Gothic Historical Fiction

With a modest inheritance and the three gowns that comprise her entire wardrobe, Theodora leaves Edinburgh—and a disappointed suitor—far behind. She is bound for Romania, where tales of vampires are still whispered, to visit an old friend and write the book that will bring her true independence. She arrives at a magnificent, decaying castle in the Carpathians, replete with eccentric inhabitants, including the castle’s master, Count Andrei Dragulescu.

Bertha Mellish, “the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl” at Mount Holyoke College, is missing. One cold November morning the junior is spotted walking through the Massachusetts woods; then, she vanishes. As a search team dredges the pond where she might have drowned, Bertha’s panicked father and sister arrive at the campus desperate to find some clue as to her fate or state of mind. Bertha’s best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tightlipped.

The witty and entrancing story of a young woman trapped in a ramshackle English playhouse—and the mysterious figure who threatens the theater's very survival The year is 1901. England’s beloved queen has died, and her aging son has finally taken the throne. In the eastern city of Norwich...

England 1819. Thomas Shield, a master at a school just outside London, is tutor to a young American boy and the child’s sensitive best friend, Charles Frant. Helplessly drawn to Frant’s beautiful, unhappy mother, Shield becomes entwined in their family’s affairs. When a brutal murder takes place in London’s seedy backstreets, all clues lead to the Frant family, and Shield is tangled in a web of lies, money, sex and death that threatens to tear his new life apart. Soon, it emerges that at the heart of these macabre events lies the strange American boy.

Nineteen thirty-four, London. Into the decaying cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square steps aristocratic Lydia Langstone fleeing an abusive marriage. However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts Bleeding Heart Square. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow?

While on routine patrol in the tinder-dry Topanga Canyon, environmental scientist Rafael Salazar expects to find animal poachers, not a dilapidated antique steamer trunk. Inside the peculiar case, he discovers a journal, written by the renowned Robert Louis Stevenson, which divulges ominous particulars about his creation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It also promises to reveal a terrible secret - the identity of Jack the Ripper.

A major historical novel from "one of the great artistic forces of our time" (The Nation)—an eerie, unforgettable story of possession, power, and loss in early-twentieth-century Princeton, a cultural crossroads of the powerful and the damned Princeton, New Jersey, at the turn of the twentieth...

“To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history. . . .” Late one night, exploring her father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to “My dear and unfortunate successor,” and they plunge her into a world she...

"An enthralling story of secrets, sisters, and an unsolved mystery." —Kate Morton An evocative novel in the vein of Kate Morton and Daphne Du Maurier, in which the thrill of first love clashes with the bonds of sisterhood, and all will be tested by the dark secret at the heart of Applecote...

As soon as Kerstin Kvist arrives at remote, ivy-covered Lydstep Old Hall in Essex, she feels like a character in a gothic novel. A young nurse fresh out of school, Kerstin has been hired for a position with the Cosway family, residents of the Hall for generations. She is soon introduced to her...

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.

When Lachlan, the golden prince of faeries, is transformed into a fox and banished from the forest on the eve of his mother’s funeral, the last creature he expects to seek help from is a human. But Sorcha Darrow is not so easily enchanted by the wily faerie. Only after discovering her father means to marry her to a wealthy Londoner does she decide to help him, seeking the power of a being even Lachlan is wary of: a kelpie.

Gothic Brides: Edgy, atmospheric gothic regency romance, exploring the dark, twisted corners of England - these audiobooks are not for the faint of heart. The "Gothic Brides" battle tortured pasts and face dangerous, suspenseful circumstances on their road to a hard-won happily ever after.

In this gripping debut, steeped in Welsh folklore, a husband and wife living in the beautiful but isolated mountains of Snowdonia stumble upon a buried Neolithic ruin—awakening a mysterious, ancient presence with its own dark designs. “A sumptuously written, chilling folk horror novel...

They were best friends. Now they are murderer and witness. Pearl Day has always lived in the background - companion to her childhood friend, the dazzling and unpredictable Lady Eleanor Nicholson. Their bond was forged at Alderleigh, Eleanor's crumbling country estate, but now they share a sleek...

A haunting, gothic love triangle set in postwar Moscow and an Arctic gulag, where forbidden passion and betrayal shape destinies and echo across decades. House of Meetings is a gothic love story, triangular in form and steeped in darkness. In 1946 Moscow, amid the palpable threat of pogroms, two...

From the undisputed Queen of Vampire Literature, Anne Rice, The Master of Rampling Gate is a chilling tale of vampiric seduction. Set in the gasslit streets of 1888 London and the wild moors of the countryside beyond, The Master of Rampling Gate tells the story of Julie, a young woman who...

Countess Rosseline arrives upon wild and windswept Dartmoor with a plan: marry the young man who has inherited her dead husband's estate and all she holds dear. However, an obstacle stands in her path.

Another delightful entry into the beloved Fentons series. This time a novella featuring all your favorite characters mixed up in a truly Gothic mystery complete with villains, rescued beauties, treasure and a secret society of terrible aspirations. Baron Balfour, a great giant of a man, and his new wife, who used to be Euphemia Fleet, a put-upon companion, are on their honeymoon in France when the baroness spots a villainous looking individual, just like her idea of a character from a Gothic novel. He is in the company of a frightened young beauty and Euphemia decides to rescue her.

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...