GOTHIC LITERATURE

Reading Challenge

Experience the Eerie Charm of (Classic) Gothic Literature: Join Our Reading Challenge and Discover the Beauty in Darkness!

Whether you’re looking for the perfect Halloween read or a little reading inspiration for our favourite season of falling leaves, pumpkin spice & crisp morning walks, the gothic reading challenge is packed with fabulous spooky content for your autumn tastes buds.

Cuddle up with a cosy cup of tea and delve into pages of classic and contemporary gothic novels.

 
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45 (CLASSIC) GOTHIC BOOKS TO READ

 

  • Beloved – Toni Morrison

  • The Bloody Chamber & Other Stories – Angela Carter

  • Carmilla – Sherian Le Fanu

  • Collected Ghost Stories – M.R. James

  • Dark Tales – Shirley Jackson

  • Dracula – Bram Stoker

  • The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe

  • Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

  • Gothic Tales - Elizabeth Gaskell

 

“The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; star shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head.”

— The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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  • The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson (1959)

  • The Historian – Elizabeth Kostkova (2005)

  • The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle (1901/02)

  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo (1831)

  • In a Glass Darkly - Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)

  • Interview with the Vampire – Anne Rice (1976)

  • Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë (1847)

  • The King in Yellow – Robert W. Chambers (1895)

  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – Washington Irving (1819)

 From the Shop

  • The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

  • The Magic Toyshop – Angela Carter (1967)

  • Mexican Gothic – Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2020)

  • My Cousin Rachel – Daphne du Maurier (1951)

  • The Mysteries of Udolpho – Ann Radcliffe (1794)

  • The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco (1980)

  • Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen (1803) - satire!

  • The Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux (1909/10)

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde (1890)

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”

— The Raven

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  • The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe (1845)

  • Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier (1938)

  • The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2001)

  • The Silent Companions – Laura Purcell

  • The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde – Robert Lewis Stevenson (1886)

  • The Stranger Diaries – Elly Griffiths (2019)

  • The Tell-Tale Heart – Edgar Allan Poe (1843)

  • The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield (2006)

  • The Turn of the Screw – Henry James (1898)

 

 From the Blog

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  • Uncle Silas – Sheridan Le Fanu (1864)

  • The Vampyre – John William Polidori (1819)

  • We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson (1962)

  • White is for Witching – Helen Oyeyemi (2009)

  • The Willows – Algernon Blackwood (1907)

  • The Woman in Black – Susan Hill (1983)

  • The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins (1859)

  • Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë (1847)

  • The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)

 
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How many have you read?

If you like reading challenges, check out the Challenges pages for more!

 

Happy reading!