Gothic Classics

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915), little known now, but a renowned writer in her time, gives us five tales of the "weird" as she might herself have said. Here we have five of her better known stories, peopled with jilted lovers, blood thirsty old ladies, and grand, old houses whose restless ancestors refuse to abandon them! The five tales: "The Cold Embrace", "The Shadow in the Corner", "At Chrighton Abbey", "Good Lady Ducayne", and "Eveline's Visitant".

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.

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.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND NPR Through the scrim of fading memory, an elderly woman confronts a lifetime of secrets and betrayal, under the mysterious skies of her island home Off the coast of Georgia, near Savannah, generations have been tempted by strange blue lights...

A London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The work is commonly associated with the rare mental condition often called "split personality", referred to in psychiatry as dissociative identity disorder, where within the same body there exists more than one distinct personality. In this case, there are two personalities within Dr. Jekyll, one apparently good and the other evil.

The Moonstone, a yellow diamond looted from an Indian temple and believed to bring bad luck to its owner, is bequeathed to Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday. That very night the priceless stone is stolen again and when Sergeant Cuff is brought in to investigate the crime, he soon realizes that no one in Rachel's household is above suspicion.

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.

Sullo sfondo della brughiera battuta dai venti, una ragazza umile ma volitiva trova lavoro come istitutrice nella casa di un uomo aspro e malinconico. Tra di loro nascerà inaspettata una grande passione, che dovrà però fare i conti con un segreto scabroso. Un capolavoro di una modernità dirompente, un cult che continua ad affascinare generazione dopo generazione.

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story of Quasimodo, the Romani street dancer Esmeralda and Quasimodo's guardian, the Archdeacon Claude Frollo in 15th-century Paris.

Als Jonathan Harker nach Transsylvanien reist, um Graf Dracula zu treffen, überkommen ihn schon bei der Ankunft in den Karpaten schlimme Vorahnungen. Graf Dracula zwingt Harker gegen seinen Willen, in seinem Schloss zu bleiben. Doch das wahre Grauen beginnt erst als er fliehen kann und nach London zurückkehrt. Denn sein unheimlicher Gastgeber hat sich schon auf dem Weg dorthin gemacht...

A dark, many-gabled mansion in a small New England village—haunted by fraudulent dealings, accusations of witchcraft, and sudden death—houses the distinguished Pyncheon family. They are plagued by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin on its last four members. The arrival of Phoebe Pyncheon from the country breathes fresh air and sunshine into their musty, decaying home, but will her arrival come too late to rescue the family from a gloomy future?

The author of the New York Times Notable The Great Glass Sea (“The most unexpected second book by a writer of note to appear in years.” —John Freeman, The Boston Globe) returns with a gripping adventure story that probes the expansive, shifting wilds of the Sierra Nevada during the Gold...

Dracula by Bram Stoker, with some dialogue of the vampires translated in Romanian by Ana Talos.

Arthur Mervyn is a novel written by Charles Brockden Brown and published in 1799. It was one of Brown's more popular novels and is in many ways representative of Brown's dark, Gothic style and subject matter. It is also recognized as one of the most influential works of American and Philadelphia Gothic literature.

In a forgotten corner of western Kentucky lies a haunted forest referred to locally as "The Deadening", where vampire cults roam wild and time is immaterial. Our protagonist and his accomplice - the one and only Carver Canute - set out down the Old Spur Line in search of the legendary Kudzu House, where an old couple is purported to have been swallowed whole by a hungry vine.

Uma história sombria de paixões e vingança, esta obra provou ser um dos clássicos mais duradouros da literatura inglesa. A turbulenta e tempestuosa história de amor de Cathy e Heathcliff se estende por duas gerações, desde o tempo em que Heathcliff, um menino estranho e grosseiro, é trazido para viver na propriedade varrida pelo vento dos Earnshaws. Uma obra-prima da ficção, O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes permanece tão comovente e atraente hoje como era quando foi publicado pela primeira vez em 1847.

I racconti qui presentati, "Tè verde", "Il giudice Harbottle" e "Carmilla", appartengono alla raccolta "In a Glass Darkly". Composti in momenti differenti e pubblicati su varie riviste e poi riuniti nel 1872, i singoli racconti, benché diversissime siano le storie ivi riportate, possono essere considerati parti di un'unica narrazione, fatta di oscure risonanze e di sinistri riflessi. Elemento esterno unificante è la figura-cornice del Dottor Hesselius, medico, psicologo, mistico e metafisico tedesco, primo "detective dell'occulto" della letteratura europea.

El castillo de Eppstein, una novela escrita en el más puro estilo gótico que hacía furor en el siglo xix con sus imprescindibles dosis de secretos familiares, maquiavélicos villanos, doncellas en peligro, amores apasionados y espectros vengadores. Una macabra leyenda pesa sobre la familia Eppstein desde tiempos inmemoriales: todas las mujeres que mueren en el castillo la noche del 24 de diciembre no encuentran el reposo eterno y regresan del más allá para atormentar a sus moradores. Y Albina, la bella esposa del malvado conde Maximiliano, no será una excepción.

"Les Hauts de Hurlevent," le seul roman d'Emily Brontë, est un chef-d'œuvre intemporel de la littérature anglaise. Publié pour la première fois en 1847 sous le pseudonyme d'Ellis Bell, ce roman gothique plonge les lecteurs dans l'atmosphère sombre et tumultueuse des landes du Yorkshire.

Nadie que conozca la película basada en esta novela podrá olvidar la voz en off que recita la frase inicial de la obra más lograda de Daphne du Maurier: Rebeca. Así comienzan los recuerdos de la segunda señora De Winter, que la transportan de nuevo a la aislada y gris mansión situada en la húmeda y ventosa costa de Cornualles. Con un marido al que apenas conoce, la joven esposa llega a este inmenso predio para ser inexorablemente ahogada por la fantasmal presencia de la primera señora De Winter, la hermosa Rebeca, muerta pero nunca olvidada.