Ann Radcliffe's orphaned heroine Emily St. Aubert finds herself imprisoned in her evil guardian Count Montoni's gloomy medieval fortress in the remote Apennines. Terror is the order of the day inside the walls of Udolpho, as Emily struggles against Montoni's rapacious schemes and the threat of her own psychological disintegration. A best-seller in its day and a potent influence on Sade, Poe, and other purveyors of eighteenth and nineteenth-century...

A Sicilian Romance (1790) is a novel by Ann Radcliffe. Published anonymously, Radcliffe's second novel is a tragic story of love and murder set in the sublime landscape of the Sicilian coast. Considered an essential work of Gothic fiction, A Sicilian Romance is an early example of her prowess as a leading novelist of suspense and the supernatural. "As I walked over the loose fragments of stone, I recurred, by a natural association of ideas, to the...

The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) is a novel by Eliza Parsons. Employing themes common to the popular genre of Gothic fiction, Parsons crafts a chilling tale of murder and mystery that remains uniquely entertaining to this day. Referred to as a "horrid" novel in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, The Castle of Wolfenbach was recognized as a terrifying precursor to such classics as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), often considered the quintessential...

This scandalous gothic horror novel is a thinly veiled portrayal of early nineteenth-century England's members of high society, which ultimately destroyed the reputation of its author Lady Caroline Lamb. Lamb disguises herself as the alluring and impulsive Lady Calantha, who's married to the respectable Lord Avondale (William Lamb). Yet when the lady meets the seductive Lord Glenarvon, an unflattering depiction of Lord Byron, her life takes a tumultuous...

Edith Wharton's haunting classic Ethan Frome is set in a small, isolated town in Massachusetts, exploring the depths of human emotion and the profound impact of choices made in the face of societal constraints. The story revolves around the titular character, Ethan Frome, a worn-down and introverted farmer whose life is bound by duty and responsibility. Trapped in a loveless marriage with his sickly and bitter wife, Zeena, Ethan's life takes an...

In an exploration of the societal limitations for women regarding marriage and property in the eighteenth century, this gothic masterpiece is an early work of feminist fiction. Emmeline is orphaned and raised in a grand castle in the English countryside by her uncle, Lord Montreville. The legitimacy of Emmeline's birth cannot be proven and so she has no property to inherit and no social standing with which to find herself a husband and security....

A haunting collection of classic short stories crafted by the visionary minds of thirteen pioneering women. Each tale in this carefully curated volume unveils the deliciously dark imaginations of classic literature's most beloved female authors. From Louisa May Alcott to Edith Nesbit to Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the gothic horror fiction of thirteen literary icons is featured in this macabre anthology. Unearth hidden horrors, psychological terrors,...

In a vivid tale of gothic horror and wartime terror, Charlotte Smith's evocative prose brings to life the haunting beauty of forbidden love against the backdrop of the French revolution. This volume is part of the Mothers of the Macabre series, celebrating the gothic horror masterpieces of pioneering women writers who played a pivotal role in shaping and advancing the genre. The Old Manor House presents the atmospheric world of the eighteenth-century...