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
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Frankenstein, or, The modern prometheus /
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft,
Paper Book
  No-one in the grip of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN, with its mythic-minded hero and its highly sympathetic monster who reads Goethe and longs to be at peace with himself, can fail to notice how much more excellent the original is than all the adaptations, imitations and outright...
The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stevenson, Robert Louis,
Audiobook
When a brute of a man tramples an innocent girl, apparently out of spite, two bystanders catch the fellow and force him to pay reparations to the girl's family. The brute's name is Edward Hyde. A respected lawyer, Utterson, hears this story and begins to unravel the seemingly manic behavior of his...
The picture of Dorian Gray /
Wilde, Oscar,
Paper Book
Introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author's most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused a scandal when...
Dracula /
Stoker, Bram,
Paper Book
Written in 1897, Stoker's novel introduces the iconic character of the vampire Count Dracula. Through a series of letters and diary entries, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by...
The phantom of the Opera /
Leroux, Gaston,
Paper Book
"The wildest and most fantastic of tales." - New York Times Book Review. The novel from the early 20th century that inspired the Lon Chaney film and the hit musical. In the 1880s, in Paris, the Palais Garnier Opera House is believed haunted. One night, a young woman, Christine, is asked to...
The haunting of Hill House
Jackson, Shirley,
Audiobook
Now a hit Netflix miniseries directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton Past the rusted gates and untrimmed hedges, Hill House broods and waits. Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar...

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