Gothic Classics

Fitz-James O'Brien, born in Cork, Ireland, in 1826, is considered an important early writer of science-fiction. His three probably best-known stories are included in this volume. They are “The Diamond Lens”, “What Was It?”, and “The Lost Room”.

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.

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.

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.

Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece of the duality of good and evil in man's nature sprang from the darkest recesses of his own unconscious—during a nightmare from which his wife awakened him, alerted by his screams. More than a hundred years later, this tale of the mild-mannered Dr Jekyll and the drug that unleashes his evil, inner persona—the loathsome, twisted Mr Hyde—has lost none of its ability to shock. Its realistic police-style narrative chillingly relates Jekyll's desperation as Hyde gains control of his soul.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In From the Dead, E. Nesbit crafts a haunting and poignant gothic tale of love, betrayal, and regret beyond the grave. When Arthur Marsh drives away his devoted wife, Ida, with cruel words born of wounded pride, he seals a tragic fate neither can undo. Months of heart-wrenching loss follow until a mysterious telegram summons him to her deathbed—but it is too late. Or is it? What follows is an unforgettable encounter between the living and the dead, where the heart’s deepest yearnings clash with fear, guilt, and the chance for redemption lost.