When you’re reading a ‘top gothic novels’ article online, you’ve most likely noticed that pretty much the same books are on every list.
It usually starts with Dracula, goes on to include Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Mysteries of Udolpho; then, onto Wuthering Heights; while even The Castle of Otranto has managed to find a seat.
After that, the list pivots into some modern gothic novels that were published in the last five years and finally includes Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
Of course, you can’t really blame them. Tales like Dracula and Frankenstein are timeless and basically the Iron Man and Captain America of gothic fiction.
But when many superb gothic tales are left out simply because nobody reads enough essays by H.P. Lovecraft, that leaves many people like yourself with empty space on your bookshelves. That’s the saddest space of all.
Read on. Fill your shelves. Scare yourself.
1. Varney the Vampire (1847)
Though it sounds like a book you’d find in the kids section at Barnes and Noble, this is actually a seminal tale in the history of vampire fiction.
The penny dreadful was written by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, and follows Sir Francis Varney, a vampire who is haunted by his condition and hates his undead nature. It was the first story to introduce vampire tropes such as sharp fangs and superhuman strength.
2. The Mummy! (1827)
Mary Shelley wasn’t the only young woman with a knack for the macabre running around 19th century England. Jane Webb (later Jane Loudon) wrote this futuristic/steampunk/gothic/quasi-horror Egyptian adventure when she was only 20.
Set in the year 2126, the novel tells of the reanimated mummy of Cheops (Khufu), who gets himself embroiled in the goings-on of a futuristic London.
Automaton lawyers, women who wear fiery ornaments in their hair, and houses that move off their foundations via steam-power are just a few of the concepts introduced alongside the mummy, making this one of the strangest novels to ever grace your bookshelf.
3. Carmilla (1872)
Many people have been introduced to the character of Carmilla by the Castlevania media franchise, though most of them don’t realize that she’s been terrorizing literature for the last 150 years.
Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella tells of Carmilla as she befriends a lonely girl who lives with her father in a gothic castle. The ensuing terror involves a costume ball, mysterious paintings, a vampire hunter, and overt lesbian overtones that marked the creation of the prototype female vampire—all predating Dracula by twenty-five years.
4. The Phantom Ship (1839)
This book has a one-eyed demon (literally) pirate in it.
I could just leave it at that, but the story sounds so much like a leaked plot for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I can’t resist.
In a nautical turn for the gothic novel, a young man travels the globe in search of the Flying Dutchman in order to free his father, who has been cursed to captain the ship for eternity. Written by a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, Frederick Marryat no doubt used many of the stories heard in his maritime career as the basis for the book.
Not only that, but one chapter contains one of the first stories to ever feature a female werewolf.
Cool.
5. The String of Pearls a.k.a Sweeney Todd (1847)
A little backwards history…
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street starring Johnny Depp was based on the 1979 musical of the same name. That musical was in turn based on the 1973 (non-musical) play of the same name, which was in turn based on the many plays that had been produced since before the original story, The String of Pearls, had even finished it’s run as a serialized novel in 1847.
Sweeney’s a popular guy.
Another Victorian penny dreadful, the actual identity of the author (or authors) of the story is still unknown. The gothic tale is often attributed to the writers of Varney the Vampire, James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest.
Whoever the authors were, may they be forever blessed for giving us the timeless combination of straight razors and human meat-pies.
6. The Beetle (1897)
Having a normal-sized beetle crawl on you can be uncomfortable enough, but having a scarab-like creature from ancient Egypt crawl onto you would probably make you abandon any plans you ever had of becoming an Egyptologist.
Richard Marsh published this gothic book the same year that Bram Stoker unveiled Dracula, with the Beetle initially outselling the vampire tale by a large margin. The story follows a group of characters who set out to defeat the titular Beetle, a bizarre shapeshifting creature from Egypt who has ties to a cult of Isis.
7. The Vampyre (1819)
Lord Byron came up with the basic story for this vampire tale during the same story-telling contest that produced Frankenstein. His doctor (who was also present), John William Polidori, felt inspired and wrote his own version of the story.
This produced the gothic novella that set the stage for the quintessential suave vampire stock character. In it, the undead Lord Ruthven introduces himself into polite English society, but gets a bit hungry on the way, leading to plenty of bloody encounters.
Next time you go to see your doctor for a check up, see if you can brainstorm some ideas for a gothic novel.
8. The Monk (1796)
If you’ve read many of the early gothic stories, you’ve no doubt found that many of the “supernatural” events in the plot are given a rational explanation by the end. It can sometimes be a bit disappointing (looking at you, Ann Radcliffe).
Matthew Gregory Lewis apparently thought the same thing and said “To hell with that!”
This produced The Monk, where the terror is real, the black magic is real, and watch out because there’s literally a bloody ghost nun. It all revolves around Ambrosio, a devout monk who finds that a woman’s beauty can make you—not so devout. The last chapter of the book is straight up horror movie material.
9. The Mysteries of London (1845)
When you’ve read all the Dickens books and need a bit more debauchery in your reading, this is where you end up.
This sprawling epic was one of the best-selling Victorian era books of all time, due to its gothic nature and sensationalist content involving mutilations, body-snatching, murder, and domestic abuse. There are many different plots in the story, which each reveal some form of corruption that ran rampant in London.
The book was an English take on the French novel The Mysteries of Paris (1843) by Eugène Sue.
And “sprawling” does indeed mean “sprawling”—an entire 2,000+ pages of it. Author George W. M. Reynolds wrote most of the narrative, while two additional authors completed it.
That’s a lot of corruption.
10. The Door of the Unreal (1919)
This is often called the “Dracula” of werewolf stories, since author Gerald Bliss presents it as casebook ‘evidence’ in the same way that Dracula is composed as a series of letters (epistolary novel).
The casebook concerns Scotland Yard and a visiting American as their investigation of bizarre disappearances turns up lycanthropic results.
The only problem is that the “werewolf” aspect is meant to be a mystery to the characters in the story, so it’s hard to be surprised when every edition for the last hundred years has marketed the book as “a werewolf classic!”
As a result, much of the novel might feel a bit on the “slow burn” side as you wait for the characters to catch up to what you, the reader, already know. But if you’re a true werewolf fan looking to wash out the bad taste of all those Underworld sequels, it’s one for the bookshelf.
11. Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)
Talk about buyer’s remorse.
For an extra 150 years of life on earth, Melmoth sold his soul to devil and now wanders the globe searching for someone to take over his pact. As you can imagine, there aren’t many takers.
Charles Maturin wrote Melmoth’s wanderings as a series of stories-within-the-story, so that the tale of the main character is steadily revealed. If that’s not your cup of storytelling device you may want to may your pact elsewhere.
Otherwise, the novel has been referenced by authors such as Oscar Wilde, H.P. Lovecraft, and Michael Moorcock as a prime example of gothic literature. I’d say those are some respectable critics.
12. Vathek (1786)
Reading Vathek is like reading the Arabian Nights after having just watched The Shining.
While not set in a traditional “gothic” atmosphere, there’s plenty of ghostly, supernatural, and literal hellish occurrences happening here as the Caliph Vathek attempts to obtain universal knowledge.
Author William Beckford was primarily an art collector, but thank the ifrits that he took a break from purchasing antique vases and decided to write a novel featuring jinn and the demon Eblis.
Why nobody has made this into a movie yet I’ll never understand.
13. St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian (1811)
The quest for meaning and human companionship is one we can all relate to. But throw in some bandits, alchemy, and a member of a secret society and now we’re talking “gothic.”
St. Irvyne was Percy Bysshe Shelley’s second stab at the gothic narrative, after Zastrozzi in 1810. The main character, Wolfstein, is a conflicted wanderer who crosses paths with a Rosicrucian name Ginotti, who appears to know a thing or two about immortality.
If reading about secret societies is how you kick back on the weekends, then take a break from Manly P. Hall and The Secret History of the World and give Shelley a chance on your bookshelf.
14. The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793)
It’s no wonder Jane Austen counted The Castle of Wolfenbach among the seven “horrid novels” referred to in Northanger Abbey—it’s got it all.
An ancient castle, mysterious chambers, a perplexing mystery, and a young orphan heroine at the root of it all. Author Eliza Parsons does take it into BBC drama territory with aristocratic house parties and romantic entanglements, so beware if you’re going for a straight tale of terror.
But if you’ve been on the lookout for a cross between Pride and Prejudice and Alfred Hitchcock, welcome to Wolfenbach.
15. The Great God Pan (1894)
On the spectrum of writers who spent their entire lives trying to write stories that disturb you, Arthur Machen falls somewhere between Poe and Lovecraft.
The tale of Pan is an account of one Dr. Raymond, who hopes to participate in the sensations of the spirit world. He begins experiments that will open an experience that ancient people called “seeing the great god, Pan.”
With horror and early science fiction elements thrown in for good measure, this gothic tale has been cited by Stephen King himself as “one of the best horror stories ever written….”.
While this may be akin to a film critic calling Citizen Kane one of the greatest movies ever (taking into account what passed as “shocking” back in the day) it still makes for a creepy read and an invaluable piece of darkhouse deco.
