Classic Gothic Literature

Edgar Allan Poe est considéré comme l'inventeur du conte moderne. Les deux textes qui suivent, "Le Corbeau" et "Double Assassinat dans la rue Morgue", en sont la parfaite illustration. Dans un style inimitable, l'auteur arrive à créer des atmosphères dont lui seul a le secret. Sans nul doute, il s'agit ici de deux chefs-d'oeuvres de la littérature, histoires à la fois captivantes et universelles que la traduction de Charles Baudelaire vient sublimer.

The Castle of Otranto is regarded as the first Gothic novel. The son of Manfred, Prince of Otranto, is mysteriously killed on his wedding day by a huge helmet. The event leads to a fast-paced story of jealous passion, intrigue, murder and supernatural phenomena unfolding in an atmosphere of thunderclaps, moonlight, and dark castle walls mirroring the inner turmoil of the characters themselves.

On the day of his wedding, Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, is killed in mysterious circumstances. His calculating father Manfred fears that his dynasty will now come to an end and determines to marry his son's bride himself - despite the fact he is already married. But a series of terrifying supernatural omens soon threaten this unlawful union, as the curse placed on Manfred's ancestor, who usurped the lawful prince of Otranto, begins to unfold.

Cumbres borrascosas, la épica historia de Catherine y Heathcliff, situada en los sombríos y desolados páramos de Yorkshire, constituye una asombrosa visión metafísica del destino, la obsesión, la pasión y la venganza.

Erik is an accomplished composer and musician whose great unfinished work, Don Juan Triumphant, is described as breathtakingly beautiful by the one person he allows to hear it. Erik is an object of pity, whose face has been disfigured from birth, causing him to hide behind a silk mask; and he is hopelessly in love with a young woman. He can never seriously hope she will love him back.

Vincentio di Vivaldi has fallen in love with Ellena Rosalba. However, his proud and noble family vehemently oppose the match: they cannot allow him to wed someone with no money or social standing. Thus, his mother, the mean-spirited Marchesa, and her minion, the evil monk Father Schedoni, set in motion a malign plot that has Ellena kidnapped and imprisoned in a convent, to prevent a hasty marriage.

Count Dracula travels from his castle in the Carpathian mountains to England on a ship in which the entire crew is lost. Upon his arrival, the count entrances Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker, both women doomed to become vampires—unless Jonathan Harker and Professor Abraham Van Helsing can stop Dracula. This unabridged recording of a horror masterpiece brilliantly evokes a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and illuminates the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.

A ghostly presence in “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” desires revenge against a tyrannical husband. In “Mr. Jones”, Lady Jane Lynke inherits an estate unexpectedly, and can’t make sense of how to manage the servants - especially since the caretaker has been dead for decades, but keeps giving orders. Meanwhile, in “Afterward”, a newly wealthy American couple moves into a large, isolated house in southern England complete with a ghost...and the mysteries surrounding the husband’s business are slowly uncovered.

Step into a world where beauty conceals corruption and every whispered secret sends ripples through the surface of polite society. Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray stands as one of literature's most brilliant and haunting meditations on vanity, morality, and the eternal struggle between outward appearance and inner reality.

Jane Eyre remains a classic of 19th-century English literature and is the most famous and influential novel by Charlotte Bronte. Published in 1847, one of the most popular of all English novels, the story tells of the rise of a poor orphan girl against overwhelming odds. It is a work of fiction with memorable characters and vivid scenes exploring themes that have as much relevance today as in the time it was written.

Strangling vines and meat-hungry flora fill this unruly garden of strange stories, selected for their significance as the seeds of the villainous (or perhaps just misunderstood) 'killer plant' in fiction, film and video games. Step within to marvel at Charlotte Perkins Gilman's giant wisteria and H.G. Wells' hungry orchid; hear the calls of the ethereal women of the wood and the frightful drone of the moaning lily; and do tread carefully around E. Nesbit's wandering creepers. Every strain of vegetable threat can be found within this new collection.

From the first moment Vincentio di Vivaldi, a young nobleman, sets eyes on the veiled figure of Ellena, he is captivated by her enigmatic beauty and grace. But his haughty and manipulative mother is against the match and enlists the help of her confessor to come between them. Schedoni, previously a leading figure of the Inquisition, is a demonic, scheming monk with no qualms about the task, whether it entails abduction, torture - or even murder.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Pavilion on the Links is a masterwork of gothic adventure and romantic suspense—often hailed as one of the earliest modern thrillers. First published in 1880, this gripping tale follows a solitary wanderer who discovers two mysterious occupants hiding from assassins in a desolate seaside house. As the storm rages outside, secrets unfold within, revealing a past that refuses to stay buried.

Almost anyone who has read or written science fiction or fantasy has been inspired by the work of Michael Moorcock. His literary flair and grand sense of adventure have been evident since his controversial first novel Behold the Man, from the stories and novels featuring his most famous character, Elric of Melniboné, to his fantasy masterpiece, Gloriana, winner of both the Campbell Memorial and World Fantasy awards for best novel.

They were best friends. Now they are murderer and witness. Pearl Day has always lived in the background - companion to her childhood friend, the dazzling and unpredictable Lady Eleanor Nicholson. Their bond was forged at Alderleigh, Eleanor's crumbling country estate, but now they share a sleek...

The first English translation of a prize-winning novel set in the American Midwest by Indonesia’s celebrated writer of absurdist realism In Bloomington, Indiana, the indistinguishable Fanton Drummond’s life changes when he encounters Olenka Danton in an elevator. Fanton is infatuated at...

The Monk is a violent tale of ambition, murder, and incest. The great struggle between maintaining monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions leads the monk Ambrosio, into temptation and the breaking of his vows, then to sexual obsession and rape, and finally to murder in order to conceal his guilt. Written when Matthew Lewis was only 19, The Monk was criticised when first published in 1796 for its lewdness and impiety, but this criticism only added to its popularity.

Cherished by a Father, coveted by a king, loved by an almost-priest; tormented by demons, tortured by a madman, hunted by a cult, hounded by her father. Mouse has survived it all. Despite Mouse's power, her father always wanted a son - and now, at long last, he has him. And Mouse has a brother, someone else in the world just like her. Hiding among a tribe of the Martu in the isolation of the Australian outback near the edges of Lake Disappointment, Mouse and Angelo have seemingly evaded at least one of the predators hunting them.

During a canoe trip on the Danube, two men are forced to stop on an island due to the current. What was supposed to be a peaceful temporary camping experience turns into a disturbing and supernatural ordeal: the willows covering the island seem to move and whisper in the wind, giving the impression of being alive; the presence of hostile and terrifying invisible entities is perceived, casting doubt on every capacity for rational thought.

As she nears the end of her life, Addie Bundren wants nothing more than to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. A captivating and stylistically innovative work, the narrative revolves around the grim, yet darkly humorous, pilgrimage as the Bundren family sets out to fulfill her last wish.