Gothic Short Stories

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Four victims. One locked room. No way in. No way out. When Mr Gregory Winter agrees to spend a single night in a supposedly haunted shed for a hundred guineas, he’s desperate, in debt, and convinced it’s just a story. By morning, he’s dead—his throat slit, the door locked from the inside. Inspector Featherby is no stranger to murder. But this? This is something else. With each body found in the same chair, in the same impossible conditions, the case becomes a chilling puzzle with no solution. The only link between the victims: a gentleman named Noah Spencer—and a shed with a taste...

This volume contains all 22 of the fictional ghost stories previously published by H.E. Bulstrode between 2016 and 2022, although it omits his occult fiction. Drawing heavily upon British folklore, legend and history, these stories tap into a deep and shadowy past which seeps, sometimes erupts, into the present, whether that ‘present’ should be eleventh-century England, or today. These are ghost stories with a twist written in the ‘classic’ vein, which is to say that they contain not so much gore as a sense of the uncanny, often steeped in antiquarianism. Others possess a distinctly...

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, ...

A crumbling manor. A mysterious stepsister. A legacy of blood. When theology student Edmund Hale inherits Highgate Manor in 1845, he expects solemn halls and dusty portraits—not Elizabeth, his enigmatic Hungarian stepsister, and certainly not the rusted iron chair hidden in the cellar. But some inheritances are older—and darker—than bloodlines. The Iron Chair is a chilling gothic short story of legacy, obsession, and the horrors that linger in stone and silence.

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.

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.

Some witches heal. Some witches curse. Some never die. Step into the shadowed corners of magic with Whispers of the Coven, a haunting collection of witch stories where the line between power and peril is razor-thin. Inside, you’ll discover: 🕯️ A hidden village where every woman is born with a secret spell—one that can only be used once. 🌙 A forgotten grimoire that writes new spells in human blood. 🔥 A witch trial where the accused is more dangerous than the executioners. 📖 A bookshop that appears only to those with unfinished business with the dead. 💀 A curse that keeps...

Clara takes a job as a nanny for the children of the handsome, distant widower, Lord Magnus. Over time, her professional resolve begins to melt as she witnesses glimpses of his vulnerability. A connection forms between them, built on longing glances and accidental touches, and their intense, unspoken desires threaten to break through their professional boundaries.

Behind the white walls of Ashmere Hospital, something evil brews in the tea. Nurse Brenda Glenford is calm, capable, and quietly feared. Patients die under her care — not suddenly, but slowly, discreetly. A pendant from her aunt whispers of ancient duties, and Brenda listens. But when a professor uncovers her secret and a detective checks into the ward, Brenda’s careful order begins to crack. In this chilling psychological horror, the boundaries between healing and harm blur, and tea-time becomes a death sentence. The Killing Nurse is an entry in The Holloway Series, a dark exploration ...

He rang the bell for absolution. The frost answered instead. Graduate student Elias Greer came to a ruined mountain monastery for solitude, research, and escape from his past. But Saint Agatha’s is more than ivy and stone. It is a Veiled Place—where echoes speak truths not yet confessed, and the cold itself listens. Veyr, the frost wight of the belfry, has lingered for a century—starved for warmth, aching for devotion. His presence moves through the air like breath, his touch lingering in the frost that coils across mirrors and skin. Elias should resist. Instead, he kneels in ...

When autumn drapes itself over Madison, Georgia, the days shorten, the nights deepen, and something restless stirs beneath the magnolias. In this Southern town, history lingers in the bricks of old houses and whispers ride the wind through quiet streets. Some say it is only memory. Others know better. Spirits have a way of keeping company in Madison, whether you invite them or not. Haunting Season in Madison gathers nine cozy horror tales where the monstrous and the human meet in ways that will tug at your heart and raise gooseflesh on your arms. Some stories bring laughter, with goblins ...

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 ...

This is a story from the Fall of the House of Usher collection. The horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, with its dungeon of death, and the overhanging gloom on the House of Usher demonstrate unforgettably the unique imagination of Edgar Allan Poe. Unerringly, he touches upon some of our greatest nightmares: Premature burial, ghostly transformation, words from beyond the grave. Written in the 1840s, they have retained their power to shock and frighten even now.

London, 1855. Beneath the quiet order of a Russell Square hotel, Dana Greaves pours tea with ritual precision. Three guests have died. One more lies in wait. She serves with grace, speaks with care—and kills without remorse. In this chilling conclusion to The Holloway Legacy, Dana’s dark inheritance reaches its final act. As whispers grow and the walls close in, a constable draws near, and the past begins to stir. But Dana is no longer just a servant. She is a vessel. A keeper. A flame. And the final cup is almost ready.