Gothic Classics

"Приемная дочь богатой аристократки - красавица, которую ждет выгодное замужество. Что скрывает ее прошлое? Она жила в приюте, влачила жалкое существование и в минуту отчаяния присвоила себе чужие документы, чужую историю жизни. Но призрак прошлого врывается в настоящую жизнь - обманутая несчастная требует ответа. Хватит ли мужества у Принцессы превратиться в Золушку, пожертвовать любовью и богатством.

Mary Shelley hat als 18jährige etwas vollbracht, was noch kein Mensch vor oder nach ihr geschafft hat: In diesem zarten Alter einen Roman zu verfassen, der die Zeiten überdauert und eine bis heute aktuelle Thematik behandelt. Können, dürfen und sollen wir Leben auf Basis aller uns zu Verfügung stehenden technischen Mitteln ermöglichen oder sind Gottes bescheidene und beschränkte Grenzen Sperrgebiet für unseren Intellekt?

A baffling series of incidents at the majestic Paris Opera sparks frightening rumors about a mysterious opera ghost. Performers are ill-at-ease when they sit alone in their dressing rooms, alleging to have seen the enigma in evening clothes moving about in the shadows. Then a young and beautiful prima donna is visited by a masked "Angel of Music" who teaches her to sing and jealously demands her devotion—but with a price. With an increasing pattern of fear and violence, the phantom of the opera begins to strike, but always with a beautiful young performer at the center of his deadly desires.

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.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel which shocks us still. The sensibilities of its original Victorian readership may have blanched at the exoticism and barely disguised eroticism which drip from Wilde’s prose, but for us today who barely look twice at such things, we find something much more horrific at the heart of the book.

First published in French as a serial in 1909, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage.

Although Wuthering Heights is now a classic of English literature, contemporaneous reviews were deeply polarised; it was controversial because of its unusually stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty, and it challenged Victorian ideas about religion, morality, class, and woman's place in society.

"Fu in una lugubre notte di novembre che vidi la realizzazione delle mie fatiche. Preso da grande angoscia, raccolsi i miei speciali strumenti così da poter infondere una scintilla di vita nella cosa inanimata che giaceva ai miei piedi. Era già l'una di notte; la pioggia picchiettava ossessiva contro i vetri, e la mia candela era quasi consumata, quando, alla debole luce semi-estinta, scorsi l’occhio giallo, fermo, della creatura aprirsi; respirava a fatica e un moto convulso agitava le sue membra. [...]"

En 1877, l'Opéra de Paris est secoué par des phénomènes inquiétants... Lors des répétitions ou des spectacles, les accidents se multiplient. On murmure qu'il s'agit d'un fantôme qui menace les directeurs de l'Opéra des pires catastrophes s'ils ne lui obéissent pas. Cet être énigmatique qui erre dans le théâtre, prend sous son aile la jeune cantatrice Christine Danaé avec qui il noue une relation étrange. Il finit par l'enlever, peut-être dans un accès de folie.

An Historical Gothic Romance set in Paris and elsewhere in France, Germany, and Spain. A rollicking good tale from Parisian salons to Peasant feasts and more.

"Il castello di Otranto" è il primo vero romanzo gotico; tipico anche l'artificio di far passare il romanzo come una traduzione da un manoscritto italiano; artificio che poi fu lasciato cadere nelle edizioni successive alla prima, del 1764. L'idea che sottosta all'opera è l'intenzione di unire il romanzo storico al romanzo di fantasia; di fatto la storia della vita di Manfredi di Sicilia ha ispirato alcune parti della trama.

Abraham “Bram” Stoker was born in 1847 in Dublin as the third of seven children. Stoker was bedridden with an unknown illness until the age of seven, when he made a complete recovery. He even grew up to become a successful athlete. Stoker is best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. The novel Dracula begins when an English lawyer, Jonathan Harker, travels to Eastern Europe to meet Count Dracula, who is a client of his. When he arrives in Transylvania, he immediately notices that locals are shocked to learn where he is heading.

Il romanzo, scritto nel 1881, è ambientato nel 1864 in un luogo non ben precisato, sulle rive di un lago lombardo. Il Palazzo è invece la villa Pliniana, sul Lago di Como, visitata da Fogazzaro, la cui atmosfera cupa si adattava all'ambientazione del romanzo. Il libro fu ignorato dalla maggior parte delle riviste letterarie ma lodato da Verga, che lo definì una delle più belle concezioni romantiche mai apparse in Italia. Ne fu realizzato un film famoso nel 1942. Cornice musicale di Franz Strauss: notturno n. 7.

The desperate summons could not be ignored. Stephen Briar's note was more than the grief-stricken missive of a newly widowed brother-in-law. Since Ann's untimely death, evil had settled over Briarcliff, and Stephen was fighting for his survival. Jessica Rice sought to uncover the truth about the accident that had claimed her sister's life, but the mystery only deepened. Intrigue wove around intrigue, casting all the occupants of Briarcliff under the gloom of suspicion. No one could be trusted - including Stephen. Jessica had never felt so alone, or so gravely in danger.

This audiobook includes unabridged recordings of 13 of H. P. Lovecraft's most well-renowned stories, read by Audie-Award winner Jonathan Keeble. The stories included here are: 'The Colour Out of Space', 'The Dunwich Horror', 'The Whisperer in the Darkness', 'The Haunter of the Dark', 'Call of Cthulhu', 'The Rats in the Walls', 'From Beyond; Dagon', 'At the Mountains of Madness', 'In the Vault', 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth', 'The Dreams in the Witch House', 'The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath'.

"Clifford Samuel's low, melodious voice sounds like it was made for this atmospheric queer retelling of the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde story." - AudioFile Magazine A teen boy tries to discover the reason behind his best friend's disappearance—and the arrival of a mysterious and magnetic...

Bram Stoker’s masterpiece, in which the instantly recognisable Count Dracula plans to sate his dreadful appetites in England only to be thwarted by an intrepid band of friends, remains an enthralling story. Exploring themes of sexuality, religion, technology and good versus evil, and told through journal entries, letters and telegrams, its cultural and literary significance is undisputed.

Acclaimed author Arturo Pérez-Reverte has earned a distinguished reputation as a master of the literary thriller. Now, he gives us his most accomplished novel to date. Andrés Faulques, a world-renowned war photographer, has retired to a life of solitude on the Spanish coast. He spends his days...

Northanger Abbey is the coming-of-age story of Catherine Morland, who is taken to the fashionable resort of Bath with her friends, the Allens. While in Bath, she meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor. The Tilneys invite Catherine to Northanger Abbey, their family estate. Catherine, an avid reader of Gothic novels, soon becomes obsessed with the thought that possible atrocities are going on at the abbey.

The house called Sunset has been Marcia's summer home for her entire life. Both of her parents died there, and she and her brother spent their youth exploring its rambling hallways and seaside grounds. They love the old house, but Marcia's sister-in-law has never taken to it. Juliette loathes the sea, and soon comes to loathe her husband as well. After they divorce, Juliette pays a final visit to Sunset, demanding alimony. She is there for a few tense days before she disappears. It takes them a week to find her body.