The novel Ethelinde (1789), by Charlotte Smith is one of the first novels to be considered to include elements of the Gothic genre. Though Smith was known throughout her career for poetry, she began writing novels later in life in order to make money for herself and her family. She, much like Susannah Gunning, had much strife with her family and economic stability, which served as inspiration for her writing of Ethelinde. An article by Lisa Ottum about Smith’s work suggests that the setting in which she places her novels allude to a gothic style: “[i]n her fiction, Smith invests topography with a sense of depth that challenges other Romantic representations of nature, especially those that celebrate the panoramic view and its putative comprehensiveness,” (250). Smith centers Ethelinde in an abbey much like Austen and Gunning. In her illustration of the abbey as setting, she insinuates a mysterious melancholy that contributes to a romantically gothic style. This novel exemplifies the genre of abbey fiction, while also illustrating the overlap of gothic genre and the romantic period.  

Ottum, Lisa. “‘Shallow’ Estates and the ‘Deep’ Wild: The Landscapes of Charlotte Smith's Fiction.” Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 34, no. 2, 2015, pp. 249–272. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44784589. Accessed 4 Apr. 2021.