First Love: A Gothic Tale

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Title First Love: A Gothic Tale
Author Joyce Carol Oates
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Gothic novel
Publisher Ecco Press
Released 1996
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 85 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-8800-1457-1 (first edition)
Preceded by Zombie
Followed by We Were the Mulvaneys

First Love: A Gothic Tale is a novella by award-winning novelist and essayist Joyce Carol Oates. It tells the story of Joise S_____, a girl who goes to stay at her aunt's mansion in upstate New York. While there, she has an incestuous relationship with her cousin, Jared.

[edit] Plot summmary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

After staying there for an extended period of time, Josie starts to have a psychological breakdown within herself, probably from her taboo relationship with her cousin. At one point in the novellette, she and Jared, after initiating sexual intercourse by a creek, sit together. Then, Jared cuts his chest with a stone, and Josie licks the blood off. This is the climax of the novella. After, she leaves the mansion, breaking free of Jared's ardorous prison.