Gothic Classics

In 1816, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley visited Lord Byron in Switzerland. After reading an anthology of German ghost stories, Byron challenged the Shelleys and his personal physician, John Polidori, to write horror stories of their own. Polidori was the only one to complete a story, and a good one, at that. Mary did come up with an idea though, and it became was the germ of Frankenstein.

It tells the story of a young woman whose mother died in her childbirth - just as Shelly's own mother died after hers - and whose relationship with her bereaved father becomes sexually charged as he conflates her with his lost wife, while she becomes involved with a handsome poet.

Mary W. Shelley (1797-1851)Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin nació el 30 de agosto de 1797 en Londres (Inglaterra). Era hija única del filósofo William Godwin y la escritora feminista Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary creció y se educó en un ambiente intelectual y progresista, que marcaría fuertemente su personalidad.

Con Poe nacería el terror como género, fruto de sus obsesiones y de su corta vida errante. Transmutó el gótico alemán utilizando las claves del Romanticismo, anticipándose un siglo a los miedos y a los deseos más íntimos del hombre moderno. Las maldiciones ancestrales, las fuerzas ingentes y desatadas de la naturaleza, son elementos con los que el autor tratará de contagiar al lector para enfrentarlo al pavor de sus miedos más profundos.

I racconti qui presentati, "Tè verde", "Il giudice Harbottle" e "Carmilla", appartengono alla raccolta "In a Glass Darkly". Composti in momenti differenti e pubblicati su varie riviste e poi riuniti nel 1872, i singoli racconti, benché diversissime siano le storie ivi riportate, possono essere considerati parti di un'unica narrazione, fatta di oscure risonanze e di sinistri riflessi. Elemento esterno unificante è la figura-cornice del Dottor Hesselius, medico, psicologo, mistico e metafisico tedesco, primo "detective dell'occulto" della letteratura europea.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, published in 1886, is another brilliant work from Robert Louis Stevenson about the life and death struggle between two opposing personalities - one essentially good, the other essentially evil - for the soul of one man. The kind and intelligent Dr. Jekyll concocts a drug intended to separate his good self from his evil self, and after drinking it, turns into a psychopathic monster: Mr. Hyde!

Years after the Salem witch trials one witch remains. She just doesn’t know it...yet. Growing up, Lydia Montrose knew she was descended from the legendary witches of Salem but was warned to never show the world what she could do and so slowly forgot her legacy. But Willow Hall has awoken something inside her.... 1821: having fled family scandal in Boston, Willow Hall seems an idyllic refuge from the world, especially when Lydia meets the previous owner of the house, John Barrett. But a subtle menace haunts the grounds of Willow Hall, with strange voices and ghostly apparitions in the night....

First published in the English literary anthology annual The Keepsake in 1833 by Mary Shelly, master of Gothic fiction, The Invisible Girl is a story about the turbulence of secret love. Like much of her work, Shelly blends the dark and the supernatural with elements of romance and intimacy and unravels this story within a story with aplomb, and the setting of rural Wales in the early 19th century lends to the foreboding and bittersweet tone of the tale.

Alcuni dei racconti di Poe che danno dello scrittore un ritratto completo e sconcertante: La rovina della casa degli Usher; Morella; Il gatto nero; Il pozzo e i lpendol; La lettera trafugata; Lo scarabeo d’oro; Il diavolo nella torre.

On a quiet Christmas Eve, a governess’ manuscript detailing her encounters with the supernatural is read. She tells the story of moving into an estate to take care of two children and becoming slowly aware that the area is overrun with ghosts of the previous inhabitants - and that the children are aware that these ghosts exist.

For 150 years, above the Scottish cliffs, Caldonbrae Hall has sat as a beacon of excellence in the ancestral castle of Lord William Hope. A boarding school for girls, it promises a future where its pupils will emerge 'resilient and ready to serve society'. Rose Christie, a 26-year-old Classics teacher, is the first new hire for the school in more than a decade. At first, Rose feels overwhelmed in the face of this elite establishment, but soon after her arrival she begins to understand that she may have more to fear than her own ineptitude.

During a visit to her dying friend, a woman discovers to her horror that his family and his home are one. SonicMovies are premium audios with strong vocal performances enhanced by music and sound effects to such an extent they sound like movies, hence, SonicMovies.

Cuando un escarabajo que pareciera estar hecho de oro puro aparece llega a las manos de William Legrand, comienza un misterio que cambiará su vida por siempre. El insecto pica con un misterioso veneno, y cuando el Sr. Legrand aparenta haber perdido la razón, un amigo le acompañará a encontrar lo que el distraído señor busca. Este es el misterio de El Escarabajo de Oro.

Den sagtmodige (Krotkaja) er blevet kaldt en af de mest gribende fortællinger om menneskelig fortvivlelse, som nogen sinde er skrevet. - "en ganske lille bog, men den er stor for os alle, uopnåelig stor". - Knut Hamsun. - Et latterligt menneskes drøm fortæller om en nihilist, der har besluttet at begå selvmord, fordi alt er ham ligegyldigt, men med pistolen i hånden falder han i søvn og finder i en drøm en mening i menneskets ansvar for at hjælpe og elske sit medmenneske.

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was born on August 28th, 1814, at 45 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, into a literary family with Huguenot, Irish and English roots. Between 1838 and 1840 Le Fanu had written and published twelve stories which purported to be the literary remains of an 18th-century Catholic priest called Father Purcell. Set mostly in Ireland they include classic stories of gothic horror, with grim, shadowed castles, as well as supernatural visitations from beyond the grave, together with madness and suicide.

This chilling tale of one man’s descent into madness was published shortly before the author was institutionalized for insanity, and so The Horla has inevitably been seen as informed by Guy de Maupassant’s mental illness. While such speculation is murky, it is clear that de Maupassant—hailed alongside Chekhov as father of the short story—was at the peak of his powers in this innovative precursor of first-person psychological fiction.

Edgar Allan Poe est considéré comme l'inventeur du conte moderne. Les deux textes qui suivent, "Le Corbeau" et "Double Assassinat dans la rue Morgue", en sont la parfaite illustration. Dans un style inimitable, l'auteur arrive à créer des atmosphères dont lui seul a le secret. Sans nul doute, il s'agit ici de deux chefs-d'oeuvres de la littérature, histoires à la fois captivantes et universelles que la traduction de Charles Baudelaire vient sublimer.

Edición sin música. El misterio de Marie Roget. Está basado en el asesinato real de Mary Cecilia Rogers, un crimen que paralizó a Nueva York debido a la violencia inusitada que el asesino volcó sobre la joven. Mary Cecilia Rogers nació en Connecticut en 1820, desapareció el 4 de octubre de 1838 en circunstancias poco claras.

Erst das 20. Jahrhundert hat die Visionen des amerikanischen Schriftstellers Edgar Allan Poe richtig zu würdigen gewusst. Dabei gelang es Poe mit seinen unheimlichen Erzählungen, die menschliche Grausamkeit und das Groteske im Menschen messerscharf zu analysieren. Das wohl berühmteste Schauergedicht der Weltliteratur, "Der Rabe" von 1845, erzählt von einem Hausherrn, der in finsterer Nacht ein Klopfen an seinem Fenster vernimmt. Der Störenfried entpuppt sich als Rabe, der den Mann in tiefste Verzweiflung stürzt. Mit seiner markanten Stimme haucht Hans Peter Hallwachs Poes schaurig schönen Erzählungen Leben ein.

In The Assignation, Edgar Allan Poe weaves a haunting tale of romantic despair, secrecy, and fatalism. Set against the melancholic backdrop of Venice, the story follows the mysterious interaction between a nobleman and a woman caught in an unspoken bond of passion and tragedy. With his signature Gothic elegance, Poe explores the depths of human emotion, capturing both beauty and despair in this compelling and tragic narrative.