Gothic Classics

I am not the sort of person about whom stories are told.And so begins Elise Dalriss's story. When she hears her great-granddaughter recount a minstrel's tale about a beautiful princess asleep in a tower, it pushes open a door to the past, a door Elise has long kept locked. For Elise was the companion to the real princess who slumbered-and she is the only one left who knows what actually happened so many years ago. Her story unveils a labyrinth where secrets connect to an inconceivable evil. As only Elise understands all too well, the truth is no fairy tale...

Dorian Gray, giovane e bellissimo dandy della società londinese del diciannovesimo secolo, plagiato e iniziato dall'amico esteta Lord Henry, esprime, contemplando un proprio ritratto, il desiderio di poter rimanere sempre giovane e bello. Per un terribile sortilegio è il dipinto a portare i segni dell'età che avanza e della decadenza umana e morale ...

El retrato de Dorian Gray es considerada una de las últimas obras clásicas de la novela de terror gótica con una fuerte temática faustiana, además muestra un pintor con afecto íntimo y directo con el personaje principal. El libro causó controversia cuando fue publicado por primera vez; sin embargo, es considerado en la actualidad como «uno de los clásicos modernos de la literatura occidental.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is known for her themes of female entrapment and patriarchal control, and she gives this a Gothic twist in "The Giant Wistaria". A wealthy young couple and their friends rent a manor house, excited by the prospect that it’s haunted, and they are not disappointed when they all experience the same vivid dream.

Widely considered a classic of the gothic fiction genre, "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. It follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by cutting it into pieces and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately, the narrator's guilt manifests itself in the hallucination that the man's heart is still beating under the floorboards.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to The Haunting of Villa Gabriel and experience the compelling world of Gothic literature.

The Victorians were obsessed with Egyptology and mummies. It was during the second half of the 19th century that many of the most significant archeological finds were made in Egypt, and stories of the revenge of the mummies on anyone raiding their tombs, stealing their treasures or unwrapping their corpses abounded. This collection brings together the best and scariest short stories of the period, featuring vengeance-seeking mummies, bandaged zombies, pharaonic ghosts and ancient curses.

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.

Dorian Gray è un ragazzo bello, virtuoso e amabile come nessun altro giovane. Il pittore Basil Hallward, che nutre verso Dorian forti sentimenti, sta dipingendo con maestria il ritratto del giovane. Nello studio dell’artista si trova anche Lord Henry Wotton, sofisticato e cinico. Il nobile persuade a poco a poco Dorian dell’importanza della bellezza, un valore prezioso e assoluto che il tempo corrompe. Un’insana ossessione si impadronisce del ragazzo, che vorrebbe restare per sempre bello come nel ritratto.

Otra Vuelta de Tuerca es una historia gotica - una de las mas famosas de su genero. En medio de una reunion un hombre cuenta la historia de una institutriz y su terrible experiencia criando a dos ninos. Este libro ha sido la base de innumerables obras de teatro, películas, y libros.

The governess begins seeing a man around the house, and a woman down by the lake. The maid of the house tells the governess that the descriptions sound like the former governess and the valet. Strange things begin to happen, leading the governess to believe that the family is haunted. She is convinced that the ghosts are pandering to the children; yet the children deny being able to see or hear anything unusual.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Step into the chilling prelude to Dracula in Bram Stoker's gothic tale, Dracula's Guest. Set in a desolate European landscape, this haunting story builds a sense of creeping dread as a lone English traveler encounters ominous signs, supernatural forces, and the shadow of something far darker awaiting in the night.

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.

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.

The story is set in Padua and follows botanist Giacomo Rappaccini’s garden of poisonous plants. A student from the university of Padua falls for a maiden in the luscious garden, but he soon learns some troubling information about his beloved’s true nature.