Gothic Classics

Penguin Audio presents E.M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread, adapted for listening and now available as a digital audiobook as part of the Penguin English Library series. This abridged version is read by Stephen Fry. 'I had got an idea that everyone here spent their lives in making little...

Northanger Abbey, a satire of Gothic melodrama, is one of Jane Austen's most popular works. When Catherine Morland is launched into the politics and pitfalls of the Bath social season, she behaves with the cheerful open-mindedness of one of Jane Austen's most eligible classic heroines.

Oscar Wilde's only novel, given a superbly splendid modern reading by the talented Rupert Graves. Many classic Wilde quotes emanate from this horror novel.

Renowned astrologer Debbie Frank has designed these 12 meditations to connect you with the essence of each zodiac sign. The magical wisdom of astrology can help you to understand how your soul was destined to grow, develop, and evolve in this lifetime. These relaxing journeys will introduce you...

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born on August 28th, 1814, at 45 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, into a literary family with Huguenot, Irish and English roots. Between 1838 and 1840 Le Fanu had written and published twelve stories which purported to be the literary remains of an 18th-century Catholic priest called Father Purcell. Set mostly in Ireland they include classic stories of gothic horror, with grim, shadowed castles, as well as supernatural visitations from beyond the grave, together with madness and suicide.

This chilling tale of one man’s descent into madness was published shortly before the author was institutionalized for insanity, and so The Horla has inevitably been seen as informed by Guy de Maupassant’s mental illness. While such speculation is murky, it is clear that de Maupassant—hailed alongside Chekhov as father of the short story—was at the peak of his powers in this innovative precursor of first-person psychological fiction.

These three tales were written for the popular literary gift annual The Keepsake in 1828, 1829, and 1831. Their "sensational" themes include exotic locations, dire misfortune, long-lost kin, stolen identity, evil redeemed, plots resolved by strange coincidences, and in one case at least, an encounter with a supernatural being. Gothic fare.

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.

William Legrand si è trasferito da New Orleans a Sullivan's Island, nella Carolina del Sud, dopo aver perso la fortuna di famiglia. Il narratore del racconto è un amico di Legrand e la storia inizia quando, una sera, gli fa visita per osservare un insolito scarabeo d'oro che questi ha trovato. Legrand porta l'attenzione dell'amico-narratore al carapce dello scarabeo, su cui sembrerebbe disegnato un teschio stilizzato. Confuso dall'attenzione morbosa che Legrand sembra prestare a questo sinistro particolare, il narratore si congeda per la notte.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a Gothic novella written during the late 19th century. The story explores the duality of human nature through the contrasting figures of the respectable Dr. Jekyll and the malevolent Mr. Hyde, and delves into themes of morality, identity, and the struggle between good and evil.

Itinerant schoolmaster Ichabod Crane comes to ply his trade in the quiet countryside near Tarry Town and falls in love with Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. But her hand is also sought by local hero Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt who wages a war of pranks and practical jokes against the quirky outsider, who has become fascinated by the local folklore and spooky tales

Of all the ghostly lore that bedevils Sleepy Hollow, none terrifies more than the galloping spectre of the Headless Horseman. Few in the haunted glen are as susceptible to the tale as the superstitious schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane. But just as bewitching - and bewildering - to Ichabod is the elusive coquette Katrina Van Tassel. On an autumn eve, Ichabod attends a harvest party, hoping to finally woo the woman of his dreams. Instead, he sees his worst nightmares come true.

"The Finest Story in the World" zeigt eine weniger bekannte Seite des großen Erzählers Kipling: sein Interesse an übernatürlichen Themen und damit seine Verbindung zum Fantasy- und Science-Fiction-Genre. Eine der unheimlichsten Erzählungen Kiplings, die auch Horror-Elemente enthält.

Washington Irving was an 18th century American short story writer, historian, and diplomat. He was born into a merchant family of Scottish/English descent and was the youngest of 11 children. Irving was one of the first American writers to become popular in Europe. He was admired by some of the best-known British writers, including Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, and Walter Scott.

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 an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest—the beautiful Carmilla. So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her mysterious, entrancing companion. But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day.

The tale of murder and terror, told by a nameless homicidal madman, influenced later stream-of-consciousness fiction and helped secure the author’s reputation as master of the macabre. The narrator relates with relish his murder and dismemberment of an old man. Poe’s revelation of the narrator’s madness is a classic study in psychopathology.

Es ironico que de las decenas de obras que escribiera el novelista frances Gaston Leroux la que le ha dado inmortalidad es el clasico del horror llamado El fantasma de la opera, la historia de un artista desfigurado que se oculta en las catacumbas de la Opera de Paris para vengarse contra el mundo, hasta el dia que se enamora de una bella cantante, que cambia por completo el curso de su vida.

When Jasper learns that the woman he loves is to marry another man—a wealthy Spaniard named Benoliel—his sleepless night turns into a waking nightmare. In the still hours before dawn, he hears a strange and beautiful music: a funeral mass for the dead. But when his beloved Kate confesses she too heard the same ethereal requiem, their destinies become entwined in a chilling mystery that stretches beyond the veil of life and death.

Step into the haunting world of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, a gothic masterpiece that explores the illusion of safety, the inevitability of death, and the futility of escaping fate.