Gothic Historical Fiction

Carmelo and Nellie Tosto were my parents. Why is it a novel, a work of fiction? Because there isn't enough documentable evidence about them to constitute a typical biography. Unlike today, with its surfeit of personal data - photos, videos, correspondence, diaries, and the like - the period between 1901 and 1939 afforded few opportunities, especially for lower class immigrants, to leave tangible evidence of their presence on earth. Before converging in an arranged marriage, the lives of Carmelo Tosto and Nellie Cascio were on divergent paths.

When the willfully independent Isabel Drake refuses to marry the man her parents want her to, her mother decides, as punishment, she will be forced to take lessons on how to be a proper lady. But the man sent to instruct her makes her feel anything but proper. Her attraction to Mr. Weston is instant, but the confusing man seems set in keeping her in her place - even if she detects he feels something for her?

Mary hoping to leave the hardships and loneliness of her past behind embarks on a new life running a bar in a remote Australian town. The occupants are all driven by fear, striving to survive both mentally and physically in the harsh environment. She dreams of returning to England but that would require a small fortune. After a period of success, the news of a gold strike leaves the town and farms deserted except for old women and teetotallers. Mary’s business is in danger of collapse and what’s worse her son William has disappeared also overcome with gold fever.

Left penniless and alone by the death of her father, Sarah Lowell works as a day nurse at King’s College Hospital. Her daily walk to and from work crosses the Rookery of St. Giles, a dangerous place made all the more frightening by the fact someone lurks in the shadows, watching Sarah, stalking her. Enigmatic surgeon Killian Thayne offers Sarah his protection, but his sensual, commanding presence presents another kind of danger. Then a patient is found dead, drained of blood. Another soon follows, and another, and rumors paint Killian as the monster who killed them.

When Grace Denton decides to visit her sister in London, she is shocked to find the paid companion has a new profession and now earns her living as a courtesan. But when her sibling disappears after an evening out, Grace is forced to masquerade as the much sought after paramour in a bid to solve the mystery. Using information from her sister's secret diary, Grace begins her search with the arrogant Lord Markham, convinced he was the last person to see her sister alive.

With a reputation for recklessness, Leo's friend and mentor, Elliot Markham, is the only man capable of keeping him under control. But when Elliot marries and leaves London, Leo's thoughts turn to the woman he blames for the evil curse thrust upon him. Feeling alone and abandoned, Leo knows there is only one way to rid himself of the painful images of the past. But would he be able to find the golden-haired devil responsible for turning him? Would he have the courage to make her pay for all she had done?

Alexander Cole was a man ruled by his voracious appetite for carnal pleasures until a golden-haired devil in the guise of a goddess lures him into an encounter that costs him his humanity. With nothing left but bitterness in his heart, he locks himself away in his dilapidated Elizabethan mansion and chains the gates to all intruders. When her aunt suffers an injury in a carriage accident, Evelyn Bromwell rushes through the forest in search of help. Drawn to the mysterious old mansion, she is left aghast to find such a frosty reception.

In the mysterious bayou country of Louisiana, Jennifer Hale, orphaned and destitute in the wake of the Civil War, arrives at Darkwater full of hope, but the cold reception she receives alarms her. So do the screams of Alicia, the dying mistress of the plantation, who appears to be suffering from a psychosomatic illness that causes her to choke uncontrollably. Perhaps even more frightening is Jennifer's dangerous attraction to Walter Dere, her handsome employer. But her fear is forgotten when Alicia's death frees Walter to propose to Jennifer.

Deep in the French countryside - as the country reels through rebellion, beheadings, and starvation - a goat herder named Odette is trying to survive. Just that is on her mind - survival. Since she marched to Versailles with a group of Parisian women to protest the high prices of wheat, her life has spun out of control. She's fled the capital for the countryside. But what will happen to her? Can she stay in the Dordogne, where the kindly farmers have taken pity on her?

A Victorian tale of horror. How far would an artist go to create a masterpiece? Even murder?

A "Bluebeard" story in which a young woman marries a man whom she discovers has killed his previous wives and is trying to kill her as well.

El abogado inglés Jonathan Harker se despide de su prometida Mina para realizar un viaje de negocios a Transilvania, donde vive el Conde Drácula. Nunca imaginó que quedaría atrapado en el remoto Castillo a merced de extrañas criaturas que lo llevarán a la locura. Mientras que Mina espera su regreso en casa de su bella amiga Lucy, llega un barco a Londres procedente del Bósforo con un extraño pasajero, El Conde Drácula. De pronto la pobre Lucy comienza a sufrir una extraña enfermedad, en su cuello han aparecido dos extraños orificios que intrigan al doctor Seward, quien pide consejo al afamado doctor Abraham Van Helsing.

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...

Brought to you by Penguin. THE PAGE-TURNING NEW NOVEL FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE WITCHFINDER'S SISTER I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unravelling from an upper window, and the terrace bathed in a hectic orange light . . . Now I see that the decision I made at...

Having fled from a childhood of abuse, Malena has created a life that keeps her safe. However, it's not a life that is safe for others. In the hunt for a new husband, Malena encounters her perfect target and has to make a choice with rippling repercussions that won't just affect her own life and future, but those of her brother.

Gwythn wants nothing more than to marry Prince Alwen and become a princess in the court of King Blethen, the redeemer who rescued their lands from the tyrannical rule of the dragon shifters. But when she seems close to getting exactly what she wishes, new truths are revealed about the dragon shifters who were vanquished, truths about King Blethen and his sons, and truths that will make her question her loyalties...and her love.

A prince who can't afford another sin...As the seventh son of King Bertram II of Countavia, Prince Frederick knows the cruel reality of having been born after the cut off for counting among princes. So when the enticing Lady Eliza Littlefield strikes up a friendship with him strictly for the kind, loveable man she sees at his core, he does the only thing that comes natural to him...he pushes her away. Now she's returned. And Freddie is still just as much in love with her today, as he was when he'd dismissed her for her own good two years back.

Elizabeth Gaskell, famed author of Cranford, is cherished for her incise social observations and portrayals of the changing nature of English life through the Industrial Revolution of the Victorian era. In Cousin Phillis, Paul Manning has only recently left home to work on the railway line for the dashing Mr Holdsworth. Lodging with an Independent Minister on the outskirts of London, he becomes acquainted with his distant cousins, where he is delighted to meet his genial relations, and not least his cousin Phyllis

Il Canto dell'Amor trionfante è un racconto dello scrittore russo Ivan S. Turgenev. Ambientato nella Ferrara del ‘500, ai tempi dell'Ariosto...

Bath, 1816. Josephine Casterleigh will nur eins: raus aus dem Schatten ihrer exzentrischen Mutter und rein ins Abenteuer. Ein Maskenball klingt nach der perfekten Gelegenheit. Doch als sie im Ballsaal über eine geheimnisvolle Inschrift und einen gutaussehenden Fremden stolpert, beginnt eine Nacht, die sie so schnell nicht vergessen wird, mit einer rasanten Kutschfahrt ins Ungewisse, einem Gentleman’s Club, der besser nicht existieren sollte, und Rätseln, die nur eine lösen kann: ausgerechnet Josephine mit ihrem nutzlos geglaubten Wissen über alte Kulturen.