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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The castle of Otranto : a gothic story
Walpole, Horace 1717-1797
Ebook
The mysteries of Udolpho : a romance
Radcliffe, Ann Ward 1764-1823
Ebook
This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.   The Mysteries of Udolpho has been thrilling readers for over two hundred years and holds a critically important place in the history of gothic literature, the...
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 fall of the house of Usher : & other stories
Poe, Edgar Allan
Paper Book
A man visits his friend, Roderick Usher, who lies ill in a gloomy estate. Spooky events inside and outside the house escalate into a terrifying conclusion to the physical and ancestral House of Usher. This is a must-have collection of stories from Edgar Allan Poe, legendary author of Gothic...
Carmilla
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan 1814-1873
Paper Book
The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stevenson, Robert Louis 1850-1894
Paper Book
The picture of Dorian Gray
Wilde, Oscar
Paper Book
This Norton Critical Edition is the only edition available that includes both the 1890 Lippincott's and the 1891 book versions of The Picture of Dorian Gray, allowing students to compare the two published versions with the editorial guidance of Michael Patrick Gillespie.
Dracula
Stoker, Bram 1847-1912
Paper Book
The classic tale of gothic horror in a beautiful, elegant presentation.
The phantom of the opera
Leroux, Gaston 1868-1927
Paper Book
A sparkling new translation of the novel that inspired the most popular stage musical of all time. Rumors abound that a ghost stalks the dark passages and cellars of the Paris Opera House. No one has actually seen this Phantom, but Christine Daa , a beautiful and talented young singer,...
The call of Cthulhu and other weird stories
Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips) 1890-1937
Audiobook
This collection includes a selection of H.P. Lovecraft's finest chilling tales. Lovecraft's most famous monster is Cthulhu, a gargantuan beast which has been lying dormant for millions of years but rises up and forces mankind to recognise its fundamental ignorance, powerlessness and insignificance....
The haunting of Hill House
Jackson, Shirley 1916-1965
Paper Book
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House- Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a 'haunting...

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