Gothic Classics

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841. Poe referred to it as a "tale of ratiocination" featuring the brilliant deductions of C. Auguste Dupin; it is today regarded as one of the first detective stories and is almost certainly the first locked-room mystery. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women.

First published in French as a serial in 1909, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage.

Dorian Gray, giovane e bellissimo dandy della società londinese del diciannovesimo secolo, plagiato e iniziato dall'amico esteta Lord Henry, esprime, contemplando un proprio ritratto, il desiderio di poter rimanere sempre giovane e bello. Per un terribile sortilegio è il dipinto a portare i segni dell'età che avanza e della decadenza umana e morale ...

El relato "El gato negro" se publicó por vez primera en el periódico United States Saturday Post, en 1843. El gato como símbolo del mal tiene una larga tradición en Occidente. En la supersticiosa Edad Media llegó incluso a representar a Satanás al visitar la tierra; era el animal de compañía de las brujas. En el romanticismo se puso de moda como animal literario por excelencia, por su aire misterioso, sus ojos relucientes y su aparente serenidad. El propio autor del relato, Edgar Allan Poe, tuvo en casa ese animal doméstico.

Elizabeth Gaskell, famed author of Cranford, is cherished for her incise social observations and portrayals of the changing nature of English life through the Industrial Revolution of the Victorian era. In Cousin Phillis, Paul Manning has only recently left home to work on the railway line for the dashing Mr Holdsworth. Lodging with an Independent Minister on the outskirts of London, he becomes acquainted with his distant cousins, where he is delighted to meet his genial relations, and not least his cousin Phyllis

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel which shocks us still. The sensibilities of its original Victorian readership may have blanched at the exoticism and barely disguised eroticism which drip from Wilde’s prose, but for us today who barely look twice at such things, we find something much more horrific at the heart of the book.

A masterpiece of Gothic horror and suspense that inspired such writers as H. P. Lovecraft, The Three Impostors is Machen’s famous collection of “weird tales” - a string of shocking short stories woven together with a fine narrative thread. The three impostors of the title are members of a secret society devoted to debauched pagan rites who weave a web of deception in the streets of London as they search for a missing Roman coin commemorating an infamous orgy by the Emperor Tiberius and close in on their prey: “the young man with spectacles”.

This is a story from the Fall of the House of Usher collection. The horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, with its dungeon of death, and the overhanging gloom on the House of Usher demonstrate unforgettably the unique imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. Unerringly, he touches upon some of our greatest nightmares: Premature burial, ghostly transformation, words from beyond the grave. Written in the 1840s, they have retained their power to shock and frighten even now.

El extraño caso del doctor Jekyll y el señor Hyde es una novela escrita por Robert Louis Stevenson, que trata acerca de un abogado, Gabriel John Utterson, que investiga la extraña relación entre su viejo amigo, el Dr. Henry Jekyll, y el misántropo Edward Hyde. El libro es conocido por ser una representación vívida de un trastorno psiquiátrico que hace que una misma persona tenga dos o más identidades o personalidades con características opuestas entre sí.

A London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The work is commonly associated with the rare mental condition often called "split personality", referred to in psychiatry as dissociative identity disorder, where within the same body there exists more than one distinct personality. In this case, there are two personalities within Dr. Jekyll, one apparently good and the other evil.

Après un périple éprouvant en Europe centrale, Jonathan Harker, un jeune homme de loi anglais parvient au château du comte Dracula, une bâtisse isolée dans les montagnes de Transylvanie. Il s'y rend à la demande de l'inquiétant aristocrate qui souhaite l'assistance de son cabinet pour s'installer à Londres. Durant son séjour, des évènements effarants font bientôt comprendre à Jonathan Harker qu'il est probablement perdu pour sa fiancée Mina Murray qui attend son retour à Londres.

I tre racconti che compongono "Il diavolo nella bottiglia" appartengono alla serie di racconti polinesiani, scritti quando Stevenson, minato dalla tisi, si era trasferito definitivamente nelle isole Samoa. Affascinato dall'esotismo del paesaggio e dal carattere della popolazione locale, lo scrittore ne riproduce i tratti caratteristici in una narrazione che unisce ai toni della favola la forte connotazione morale che aveva contraddistinto le sue opere precedenti.

After receiving a letter from his boyhood friend that he is suffering from some sort of debilitating illness, a man feels compelled to travel to a reclusive mansion to assist him. He learns that his friend and his deathly-ill sister are the last in the Usher line, slowly collapsing into madness. The Gothic mansion seems to have a bizarre metaphysical connection with the brother and sister, and there are incredibly strange occurrences that continue to happen late at night. Will this well-meaning friend survive another night in this macabre Gothic house of horror?

Sixteen modern fiction superstars shine a startling light on the romance and pain of the infamous literary pair Heathcliff and Cathy. Short stories to stir the heart and awaken vital conversation about love.

A baffling series of incidents at the majestic Paris Opera sparks frightening rumors about a mysterious opera ghost. Performers are ill-at-ease when they sit alone in their dressing rooms, alleging to have seen the enigma in evening clothes moving about in the shadows. Then a young and beautiful prima donna is visited by a masked "Angel of Music" who teaches her to sing and jealously demands her devotion—but with a price. With an increasing pattern of fear and violence, the phantom of the opera begins to strike, but always with a beautiful young performer at the center of his deadly desires.

El corazón delator (en inglés original The Tell-Tale Heart) es un cuento del escritor estadounidense Edgar Allan Poe clasificado en la narrativa gótica. La historia presenta a un narrador anónimo obsesionado con el ojo enfermo (que llama "ojo de buitre") de un anciano con el cual convive. El corazón delator es considerado generalmente un clásico de la literatura gótica, y una de las obras más importantes de su autor. Ha sido adaptado o servido de inspiración en numerosas ocasiones y en distintos medios.

Mary Shelley, recien salida de la adolescencia fue la companera del celebre poeta ingles Percy Shelley, con quien se fugo a Suiza, a pesar de estar el casado. Cuando su esposa se suicido, los dos amantes contrajeron matrimonio. En una reunion, a la que asistio Byron, este ultimo propuso que cada uno escribiera una historia de horror y la joven sorprendio a todos cuando llego con la historia de "Frankenstein, o el moderno Prometeo", un clasico de la literatura de horror.

Northanger Abbey, a satire of Gothic melodrama, is one of Jane Austen's most popular works. When Catherine Morland is launched into the politics and pitfalls of the Bath social season, she behaves with the cheerful open-mindedness of one of Jane Austen's most eligible classic heroines.

Wuthering Heights mengisahkan tentang cinta yang tak sampai antara Heathcliff dan Catherine Earnshaw. Ketika Catherine yang sangat dicintainya memutuskan untuk menikah dengan Edgar Linton yang merupakan saingan Heathcliff sejak kecil, Heathcliff pun melarikan diri dan kelak kembali sebagai pria kaya dan berpendidikan, lalu dia mulai menyusun rencana pembalasan dendam kepada keluarga Earnshaw dan Linton yang diyakininya telah menghancurkan hidupnya.

Seven years after the death of Edward Hyde, a stylish gentleman shows up in foggy London claiming to be Dr. Henry Jekyll. Only Mr. Utterson, Jekyll’s faithful lawyer and confidant, knows that he must be an impostor - because Jekyll was Hyde. But as the man goes about charming Jekyll’s friends and reclaiming the estate, and as the bodies of potential challengers start piling up, Utterson is left fearing for his life, and questioning his own sanity.