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Gothic Horror.

15 replies

EllaAlright · 11/05/2020 16:18

Hi all,

Just started reading The fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. Really loving the dark descriptive writing of it. Does anyone have any other suggestions for gothic horror books?

Thank you in advance.

OP posts:
CharDeeMacDennis · 11/05/2020 17:40

The Castle of Otranto is one of the earliest ones and worth a read - it is quite short.

The Monk by Matthew Lewis - bit lurid but a genre classic.

Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin - it's a behemoth but pure Gothic

Vathek - William Beckford

Zofloya - Charlotte Dacre

Dracula, of course

More Poe - there's lots!

YounghillKang · 11/05/2020 21:21

I really enjoyed:
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe also vast though;
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein a great read;
J. Sheridan Lefanu’s novel Uncle Silas and his short stories, Carmilla in particular;
Richard Marsh’s The Beetle;
Henry James’s ghost stories/novellas such as the wonderful The Turn of the Screw;
similar style M.R. James’s ghost stories;
you might like Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey which was influenced by the popularity of gothic fiction.

The only one I’ve read but disliked is Hugh Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto.

EllaAlright · 11/05/2020 22:22

Thank you for the great suggestions. I’ve finished the house of Usher, I know it’s a short story, but I really enjoyed it. There were several words in the book I wasn’t aware of, but I’m reading on my kindle so can look up the words as I go, which is a great help to me.

OP posts:
cdtaylornats · 12/05/2020 08:37

Anything by William Hope Hodgson
anything by August Derleth
Tales of Unease by Arthur Conan-Doyle
Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 12/05/2020 08:38

So many good suggestions here. Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber as well.

Quackersandcheese3 · 07/06/2020 17:20

Silent companions by Laura Purcell

iklboo · 07/06/2020 17:28

Just about to recommend Silent Companions and The Corset by Laura Purcell.

TornadoOfSouls · 07/06/2020 17:28

Read ‘Supernatural Horror in Literature’ by HP Lovecraft (or listen to it on audible - it’s narrated very well) for loads of ideas.

Algernon Blackwood’s stories The Willows and The Wendigo are not really Gothic, but very creepy. If you like ghost stories, MR James is well worth reading (Lost Hearts is kind of Gothic).

DancelikeEmmaGoldman · 08/06/2020 05:41

Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series perhaps? Not exactly horror, but certainly full of Gothic flourishes.

Quackersandcheese3 · 08/06/2020 08:42

@iklboo I just finished the corset. Really enjoyed it but had to google an explanation for the ending ...

Cam2020 · 08/06/2020 18:55

The Romance of The Forest by Ann Radcliffe.

I also second The Monk, Castle of Otranto, Zofloya and Mysteries of Udolpho for authentic gothic reads and any Laura Purcell novels for modern gothic.

Cam2020 · 08/06/2020 18:59

Northanger Abbey pastiches Udolpho and Romance of the Forest specifically so the references make more sense if you've read those!

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 17/06/2020 21:22

Agree with the Laura Purcell suggestions - she also has another called Bone China.

You might like The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

Stealthfart · 18/06/2020 18:05

I loved The Loney, not scary but wonderfully atmospheric.

TheSandman · 18/06/2020 23:02

If you want an experience try Wagner the Werewolf by George W M Reynolds. It is brilliantly awful. High Victorian penny-dreadful bodice-ripping melodramatic Gothic at its bonkers best. It was published in weekly parts, written as it was published, and you can see the author frantically trying to keep track of all the plot lines, and constantly scrabbling to dig himself out of the holes he'd backed his characters.

It's a real hoot.

Chapter One:
------
It was the month of January, 1516.

The night was dark and tempestuous; the thunder growled around; the lightning flashed at short intervals: and the wind swept furiously along in sudden and fitful gusts.

The streams of the great Black Forest of Germany babbled in playful melody no more, but rushed on with deafening din, mingling their torrent roar with the wild creaking of the huge oaks, the rustling of the firs, the howling of the affrighted wolves, and the hollow voices of the storm.

The dense black clouds were driving restlessly athwart the sky; and when the vivid lightning gleamed forth with rapid and eccentric glare, it seemed as if the dark jaws of some hideous monster, floating high above, opened to vomit flame.

And as the abrupt but furious gusts of wind swept through the forest, they raised strange echoes—as if the impervious mazes of that mighty wood were the abode of hideous fiends and evil spirits, who responded in shrieks, moans, and lamentations to the fearful din of the tempest.

It was, indeed, an appalling night!

------

It goes on like that for 470 pages.

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