Discover published sets by community

Author: Horace Walpole. Synopsis: Considered the first Gothic novel, it blends elements of real and imagined history, exploring the curses and prophecies surrounding the heirs of the Castle of Otranto.

Author: Washington Irving. Synopsis: This story, set in a Dutch settlement in New York State, is about the superstitious schoolmaster Ichabod Crane and his terrifying encounter with the legendary headless horseman.

Author: James Malcolm Rymer. Synopsis: This lengthy penny dreadful tells the tale of Sir Francis Varney, a vampire influenced by Romantic literary themes.

Author: Emily Brontë. Synopsis: The narrative centers on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how it affects the people around them.

Author: Victor Hugo. Synopsis: Set in 1482, it tells the story of a gypsy girl named Esmeralda and the deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo in medieval Paris.

Author: Gaston Leroux. Synopsis: Telling the story of a mysterious and disfigured composer who haunts the grand Paris Opera House, this novel is a love tragedy involving the phantom and the lovely young soprano, Christine.

Author: Oscar Wilde. Synopsis: The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Dorian wishes that he could always stay young and beautiful instead of the portrait, which then begins to age and reflect his increasingly immoral actions.

Author: John William Polidori. Synopsis: The tale follows a young Englishman and his friend Lord Ruthven, who turns out to be a vampire. It is a pivotal work because it brought the vampire into the realm of literature.

Author: Mary Shelley. Synopsis: The novel tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.

Author: Jane Austen. Synopsis: This novel is a satirical Gothic fiction that tells the story of Catherine Morland and her dangerously sweet relationships in the light of her Gothic misinterpretations of her friends and acquaintances.

Author: Ann Radcliffe. Synopsis: This novel deals with the themes of love, tyranny, and persecution, following the fortunes of the beautiful Ellena Rosalba and the Catholic Church's attempts to control her destiny.

Author: Bram Stoker. Synopsis: This novel introduces the character of Count Dracula and presents his attempt to move from Transylvania to England to spread the undead curse, and the battle between Dracula and a small group led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.

Author: Ann Radcliffe. Synopsis: The novel follows the fortunes of Emily St. Aubert who suffers, among other misadventures, the death of her father, supernatural terrors in a gloomy castle, and the machinations of an Italian brigand.

Author: Edgar Allan Poe. Synopsis: This short story details the mental breakdown and eventual death of the last male in the Usher line and the accompanying disappearance of the family mansion.

Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Synopsis: The story is narrated by a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla, with whom she forms a close bond.

Author: Henry James. Synopsis: This novella tells the story of a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted.

Author: Charles Maturin. Synopsis: John Melmoth, a scholar, sells his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life and spends the time searching for someone to take over the pact.

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson. Synopsis: This novella follows a London lawyer named John Gabriel Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde.

Author: Charlotte Brontë. Synopsis: This novel follows the life of Jane Eyre, an orphaned girl, from her painful childhood to her love affair with Mr. Rochester, the brooding and mysterious owner of Thornfield Hall.