Deliciously dark and governed by a uniquely sublime aesthetic, Gothic novels have captured the spirit and imagination of readers across the globe since Horace Walpole first wrote The Castle of Otranto back in 1764.
The tale of a seemingly cursed noble family who reside in a haunted castle is widely considered to be the genre’s catalyst, given that Walpole himself made use of the subtitle ‘A Gothic Novel’ in the book’s second edition.
It makes sense, then, that the most recognisable elements of traditional Gothic literature include similar sprawling, menacing ancient homes filled to the brim with tragic characters, supernatural entities, psychological spirals and cliffhanging suspense. In other words, the beloved genre makes use of well-written and marvellously entertaining melodrama.
Edgar Allen Poe took the concept and ran with it, elevating Gothic literature beyond the realms of the purely aesthetic and wildly spooky to provide underlying commentary on the human condition – such as in The Raven (1845), a poem about a man’s descent into madness following the death of his lover; or The Cask of Amontillado (1846), a terrifying tale of fatal revenge; or The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) in which an unnamed narrator attempts to convince the reader of his sanity while describing a murder that he committed.
Poe experienced wild success with his spine-tingling stories, each one more terrifying than the next. The Gothic genre gave him ample creative room to dissect the flaws of man, holding a magnifying glass up to our innermost failings and the deepest fears which lie within every one of us. The black raven has since become a beloved symbol of the genre.
Yet at its core, Gothic literature embodies an essence, rather than the need to follow a prescribed set of literary rules and laws which allow a story to belong within the genre’s canon.
So, while similarities and motifs can be drawn between the most famous novels within the genre, it’s ultimately up to you to decide what truly constitutes a Gothic novel. With this inherent subjectivity and literary tradition simultaneously in mind, we’ve curated a selection of some of the best Gothic literature ever written.
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
The first ever Gothic novel proclaims itself to be the translated text of a mysterious Italian tale recovered from the Middle Ages. Though this is all part of Walpole’s ingenious scene-setting, it becomes increasingly difficult not to believe as the narrative continues. The story is about The Prince of Otranto, Manfred, who – in all his desperate attempts to escape the horrifying prophecy which he believes is plaguing his family, sets them on a course of unstoppable destruction.
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The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Long before the Woman in Black came Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White, who terrified the literary set upon her release in 1860. Described as the first Victorian Gothic novel to combine elements of psychological realism, the novel begins when Walter Hartright comes face to face with an eerily clad woman on a darkened street in London. Before long, the drawing teacher finds himself exploring sinister happenings, cases of false identity and sheer insanity in the country houses and madhouses that surround him.
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The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis
With its lurid reputation and diabolical themes, it's no wonder that The Monk quickly became a best-seller back in 1796. We follow the inner struggles of the monk Ambrosio, who is haunted by illicit, lustful urges as he tries desperately to keep his vows. Ambrosio is soon sent down a path of utter destruction, which sees his soul damned forever.
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Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
An utter classic, Rebecca sees our shy, unnamed newlywed protagonist haunted by one particular ghost of her husband’s past: his dead wife. What should have been the beginning of a happy life in the De Winter’s sprawling mansion quickly becomes a tale of morbid obsession, isolation, fear and the loss of identity.
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Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Semi-autobiographical in nature, Bronte’s Villette is the ultimately tragic story of a young Lucy Snow. Friendless and isolated, she sets sail from England to teach in a foreign boarding school situated in a small town modelled upon the city of Brussels, set within the fictional French-speaking kingdom of Labassecour. Though largely considered a deep, psychological dive into the 19th-century female psyche, its setting and themes of despair see Lucy haunted in more ways than one.
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The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
A hugely influential work of Gothic horror, Radcliffe’s classic yarn is the story of a tragically orphaned young girl named Emily St Aubert, who finds herself suddenly and overwhelmingly at the mercy of her aunt’s terrifying husband, Signor Montoni. Poor Emily begins to spiral, as she fends off attempts on her virtue and becomes tormented by ghostly apparitions against the backdrop of sublime Alpine settings. History, poetry, topography and the preternatural collide in this suspenseful thriller.
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The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
Delve into the master of Gothic, psychological horror’s bustling oeuvre with this delightfully bound complete poem. It includes poetry and prose alike, with fan-favourites such as Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, Annabel Lee, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
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Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen
First published in 1934, Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)’s collection of seven, intricately interwoven short stories set in the 19th century is a masterclass in the Gothic tradition. From romantic tales filled with envy to adventures in exotic lands gone wrong, you’ll race through these bizarre yet gripping tales in no time.
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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
As you may well know, the story behind Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus was crafted when she was just 18 years old during one fateful stay at Villa Diodati near Geneva, with a motley bunch including the likes of Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John Polidori in tow.
What began as a scary story competition between a group of renowned authors and a teenage girl resulted in one of the most emotionally moving, Icarus-like moral tales about flying too close to the sun. Shorter than you’d expect, the 288-page marvel is a piece of literature everyone should read at least once in their lives.
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The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
A deeply moving psychological horror which not only served as inspiration for the works of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, but for the 10-part Netflix series of the same name – the influence of Jackson’s terrifying 1959 novel within the realm of supernatural literature and media cannot be understated.
The story follows anthropologist Dr. John Montague who has an innate interest in the supernatural. Intent on using the supposedly haunted Hill House as a case study for the paranormal, he invites Eleanor Vance (reported to have had a brush with a poltergeist as a child) and Theodora (a potential psychic) to join him on a three-month sojourn.
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The Cloisters by Katy Hays
A young intern arrives in New York City in the hopes of spending her summer working at the infamous Metropolitan Museum of Art, all the while escaping her dark past. However, Ann Stilwell is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art.
Before she can even blink, Ann is drawn into the interwoven web of a few enigmatic researchers who share their outlandish theories. The curator of the museum, Patrick Roland, is convinced that tarot has the very real ability to predict the future – but when Ann discovers an ancient deck integral to his theory, she finds herself in a dangerous position. Filled with high-academic passages about the history of art, Hays’ novel is for dark academia enthusiasts looking for a narrative which is 50 per cent fantasy, and 50 per cent high academics.
Buy now £8.47, Amazon
The Turn of The Screw by Henry James
One of the first horror narratives to begin with a retrospective tale told around a crackling fire, James’ beloved novella begins with a man named Douglas who tells the story of his sister’s old governess who was said to have encountered paranormal apparitions. We learn that the governess is given charge of two young pupils named Miles and Flora whom she grows to adore. Yet the poor governess is slowly plagued by ghosts which appear throughout the manor where they reside, threatening the lives of them all.
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The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
This panoramic, Gothic novel spans centuries with eerily shifting narratives which come together to reveal the truth behind a horrifying mystery. The story begins when two sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one of the sisters is discovered – but she’s the same age as when she disappeared.
Buy now £9.99, Waterstones
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Whether you’ve consumed countless retellings of the Dracula myth in popular literature or are exploring the realms of vampiric history for the first time, there is no tale of supernatural horror quite like Stoker’s historical feat. Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to aid his wealthy client Count Dracula in purchasing a London home. While staying within the Count’s castle walls, Harker makes a series of gruesome discoveries which seem to correlate with spontaneous, violent events across England.
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The Familiars by Stacey Halls
A desperate, seventeen-year-old heir to Lancashire’s Gawthorpe Hall finds herself drawn into the swirling accusations of witchcraft which are plaguing the north-west of England. When Fleetwood Shuttleworth discovers she is pregnant for the fourth time, she is determined not to deliver another stillbirth and to survive her potentially deadly condition.
A young midwife named Alice Gray promises to help. Before they can stop it, the two women’s intrinsically interwoven lives are put at stake.
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A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
Yet another brilliant haunted house yarn by T. Kingfisher, A House With Good Bones is about the family secrets which plague the homestead of a suburban family in North Carolina. The Southern Gothic novel follows the strange occurrences which plague Samatha Montgomery when she returns to a home surrounded by vultures circling above.
Buy now £9.69, Amazon
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Originally published in 2006, The Historian is a cult classic among lovers of the dark academia genre, which would’ve been referred to as gothic fantasy at the time.
Through the voice of an unnamed female narrator, we are plunged into a metaphysical, palimpsestic narrative which begins upon her discovery of an ancient book and collection of letters in her father’s library. Little does the teen protagonist know, she has stumbled upon a mystery which is her birthright to solve.
She must discover the truth behind Vlad the Impaler by the crossing barriers of time, geographical borders, and the line between fantasy and historical truth.
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Flowers in the Attic by V.C Andrews
A Gothic drama to sink your teeth into, four siblings find themselves trapped at the mercy of their own mother and grandmother. After weeks become months, the children soon come to the realisation that their mother might not let them out of the attic after all, and they embark on a terrifying struggle to survive the conspiring members of their family that live below them.
Buy now £9.99, HarperCollins
The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft
A Lovecraftian classic and perhaps his most impressive novel, The Call of Cthulhu is narrated by Francis Wayland Thurston as he recounts the series of notes and papers left behind by his late uncle. The documents detail a mysterious cult which worships the monstrous entity Cthulhu – a menacing, chimeric combination of human, octopus and dragon which resides in the sunken city of R'lyeh.
Buy now £8.26, Amazon
