Gothic Classics

Published a year before her death at the age of 30, Emily Bronte's only novel is set in the wild, bleak Yorkshire Moors. Depicting the relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights creates a world of its own, conceived with an instinct for poetry and for the dark depths of human psychology. Emily Jane Bronte was born July 30, 1818 at Thornton in Yorkshire. Emily's mother died in 1821 and her two eldest sisters died in 1825, leaving Emily, her brother and two sisters to be raised by their aunt. Later all three daughters were to publish poems and stories.

Washington Irving was an 18th century American short story writer, historian, and diplomat. He was born into a merchant family of Scottish/English descent and was the youngest of 11 children. Irving was one of the first American writers to become popular in Europe. He was admired by some of the best-known British writers, including Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, and Walter Scott.

Per gli amanti del brivido e dei classici horror: Dracula...

Was a noose tightening around a horrified Deborah Foster? It was the night of evil ritual. The worshippers of the devil danced around the ruined abbey, now transformed into a temple of terror. Deborah had come there hoping to unmask her sister’s killer. Suddenly against her will, Deborah felt herself succumbing tothe unholy spell woven by the frenzied witches. Relentlessly they began to encircle her. Panic gripped her for she knew they had chosen her as their next victim.

In the classic Wuthering Heights, Catherine is forced to choose between passionate, tortured gypsy Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton. Catherine surrenders to the expectations of her class and sets off a domino effect with lasting consequences. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal are visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the lovers tortured past.

El Extraño caso del Dr. Jekyll y Mr. Hyde (a veces abreviado simplemente a El Dr. Jekyll y Mr. Hyde) es una novela escrita por Robert Louis Stevenson, publicada por primera vez en inglés en 1886, cuyo título original es The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 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.

Extraviado en una tormenta en un rocoso páramo inglés, un amable viajero llamado Lockwood queda fascinado con la historia que le narra Nelly acerca de Cumbres Borrascosas, una lóbrega mansión cercana. Mientras el viento ruge en el exterior, el fatigado visitante escucha la triste historia de Heathcliff, un criado, y su inocente amor por Cathy, un espíritu libre que nunca llegó a hacer realidad su fiera pasión por él, porque cuando Heathcliff volvió en su busca después de mucho tiempo intentando hacer fortuna, se encontró a Cathy ya casada con un joven de la alta sociedad.

In Edgar Allan Poe's short and turbulent life, he laid the groundwork for the genre of modern horror and, almost as an aside, invented the modern detective story.

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.

Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte's only novel. Written between October 1845 and June 1846, Wuthering Heights was published in 1847 under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell"; Bronte died the following year, aged 30. Wuthering Heights and Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey were accepted by publisher Thomas Newby before the success of their sister Charlotte's novel, Jane Eyre.

Edgar Allan Poe's early literary works were poetic, but he quickly turned to prose. He worked for several magazines and journals till in January 1845, The Raven was published and became an instant classic. Poe was also an early proponent of the detective story and announced his entry to this genre with the classic short story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'.

Мрачный, исполненный мистического ужаса роман о священнослужителе, продавшем душу дьяволу ради любви женщины.Мэтью Грегори Льюис (1775 – 1818) был известен прежде всего, как драматург и поэт круга Байрона и Шелли.

Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece of the duality of good and evil in man's nature sprang from the darkest recesses of his own unconscious—during a nightmare from which his wife awakened him, alerted by his screams. More than a hundred years later, this tale of the mild-mannered Dr Jekyll and the drug that unleashes his evil, inner persona—the loathsome, twisted Mr Hyde—has lost none of its ability to shock. Its realistic police-style narrative chillingly relates Jekyll's desperation as Hyde gains control of his soul.

The governess begins seeing a man around the house, and a woman down by the lake. The maid of the house tells the governess that the descriptions sound like the former governess and the valet. Strange things begin to happen, leading the governess to believe that the family is haunted. She is convinced that the ghosts are pandering to the children; yet the children deny being able to see or hear anything unusual.

The story is set in Padua and follows botanist Giacomo Rappaccini’s garden of poisonous plants. A student from the university of Padua falls for a maiden in the luscious garden, but he soon learns some troubling information about his beloved’s true nature.

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.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is Edgar Allen Poe’s renowned and chilling tale of murder and terror, told by a nameless homicidal madman, brought to life in this audiobook edition. This short literary masterpiece is often considered a classic of the Gothic fiction genre, and is one of Poe's best known short stories. "The Tell-Tale Heart" influenced later stream-of-consciousness fiction and helped secure the author’s reputation as master of the macabre.

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.

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”.

Stylish gentlemen and ladies await their carriages in the Victorian London night. But lurking in the shadows is one of the creatures of the night, one who brings chilling fear to those he encounters, a man who cannot die yet must prey upon the blood of others to prolong his doomed existence...the vampire Dracula.