Victorian Supernatural

At the height of her fame—outselling Dickens, Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells combined—Marie Corelli crafted these mesmerizing tales that blend forbidden passion with gothic suspense. From ghostly brides seeking vengeance to artists consumed by obsession, each story pulses with the dark romanticism that made Corelli Victorian Britain's most beloved storyteller.

A woman wearing a black veil convenes a seance. A magician puts a volunteer into a trance. A fortune-teller leans over a crystal ball. Everyone knows what Victorian mysticism looks like because our modern imagery, language, and practice of magic borrows heavily from the Victorians. But we have little understanding of its spiritual, cultural, and historical foundations.

England, 1883. Recovering from a devastating loss, Evelyn has become determined to use her powers to save other gifted people from those who would study and oppress them. But when her rescue of a young telekinetic girl goes terribly wrong, Evelyn finds herself involved with a secret society devoted to recruiting and protecting people like Evelyn and her friends. Like magic, Evelyn's problems start to disappear. Her reputation is repaired, her friends are provided for, and her parents are thrilled at all her new suitors.

Miss Lane is puzzled by Jasper Jesperson's interest in what seems a very minor theft - possibly even a prank - from the storerooms at the British Museum. But London in the 1890s is rife with secret organisations, cults and individuals eager to acquire some of the legendary magic of ancient Egypt. The deeper the two detectives dig, the more hidden crimes they uncover, and the higher the death toll mounts. And at the centre of it all is the 'Mystery Mummy' recently acquired by the museum. Are the deaths and madness truly caused by a mummy's curse? Or is there a living villain to be apprehended?

After a long sickness, Lady Letitia Seton is finally free. But the last fractures in her mind won't heal until she confronts old wounds. Intent on finding answers about a murderous conspiracy against her family and to complete her recovery, she travels to County Durham. Dr Grayson Day devoted his life to healing the princess in the tower. Not wanting her to journey alone into the unknown, he volunteers to accompany Lettie. But he is cast in the role of brother. Now he can only watch as Lettie becomes entwined with an enticing sylph.

An ill-fated grave-robbery unearths a corpse with a most disturbing symbol on it. The very same sign is daubed in blood on the walls of Edinburgh's lunatic asylum, on the night that one of the patients is murdered. The mark in question? The mark of the devil. The prime suspect: Amy McGray, the asylum's most infamous inmate, a young woman who has grown up behind bars after she killed her parents many years ago. Her brother, Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray, knows the evidence is stacked against her. To prove her innocence, he needs the help of an old friend.

Over a decade has passed. Valeria and Emil, aunt, and nephew, are living new lives in Brasov. But when a book is published bearing her late husband's name, Valeria's darkest secret is exposed, and her happy life is left in ruins. Valeria sets out on a mission to find out who revealed her story to the world, but she meets a distraction in Paris, one she was not prepared for, someone who changes everything. Will Valeria survive her own blood thirst, or will she allow a new opportunity for happiness to slip through her fingers?

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was one of the major figures of 19th-century supernaturalism. He helped move supernaturalist fiction away from the gothic's emphasis on external sources of terror and toward a focus on the effects of terror, thus helping to create the psychological basis for supernaturalist and horror literature that continues today. "The Familiar" is one of his most terrifying tales.

London, 1890. Mina Murray once lived an adventurous life, but after a tragedy in the forests of Transylvania, she left it all behind. Now she has settled into a quiet routine as a schoolteacher in London, engaged to the respectable solicitor Jonathan Harker, attempting to fit into the stuffy upper class London society to which he belongs. But when vampires abduct Jonathan, her dark past comes careening into her present.

England, 1882. Evelyn is bored with society and its expectations. So when her beloved sister, Rose, mysteriously vanishes, she ignores her parents and travels to London to find her, accompanied by the dashing Mr. Kent. But they're not the only ones looking for Rose. The reclusive young gentleman Sebastian Braddock is also searching for her, claiming that both sisters have special healing powers. Evelyn is convinced that Sebastian must be mad, until she discovers that his strange tales of extraordinary people are true.

London, 1897: Lady Christiana Harker once committed a grave sin against her kind when she saved Inspector Elijah Drexler's life by turning him into a vampire. Christiana's bold act has only driven Elijah deeper into an impenetrable darkness, fueled by morphine, nightmares, and a constant thirst for blood. Elijah has no room left in his heart for anything but his quest for vengeance against his childhood tormentor, a quest that he fully expects to end with his own death.

Raven looks out over the small town of Cogsworth and imagines a life beyond her grandmother's mansion. But Raven holds a dark secret that prevents her from leaving. Now an orphan, Raven must do her best to hide her gifts of sight if she's to survive the cruel Victorian society. However, when a ghost of a child comes to her for help, Raven finds herself in the gas-lit streets of London, on the trail of a female serial killer. As she tries to solve the string of murders, she realizes that the murders are almost identical to those from a case left unsolved years before she was born.

From the author of the Amazon best-seller The Soul Collector comes a real life story of terror and intrigue. When Edwin Gonzalez and Lillian Otero purchased the historic S.K. Pierce Victorian Mansion in Gardner, Massachusetts, in 2009, they scoffed at the ghostly legends surrounding the house. They didn't believe in ghosts. The house soon proved them wrong. By the fall of 2011, they were forced from their house, narrowly escaping with their lives.

While a door that just won’t stay closed may not seem like the most terrifying of hauntings, being alone in a silent manor for days on end certainly adds to the atmosphere. A request to discover the reason for the obstinate door includes a cash motivation and newly unemployed Theophilus Edlyd readily accepts the challenge.

A young man’s inheritance includes more than a house when an ebony-framed painting of a beautiful woman starts to exert a strange hold over its new owner. Could this lead to his tragic demise?

Whatever you do, don't go on to the beaches at dusk, or the Sand-Walker will come to your window at night. Such is the sinister warning given to the new lodger at the Beach Farm, a lonely house on the North Sea coast of England. But who, or what, is the Sand-Walker?

In this well-known classic, a school inspector travelling to the village of Pit End wonders whether the things he’s seeing are products of his imagination or something supernatural. There’s a rational answer, but is it the right one? Was It an Illusion is taken from the Victorian Anthologies series featuring short stories by classic writers of the spooky, the scary and the supernatural. Guaranteed to give you the shivers, each collection includes familiar and loved creepy tales as well as those less well-known. With music by Benedict Edwards.