Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses death by suicide and includes references to miscarriage.

Hawkins’s background illuminates her interest in the Gothic and Southern Gothic genres: a graduate of Auburn University, Hawkins studied sexuality and gender in Victorian literature. Her knowledge of these literary traditions is revealed in her use of the intertwined 19th century lives and literature of Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron, which influences her portrayal of the complicated fictional arrangements in London and Orvieto in 1974. Although Mary Shelley and her contemporaries predate the Victorians, writing during the Romantic period (1798-1837), they cast a long shadow over the Victorian Gothic and into present day literature.

Also guided by more modern influences, The Villa draws on parallels to the band Fleetwood Mac, a band with complex sexual and artistic rivalries. The is album Rumours, a commercial and artistic success and particularly expressive of these emotional currents, is recalled by Lara’s album Aestas in The Villa. Often considered their best album, Rumours also marks the crisis point of their personal and artistic relationships. With songs like “Go Your Own Way” and “Dreams,” the album details these shattered and shifting relationships, with different songs expressing different voices and perspectives, whether real or imagined.