Gothic Short Stories

Arthur Conan Doyle was the greatest genre writer Britain has ever produced. Throughout a long writing career, he drew on his own medical background, his travels, and his increasing interest in spiritualism and the occult to produce a spectacular array of Gothic tales. Many of Doyle's writings are recognized as the very greatest tales of terror. They range from hauntings in the polar wasteland to evil surgeons and malevolent jungle landscapes. This collection brings together over 30 of Conan Doyle's best Gothic tales

Haunted Castles is the definitive, complete collection of Ray Russell's masterful Gothic horror stories, including the famously terrifying novella trio of "Sardonicus", "Sanguinarius", and "Sagittarius", The characters that sprawl through Haunted Castles are frightful to the core: the heartless monster holding two lovers in limbo; the beautiful dame journeying down a damned road toward depravity (with the help of an evil gypsy); the man who must wear his fatal crimes on his face in the form of an awful smile.

Audible presents a special edition of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde narrated by Richard Armitage. With Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Richard Armitage tells the story of a conflicted man who seeks a remedy to free the monster inside him from the clutches of his conscience. Following his celebrated performance of David Copperfield, Armitage delivers another powerhouse performance as the narrator of this Gothic tale.

A ghostly presence in “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” desires revenge against a tyrannical husband. In “Mr. Jones”, Lady Jane Lynke inherits an estate unexpectedly, and can’t make sense of how to manage the servants - especially since the caretaker has been dead for decades, but keeps giving orders. Meanwhile, in “Afterward”, a newly wealthy American couple moves into a large, isolated house in southern England complete with a ghost...and the mysteries surrounding the husband’s business are slowly uncovered.

Here 19 classic tales from masters of the genre. The collection comprises 'Schalken the Painter' by J. S. Lefanu; 'Sredni Vashtar' by Saki (H. H. Munro); 'The Room in the Tower' by E. F. Benson; 'Charles Ashmore's Trail' by Ambrose Bierce; 'The Mark of the Beast' by Rudyard Kipling; 'The Castle of Ratcliffe Cross' by J. Wadham; 'The Bead Necklace' by Alice Perrin; 'The Oval Portrait' by Edgar Allan Poe; 'The Leather Funnel' by Arthur Conan Doyle; 'Berenice' by Edgar Allan Poe; and many more.

From Daphne du Maurier, “a writer of fearless originality” (The Guardian), comes a collection of her thirteen most mesmerizing tales—including iconic stories such as “The Birds” and “Don’t Look Now”—with an introduction by Stephen King. Daphne du Maurier is best known for...

Step back into the stories you thought you knew... and discover the darkness beneath. In Dark Fairy Tales Reimagined: 20 Twisted Versions of Classic Tales, beloved fairy tales are transformed into haunting, unsettling stories where magic comes at a price—and happy endings are never guaranteed. A glass slipper binds its wearer to a cursed fate. A hidden kingdom dances to keep an ancient evil asleep. A simple lie twists a boy into something no longer human. These are not the fairy tales of childhood. Each story drags familiar characters into shadowy worlds filled with betrayal, horror, and ...

Read the story that inspired the 2026 film starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi — the complete tale, retold for modern readers "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." You know the story. Or you think you do. On the wild Yorkshire moors, a foundling named Heathcliff and a girl named Catherine form a bond so fierce it will destroy everyone it touches — and outlast death itself. But you've never read it like this. Wuthering Heights in One Hour is a complete literary adaptation of Emily Brontë's masterpiece — not a summary, not a study guide, but the full story ...

Every tale of terror, every poem of unearthly beauty, every essay of dark philosophy — collected in one definitive volume. This is the complete and unabridged collection of Edgar Allan Poe's works: the gothic horror tales that invented a genre, the poems that still haunt the English language, the mystery stories that created the detective novel, and the critical essays that changed how we think about literature. Includes all tales of horror and suspense: "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Black Cat," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "...

John Glover reads a selection of unabridged short stories, including "The Lawnmower Man," from Stephen King's best-selling collection Night Shift...

Come on board for a Gothic journey in a funicular railway in Victorian England, a freight train in the Carpathian mountains, a high tech sky train in Bangkok, an underground railway in Tokyo. Visit stations which lure with the promise of safe shelter but harbour unexpected dangers. Meet the people who work on the tracks – stationmasters, porters, signal-men – and those who travel – commuters, tourists, dead bodies, murderers and ghosts. In this volume, editor Rayne Hall has collected twenty of the finest– and creepiest – railway tales. The book features the works of established ...

Welcome to Madison, Georgia, where the magnolias bloom, the tea is sweet, and the monsters are real. In this cozy horror anthology, the charming town of Madison hides secrets in its flowerbeds and shadows in its attics. Behind every wrought-iron fence and sun-warmed porch lies something unexpected: a banshee who quilts in the carriage house, a wight who prefers crossword puzzles to haunting, a wendigo who wears sweaters by the fire, and cryptids who just want someone to talk to. But don’t be fooled by the cobblestone streets and Southern charm. The ghouls here are real and love has a ...

Dare to enter Harmony House... if you can survive its curse. Nestled in the heart of Brooklyn, New York, Harmony House is a striking estate with an allure that draws people in—only to trap them in a web of terror. Five new owners have crossed its threshold, each unaware of the horrors waiting inside. What starts as a dream home quickly turns into a nightmare as they confront the malevolent spirits that haunt its halls. Each story reveals the twisted history of Harmony House through the eyes of its ill-fated residents. From terrifying apparitions to sinister forces that toy with the mind, ...

Watson chronicled Sherlock’s monsters. Eliza Vane uncovers what made them. When Holmes takes the Hartwood disappearance, professional enquirer Eliza Vane has already been working it for three weeks — through a different door, talking to different people. When a woman survives something that should not exist on a remote island, she waits twenty years before anyone files a report; longer still for someone to count the scars. When Mina Harker writes to a woman she has never met, it is to thank her — because both of them were in the room when others saved the day, and neither was asked ...

John Glover reads a selection of unabridged short stories, including "Graveyard Shift," from Stephen King's best-selling collection Night Shift...

In a world of shadows, love defies every curse. In Victorian London, a dark, forbidden love unfolds in this spellbinding gothic romance retelling of Beauty and the Beast. When the enigmatic Lord Ravenwood—cursed, tormented, and haunted by betrayal—encounters the spirited Lavinia Ashcroft, their fates become irrevocably entwined. Bound by secrets and driven by a relentless desire to defy an enchanted curse, their union becomes a battleground between the man and the beast within him. As Ravenwood’s monstrous past threatens to consume him, Lavinia’s mystical gift reveals hidden truths ...

The Ultimate Gothic Horror Collection is a fully indexed collection of classic gothic stories, read by four Audie-winning narrators. Included here are stories by Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sheridan Le Fanu, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe.

In this volume we examine Gothic short stories from the woman’s point of view. More usually in this genre the main examples are almost always given as male. Well, in this volume we prove that view needs severely testing. Here we explore works by classic women authors who, with the sheer breadth of their talents and narratives, can make mere men seem tame by comparison.

★★★★★ "Dark, seductive, and impossible to put down.” CARNAL SANCTUARY: NIGHT EMBRACE is a collection of interconnected paranormal short reads set during major holidays and pagan sabbats. Whether Halloween, Samhain, Valentine’s Day, or Imbolc, these short stories and novellas follow vampires, werewolves, shifters, witches, and fae as ancient rituals awaken desire, danger, and blood-bound magic. Designed for binge reading, Night Embrace delivers high-heat seasonal stories that stand alone while deepening the Carnal Sanctuary lore, while focusing on fan-favorite characters ...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that are difficult to achieve elsewhere. The Gothic short story is one of the most enduring of genres. In this volume we explore works by classic authors from all corners of Europe as they explore and exploit narratives with their undeniable talents.