge, La., Highway 61 — the legendary “Blues Highway” — leads into Mississippi through Natchez, Vicksburg and the Mississippi Delta. The area’s extremes can be difficult to comprehend: the opulent mansions of Natchez beg to be admired, while the Delta still echoes with the field hollers and blues that emerged from the hardship of sharecropping. Detour along smaller two-lane blacktops, which all lead to crossroads where you might easily imagine some lonely blues guitarist making his bargain with the devil. The land where the blues began is checkered with abandoned buildings, rusty farm equipment and desolate graveyards.

On your way through, stop to see the grand estate at Melrose, just outside Natchez, where presentations do not overlook the burdensome roles of slaves. Stop for traditional Southern cooking at Walnut Hills in Vicksburg, or Lusco’s (tel 662-453-5365) in Greenwood. In these places, time stopped sometime during the 1930s.

William Faulkner's Oxford

An hour east of Clarksdale, Miss., Oxford is the genteel home of Ole Miss — and of the late William Faulkner, one of the nation’s great writers. Faulkner’s Greek Revival home, Rowan Oak (tel 662-234-3284), is the natural focal point of any Southern literary pilgrimmage, for it was here, amid oaks draped with Spanish moss, that he penned such classics as “Absalom! Absalom!” and “Light in August.” Faulkner’s grave is in a peaceful graveyard down a trail away from the house. No doubt he’s devising twisted tales as he lays there.

Bio: Tom Downs is the author of Lonely Planet's "New Orleans 4," which won the Society of American Travel Writers Lowell Thomas Gold Medal for Guidebooks in 2007.

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