“Carmilla” By J. Sheridan Le Fanu
J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella Carmilla published in 1872 is a quick read, and one of the first vampire novels, later inspiring Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Carmilla follows a young girl named Laura living in a castle in Austria with her father. After a carriage accident outside their home, she and her father take in one of the victims of the accident, a girl named Carmilla, so that she might recover.
Carmila and Laura become close friends, but soon young girls and women begin dying in the nearby town, and suspicion falls upon Carmilla. Carmilla is both a classical vampire story employing tropes typical of the genre and also strangely ahead of its time. The relationship between Laura and Carmilla is blatantly romantic, and, unlike other novels of its time, Carmilla does not treat the relationship as sinful.
“The Phantom of the Opera” By Gaston Leroux
Partially inspired by real events at the Paris Opera, The Phantom of the Opera has become a part of popular culture in its own right, through Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical of the same name. The original novel is no less exciting, opening with suspicions around mysterious happenings at the opera house, believed to be the work of an entity known as the ‘Phantom of the Opera.’
Young dancer Christine Daae covers for the opera’s leading lady and is an instant success. She later reveals to a childhood friend that she is being tutored by a man she calls the ‘Angel of Music,’ believing him to be the ghost of her dead father. Soon, the Phantom becomes more demanding, trying to get Christine cast in more roles, and the opera house devolves into madness. The Phantom of the Opera is full of twists and turns that both entice and shock the reader and is the perfect pick for delving into the gothic genre head-on.
“Northanger Abbey” By Jane Austen
In Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen satirizes the gothic novels that were popular during the late 1700’s. Northanger Abbey follows a young girl, Catherine, who is obsessed with reading gothic literature and fancies herself to be a gothic heroine. When she goes to stay with her neighbors, she meets a boy named Henry and his sister. They invite her to stay with them at their home, Northanger Abbey.
Catherine soon is filled with suspicions toward her hosts and their father, and fancies herself a gothic heroine, launching her own investigation around the house. A combination of the gothic genre with classic Jane Austen characters and romances, Northanger Abbey is perfect for those looking for a lighter book to get them in the fall mood.
“Don’t Look Now” By Daphne Du Maurier
Daphne Du Maurier wrote many of the most terrifying novels of the twentieth century, playing with ordinary human emotions and turning them into the stuff of nightmares. However, in her short stories, she is unburdened by the realism of her novels and enters into worlds full of mystery and mysticism, prophecy and time travel, as well as ghosts and femme fatales.
Several stories from this collection have been adapted into films, most notably The Birds, which inspired the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name. These stories are perfect for anyone looking for a mix of different horror stories all found in one spot.
“The Hacienda” By Isabel Canas
The Hacienda is set after the Mexican War of Independence, following a recently orphaned girl named Beatriz who accepts the first offer of marriage she receives, desperate for the security and home her new husband provides. However, when her husband, Don Rodolfo Solorzano, leaves her alone in his home, she begins having strange dreams and becomes curious about the death of Rodolfo’s first wife.
Beatriz is certain that something is deeply wrong with Rodolfo’s home, her fears are dismissed by almost everyone she knows, except for the village priest, who is willing to assist her in her attempts to battle the evil she is sure lies within the home. The Hacienda has roots in other novels of the gothic genre, like Rebecca and TheCastle of Otranto, but goes further than its predecessors with its explicitly feminist message.