H.P. Lovecraft said that fear is the oldest and deepest emotion of humankind, and dark minds over centuries have simultaneously scared and delighted readers by harping on our most subconscious of fears. The following classic and new books are suggestions for courses that deal with Gothic literature.
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New The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd “It takes a writer of considerable confidence, wit and skill to attempt a modern retelling of a bona fide English classic . . . [Ackroyd] is the man for the job. . . . terrifying and fascinating in equal measure. . . . An intelligent, creepily beautiful and haunted thing.” —The Times |
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Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte The windswept moors are the unforgettable setting of this tale of the love between the foundling Heathcliff and his wealthy benefactor's daughter, Catherine. Through Catherine’s betrayal of Heathcliff and his bitter vengeance, their mythic passion haunts the next generation even after their deaths. Incorporating elements of many genres—from gothic novels and ghost stories to poetic allegory—and transcending them all, Wuthering Heights is a mystifying and powerful tour de force. Other recently released Vintage Classics include Jane Eyre and Villette. |
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New The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens Introduction by Matthew Pearl Here is a novel that is itself the subject of one of literature’s most enduring mysteries. The story recounts the troubled romance of Rosa Bud and the book’s eponymous character, who later vanishes. Was Drood murdered, and if so by whom? As Charles Dickens died before finishing the book, the ending is intriguingly ambiguous. |
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Seven Gothic Tales
by Isak Dinesen “These tales are a modern refinement of German romanticism . . . They are peopled, or haunted, by ghosts of a past age, voluptuaries of dreaming of the singers and ballerinas of the operas of Mozart and Gluck, young men who are too melancholy to enjoy love or too perverse to profit by it, maidens dedicated to chastity and others hopeful of a gentlemanly seduction; their generally fantastic adventures are exquisitely played.” —The New York Times |
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The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Arthur Conan Doyle One of the most popular Sherlock Holmes adventure, Holmes and Watson must hunt for a murderous beast stalking the moors. Can the duo solve the mystery before it strikes again? Moody, atmospheric, and thrilling, it will keep you guessing until the very end. |
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American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. |
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A Good and Happy Child
by Justin Evans A Washington Post Best Book of 2007 In this smart, accessible, page-turning novel that is as eerie as it is entertaining, a young man reexamines his childhood memories of strange visions and erratic behavior. “Evans has written a novel that will scare even the most hardened horror fans out of their skins. . . . A literary thriller of the first order.” —Washington Post |
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The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings
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The Haunted Looking Glass
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New The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes “What’s superlative about The Age of Wonder is that Holmes, author of vivid biographies of Shelley and Coleridge, takes the air out of the terms ‘subjectivity’ and ‘objectivity’ and reveals the ways in which the artists were enveloped in science . . . and an encroaching sense that scientists were gaining control over human nature clouded the cultural skies. Holmes limns the darkness with a scintillating chapter on Mary Shelley and ‘Frankenstein.’” —Salon |
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The Monk
by Matthew Lewis Introduction by Hugh Thomas When Matthew Lewis’s The Monk was published in 1796, readers were shocked by this gripping and horrific novel, which follows the abbot Ambrosio as he is tempted into a world of incest, murder, and torture. Still, it remains a timeless classic of gothic fiction that has influenced writers from Byron and Emily Brontë to Poe and Hawthorne. |
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The Poe Shadow
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New The Vampire Archives Written by Otto Penzler Foreword by Kim Newman Whether imagined by Bram Stoker or Anne Rice, vampires are part of the human lexicon. Otto Penzler has compiled over eighty stories, including the works of Stephen King, D. H. Lawrence, Lord Byron and Edgar Allan Poe. |
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New Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe This selection of eleven stories and seven poems contains such famously chilling masterpieces of the storyteller’s art as ‘The Tell-tale Heart,’ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and such unforgettable poems as ‘The Raven,’ and ‘The Bells.’ Poe is widely credited with pioneering the detective story, represented here and also included is his essay ‘The Philosophy of Composition,’ in which he lays out his theory of how good writers write. |
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The Raven and the Monkey’s Paw
by Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe, master of the horror story and chiming lyric poem, opens the volume with his best-loved stories: ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,’ ‘The Black Cat,’ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ ‘The Pit and the Pendulum,’ among others. Also included are stories by Edith Wharton, Saki, Charles Dickens, O. Henry, Wilkie Collins, Ambrose Bierce, and W.W. Jacobs. |
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New A Monster‘s Notes by Laurie Sheck A Monster‘s Notes is a bold, genre-defying book brings us Frankenstein‘s monster in his own words, a luminous meditation on creativity and technology, on alienation and otherness, on ugliness and beauty, and on our need to be understood. “A remarkable creation, a baroque opera of grief, laced with lines of haunting beauty and profundity . . . [Sheck‘s book] defies description and shreds any expectations you might have for a novel.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post |
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Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley Introduction by Diane Johnson After creating a life from the parts of dead humans, Dr. Frankenstein is turned upon and tormented by his monster. Disturbing and profoundly moving, Frankenstein has become part of our own mythology. |
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New The Original Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (with Percy Shelley) Edited by Charles Robinson “Charles Robinson has produced two versions of Mary Shelley’s prepublication manuscript: as she first wrote it, then as it was marked with Percy’s additions and alterations. . . . Robinson reanimates the beginnings of this vibrant novel in an authoritative, smartly accomplished, reader-friendly edition that will delight its fans and stimulate its students.” —Susan J. Wolfson, Professor of English, Princeton University and President, Association of Literary Scholars and Critics |
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Dracula
by Bram Stoker Introduction by Matthew Pearl A Gothic masterpiece, Dracula is a quintessential story of suspense and horror, boasting one of the most terrifying characters in literature: centuries-old Count Dracula, whose diabolical passions prey upon the innocent, the helpless, the beautiful. |
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Ring
by Koji Suzuki Translated by Glynne Walley The Japanese horror classic that inspired the hugely popular movie The Ring. A mysterious video promises death for all those who view it, but watching the videotape is only the beginning. Author Koji Suzuki has crafted a haunting, macabre horror story that lingers in the imagination long after the last page is turned. |
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The Secret History
by Donna Tartt Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill. |
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Frostbite
by David Wellington Deep in the uninhabited forests of Canada‘s Northwest territories, a young woman named Chey is on a quest; she has vowed to seek revenge on the werewolf who killed her father. But to her horror, Chey herself is bitten and infected with the curse. As she reluctantly accepts her new existence as a lycanthrope, she is forced to bond with the very man—or wolf—she‘s sworn to kill. . . . and to accept that she has now become the monster she most despises. |
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