A sense of dark mystery, historical flair and/or gothic horror characterizes
most of these readings. While by no means an exhaustive list, it represents
some of the favourites from our members' libraries.

We think you'll enjoy them too . . . .
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CLASSIC GOTHIC FICTION: Early Works, Romanticism through Pre-Raphaelitism

Le Morte d'Arthur (Sir Thomas Malory, 1483)
The Castle of Otranto (Horace Walpole, 1765)
Bradford Abbey (Susan Minifie Gunning, 1768)
Faust, part 1 (Goethe, 1770)
Vathek (William Beckford, 1786)
Ethelinde, or The Recluse of the Lake (Charlotte Smith, 1789)
Tancred: A Tale of Ancient Times (Joseph Fox, 1791)
The Mysteries of Udolpho (Ann Radcliffe, 1794)
The Banished Man (Charlotte Smith, 1794)
The Abbey of Clugney (Mary Meeke, 1795)
The Monk (Matthew Lewis, 1796)
The Italian, or The Confessional of the Black Penitents (Ann Radcliffe, 1797)
Wieland (Charles Brockden Brown, 1798)
Wake Not the Dead (Ludwig Tieck, 1800)
The Ruins of Tivoli: A Romance (Francis Clifford, 1804)
Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer (Charlotte Dacre, 1805)
The Wood Daemon, or The Clock Has Struck (Matthew Lewis, 1807)
The Demon of Sicily: A Romance (Edward Montague, 1807)
Manfroné, or The One-Handed Monk (Mary-Ann Radcliffe, 1809)
St. Irvine, or The Rosicrucian (Percy Shelley, 1811)
Manfred (Lord Byron, 1817)
Night Pieces (E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1817)
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818)
Nightmare Abbey (Thomas Love Peacock, 1818)
Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen, 1818)
The Vampyre (Dr. Polidori, 1819)
Melmoth the Wanderer (Charles Maturin, 1820)
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (Thomas DeQuincey, 1821)
Valperga (Mary Shelley, 1823)
The Abbot of Montserrat, or The Pool of Blood (William Child Green, 1826)
Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft (Sir Walter Scott, 1830)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor Hugo, 1831)
Faust, part 2 (Goethe, 1831)
MS found in a Bottle (Edgar Allen Poe, 1839)
Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allen Poe, 1839)
The Overcoat (Nikolai Gogol, 1842)
The Tell-Tale Heart (Edgar Allen Poe, 1843)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas (père), 1844)
Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte, 1847)
The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850)
The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins, 1860)
Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1861)
Dracula (Bram Stoker, 1897)
The Turn of the Screw (Henry James, 1898)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde, 1898)

MODERN FICTION: Contemporary Gothic and Horror

Red Harvest (Dashiell Hammet, 1929)
Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier, 1938)
The Dunwich Horror (H.P. Lovecraft, 1945)
The Deadly Percheron (John Franklin Bardin, 1946)
Naked Lunch (William Burroughs, 1959)
A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess, 1962)
A Candle in Her Room (adolescent) (Ruth M. Arthur, 1966)
Carrie (Stephen King, 1974)
The Shining (Stephen King, 1975)
The Vampire Chronicles (Anne Rice, 1976-?)
Ghost Story (Peter Straub, 1979)
The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco, 1980)
The Hunger (Whitley Strieber, 1981)
Necromancer (William Gibson, 1984)
Perfume (Patrick Suskind, 1989)
The Sonja Blue Collection (Nancy A. Collins, 1989-2002)
Possession (A.S. Byatt, 1990)
The Lives of the Mayfair Witches (Anne Rice, 1990-1994)
Kicking Tomorrow (Daniel Richler, 1991)
Mrs. De Winter (sequel to Rebecca) (Susan Hill, 1993)
Electricity (Victoria Glendenning, 1995)
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman, 1996)
A Face at the Window (Dennis McFarland, 1997)
Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood, 2000)
Slammerkin (Emma Donoghue, 2000)
Angels and Demons (Dan Brown, 2000)
The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown, 2003)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke, 2004)

MODERN FICTION: Historical Fiction by Modern Writers

Young Bess (Elizabeth I pre-reign) (Margaret Irwin, 1944)
The Concubine (the story of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII) (Norah
Lofts, 1963)
The Queen's Confession: The Story of Marie Antoinette (Victoria Holt, 1968)
The French Lieutenant's Woman (John Fowles, 1969)
The King's Pleasure (the story of Katharine of Aragon, first wife of Henry
VIII) (Norah Lofts, 1969)
Lovers All Untrue (Norah Lofts, 1970)
A Rose For Virtue (the story of Hortense Beauharnais, Napoleon's
stepdaughter) (Norah Lofts, 1971)
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1983)

DARK COMICS and PERIODICALS

Tales from the Crypt (launched 1947 by Entertaining Comics)
The Crow (James O'Barr, 1989)
The Sandman Series (Neil Gaiman, 1989-1996)
Rue Morgue Magazine
Morbid Curiosity Magazine
Black Petals Horror Science Fiction Magazine

NON-FICTION
for Enigmatic Intellectuals and the Morbidly Curious

The Vampire Book - The Encyclopedia of the Undead (J. Gordon Melton, 1998)
Vampire Gallery: A Who's Who of the Undead (J. Gordon Melton, 1998)
Reflections on Dracula (Elizabeth Miller, 1997)
Dracula: The Shade and the Shadow (Elizabeth Miller, 1998)
Dracula: Sense and Nonsense (Elizabeth Miller, 2000)
The Goth Bible (Nancy Kilpatrick, 2004)
The Corpse: A History (Christine Quigley)
Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? (Kenneth V. Iserson)
Our Name is Melancholy: The Complete Books of Azrael (Leilah Wendell)
Love Never Dies: The Journal of a Necrophile (Leilah Wendell)
The Gender of Death: A Cultural History in Art and Literature (Karl S. Guthke)
Ghost: Investigating the Other Side (Katherine Ramsland)
Cemetery Stories (Katherine Ramsland)
RIP: The Complete Book of Death & Dying (Constance Jones)
Corpses, Coffins & Crypts: A History of Burial (Penny Colman)
Death & the Afterlife (Brian Innes)
Man Answers Death: An Anthology of Poetry (ed. Corliss Lamont)
Death & Western Thought (Jaques Choron)
The Hour of Our Death (Philippe Aries)
Silent City on Hill: Landscape of Memory & Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery
(Blanche Linden-Ward)
Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery (Kenneth T. Jackson)
The Space of Death: A Study of Funerary Architecture, Decoration & Urbanism
(Michael Ragon)
Going Out In Style: The Architecture of Eternity (Douglas Keister)
New Orleans Architecture: Volume 3 - The Cemeteries (Huber, McDowell,
Christovich)
New Orleans Cemeteries: Life in the Cities of the Dead (Robert & Mason
Florence)
Saving Graces (David Robinson)
Secure the Shadow: Death & Photography in America (Jay Ruby)
Sleeping Beauties: Memorial Photography in America (Stanley Burns)
Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin de Siecle Culture
(Bram Dijkstra)

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