Classic horror

Novels that not only define horror but also explore deep psychological and existential themes, making them timeless reads that have left a lasting impact on the genre.

Updated October 21, 2024
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
The castle of Otranto : a gothic story
Walpole, Horace 1717-1797
Paper Book
'Look, my lord!  See heaven itself declares against your impious intentions!'The Castle of Otranto (1764) is the first supernatural English novel and one of the most influential works of Gothic fiction. It inaugurated a literary genre that will be forever associated with the effects that...
The mysteries of Udolpho : a romance
Radcliffe, Ann Ward 1764-1823
Paper Book
A best-seller in its day and a potent influence on Walpole, Poe, and other writers of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gothic horror, The Mysteries of Udolpho remains one of the most important works in the history of European fiction. After Emily St. Aubuert is imprisoned by her evil guardian,...
Melmoth the wanderer
Maturin, Charles Robert 1780-1824
Paper Book
Created by an Irish clergyman, Melmoth is one of the most fiendish characters in literature. In a satanic bargain, Melmoth exchanges his soul for immortality. The story of his tortured wanderings through the centuries is pieced together through those who have been implored by Melmoth to take over...
Carmilla
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan 1814-1873
Paper Book
This title situates Carmilla within its Irish Cultural milieu and treats the text as self-standing rather than as a precursor to Dracula. Unlike other collections of Gothic literature, Costello-Sullivan's work focuses solely on Carmilla.
The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stevenson, Robert Louis 1850-1894
Paper Book
This short novel, published in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94), may well be more familiar in its many stage, film and television adaptations than in its original form, while 'Jekyll and Hyde' has become the shorthand for a character who seems to have a 'split personality'. Stevenson claimed...
The picture of Dorian Gray
Wilde, Oscar 1854-1900
Paper Book
This is the first variorum edition of the 1890 and 1891 editions of Oscar Wilde's controversial novel, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. Drawing on manuscripts and a typescript, this volume reprints the thirteen-chapter and twenty-chapter versions of Wilde's narrative as separate works, enabling the...
Dracula
Stoker, Bram 1847-1912
Paper Book
Count Dracula sleeps in a silent tomb beneath his desolate castle. His eyes are stony and his cheeks are deathly pale. But on his lips, there is a mocking smile-and a trickle of fresh blood. He has been dead for centuries, yet he may never die . . . Here begins the most celebrated vampire story in...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.