Classic Gothic Literature

"Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir Tree. The place he had was a very good one: the sun shone on him: as to fresh air, there was enough of that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as firs. But the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree..." So begins...

The Mysterious Mansion by Honoré de Balzac is a gothic mystery set in the quiet French town of Vendôme, where a crumbling manor known as La Grande Bretêche hides a chilling secret. Told through the eyes of a curious traveler and an enigmatic innkeeper, the story slowly unravels a tale of betrayal, confinement, and a deadly silence that has haunted the abandoned estate for over a decade.

Heathcliff was to serve as the name for the ragged orphan whom Mr. Earnshaw found abandoned in the streets of Liverpool and took home to live with his own children, Cathy and Hindley, at Wuthering Heights. The stormy life of the mysterious Heathcliff, his love for Cathy and his relationships with the people who lived at Wuthering Heights and at nearby Thrushcross Grange make up Emily Bronte's classic novel.

Eine Tragödie von erstaunlicher Aktualität: Der junge Wissenschaftler Victor Frankenstein ist von der Idee besessen, einen künstlichen Menschen zu erschaffen. Mit seinen Experimenten ignoriert er die Gesetze der Natur. Doch als er Erfolg hat, wendet er sich mit Schrecken von dem Monster ab, das er selbst ins Leben gerufen hat.

In a quiet French town, a crumbling, locked-up manor stirs the curiosity of all who pass it. No one enters. No one speaks of what happened inside. But behind the overgrown garden and shuttered windows lies a story of love, betrayal, and a chilling act of vengeance. When a visiting doctor presses for answers, he uncovers a tale that was meant to stay buried. A jealous husband. A secret lover. A sealed fate. The mystery of La Grande Bretèche reveals itself slowly, with devastating clarity.

Admirado por la belleza de Dorian Gray, el artista Basil Hallward pinta un retrato al óleo del bello y presuntuoso joven y enlazan una amistad. Situada en la alta sociedad en la época victoriana en Londres, Dorian también conoce a Lord Henry Wotton, amigo de Basil, quien lo introduce en conversaciones filosóficas sobre la belleza y el hedonismo, y lo convence de que sus más valiosas posesiones son su belleza y su juventud.

El extraño caso del doctor Jekyll y el señor Hyde es una novela escrita por Robert Louis Stevenson, que trata acerca de un abogado, Gabriel John Utterson, que investiga la extraña relación entre su viejo amigo, el Dr. Henry Jekyll, y el misántropo Edward Hyde. El libro es conocido por ser una representación vívida de un trastorno psiquiátrico que hace que una misma persona tenga dos o más identidades o personalidades con características opuestas entre sí.

When a brilliant doctor's experiment goes wrong, a dangerous pursuit of separating good and evil follows... Tucked away in the dark and murky streets of London, a lawyer finds himself investigating strange incidents between his old friend Dr Henry Jekyll and the reclusive Edward Hyde. Although seemingly nothing alike, the two are more similar than what meets the eye... This classic tale is perfect for fans of Heather Parry and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

In The Mysterious Sketch, Erckmann-Chatrian delivers a chilling tale of obsession, art, and the uncanny. When a young artist becomes inexplicably compelled to sketch the face of a man he has never met, he unwittingly unlocks a sinister thread of fate.

Man weiß nicht viel vom alten Fettes - außer dass er ein trinkfester Schotte mit medizinischem Wissen ist, der nicht viel spricht. Eines Tages jedoch gibt es einen medizinischen Notfall. Als Fettes den Namen des Notarztes hört, wird er leichenblass: McFarlane! Etwa der McFarlane, mit dem Fettes damals Leichname für den Anatomiekurs auf nächtlichen Friedhöfen ausgegraben hatte? Eine wunderbar klassische Gruselgeschichte für Fans des Genres.

It tells the story of a young woman whose mother died in her childbirth - just as Shelly's own mother died after hers - and whose relationship with her bereaved father becomes sexually charged as he conflates her with his lost wife, while she becomes involved with a handsome poet.

Als junger Mann lernte Frédéric Boutet bereits in den literarischen Cafés von Paris unter anderem Oscar Wilde kennen und machte Bekanntschaft mit den Symbolisten und den Dekadenten. Und im Alter von 24 Jahren gab Boutet im okkultistischen Pariser Verlag Chamuel eine Sammlung erster fantastischer, dekadenter Erzählungen mit dem Titel Contes dans la nuit heraus. In den folgenden Jahren veröffentlichte er im gleichen Verlag weitere groteske und dekadente Geschichten, von denen einige bereits den kommenden Surrealismus vorwegnahmen.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a Gothic novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is about a London legal practitioner who investigates strange occurrences between his friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll and the evil Edward Hyde. The phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" has entered the vernacular to refer to people with a dual nature.

En esta novela ambientada en el Londres del siglo XIX, el autor nos presenta el dilema entre bien y mal personificados en la persona del Dr. Jekyll y en Mr. Hyde. Además de los misterios de la naturaleza humana situados en la personalidad múltiple del personaje, también se aprecian otros temas como el avance de la ciencia, que ha llevado al hombre a la posición de situarse como un ser superior capaz de desafiar a la propia naturaleza.

1691, Salem, New England: la diciassettenne Lois Barclay sbarca dalla Redemption, il vascello che l'ha portata dal Vecchio al Nuovo Mondo. Dietro di sé, l'Inghilterra, il ricordo dei genitori e un amore; davanti a sé la famiglia dello zio che non ha mai visto e tante incognite. L'America che ci racconta Elizabeth Gaskell (Londra, 1810 - Alton, 1865) è quella della nuova frontiera, di un territorio ostile e selvaggio in cui i continui scontri con le tribù dei Nativi aumentano il senso di precarietà e vulnerabilità.

Dr. Henry Jekyll, fascinated by the dichotomy of good and evil, no longer wants to inhibit his dark side. He concocts a potion to create the alter ego of Mr. Edward Hyde. With the burden of evil placed on Hyde, Jekyll can now take pleasure in his immoral, nefarious fantasies - free of conscience and guilt. It's when Hyde turns to murder that Jekyll realizes how monstrous his impulses are and how hard they are to suppress.

Released in our ‘Young Adult Classics’ format, Emily Brontë’s classic story of passion and enduring love is a masterpiece of the gothic genre. Menacing, mysterious Heathcliff and willful, beautiful Cathy are two of the best-known characters in all of English literature. Freda Dowie gives a compelling reading of a novel as bleak and elemental as the moors upon which it is set.

Elizabeth Gaskell, famed author of Cranford, is cherished for her incise social observations and portrayals of the changing nature of English life through the Industrial Revolution of the Victorian era. In Cousin Phillis, Paul Manning has only recently left home to work on the railway line for the dashing Mr Holdsworth. Lodging with an Independent Minister on the outskirts of London, he becomes acquainted with his distant cousins, where he is delighted to meet his genial relations, and not least his cousin Phyllis

Erst das 20. Jahrhundert hat die Visionen des amerikanischen Schriftstellers Edgar Allan Poe richtig zu würdigen gewusst. Dabei gelang es Poe mit seinen unheimlichen Erzählungen, die menschliche Grausamkeit und das Groteske im Menschen messerscharf zu analysieren. Das wohl berühmteste Schauergedicht der Weltliteratur, "Der Rabe" von 1845, erzählt von einem Hausherrn, der in finsterer Nacht ein Klopfen an seinem Fenster vernimmt. Der Störenfried entpuppt sich als Rabe, der den Mann in tiefste Verzweiflung stürzt. Mit seiner markanten Stimme haucht Hans Peter Hallwachs Poes schaurig schönen Erzählungen Leben ein.

"Rappaccini's Daughter" is a Gothic short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne first published in the December 1844. It is about Giacomo Rappaccini, a medical researcher in Padua, Italy, who grows a garden of poisonous plants. He brings up his daughter to tend the plants, and she becomes resistant to the poisons, but in the process she herself becomes poisonous to others.