The gothic tale has been with us for over 200 years, and this collection aims to illustrate the continuing strength of this fictional tradition from the late 18th century to the present day. Gothic fiction is generally identified from Horace Walpole's "Castle of Otranto" and the works of Ann Radcliffe, and with heroes and heroines menaced by feudal villains amid crumbling ruins. While the repertoire of claustrophobic settings, gloomy themes, and threatening atmosphere established the gothic genre, later writers from Poe onwards achieved an ever greater sophistication, and a shift in emphasis from cruelty to decadence. Modern gothic is distinguished by its imaginative variety of voice, from the chilling depiction of a disordered mind to the sinister suggestion of vampirism.

Contents:

• Sir Bertrand: A Fragment (1773) by Anna Laetitia Aikin
• The Poisoner of Montremos (“Remarkable Narrative”, 1791) by Richard Cumberland
• The Friar’s Tale (1792) Anonymous
• Raymond: A Fragment (1799) by Juvenis
• The Parricide Punished (1799, first published in French in 1782) Anonymous
• The Ruins of the Abbey of Fitz-Martin Anonymous
• The Vindictive Monk; or, The Fatal Ring (1802) by Isaac Crookenden
• The Astrologer’s Prediction, or The Maniac’s Fate (1826) Anonymous
• Andreas Vesalius the Anatomist (1833 - French title: Don Andréa Vésalius, L’Anatomiste) by Petrus Borel; trans. by Chris Baldick
• Lady Eltringham or The Castle of Ratcliffe Cross (1836) by J. Wadham
• The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe
• A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family (1839) by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
• Rappaccini’s Daughter (1844) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Selina Sedilia (1865) by Bret Harte
• Jean-ah Poquelin (1875) by George Washington Cable
• Olalla (1885) by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Barbara of the House of Grebe (1890) by Thomas Hardy
• Bloody Blanche (1892. French title:“Blanche La Sanglante”) by Marcel Schwob; trans. by Chris Baldick
• The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Stetson
• The Adventure of the Speckled Band (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Hurst of Hurstcote (1893) by E. Nesbit
• A Vine on a House (1905) by Ambrose Bierce
• Jordan’s End (1923) by Ellen Glasgow
• The Outsider (1926) by H.P. Lovecraft
• A Rose for Emily (1930) by William Faulkner
• A Rendezvous in Averoigne (1931) by Clark Ashton Smith
• The Monkey (1934) by Isak Dinesen
• Miss de Mannering of Asham (1935) by F.M. Mayor
• The Vampire of Kaldenstein (1938) by Frederick Cowles
• Clytie (1941) by Eudora Welty
• Sardonicus (1961) by Ray Russell
• The Bloody Countess (1968. Spanish title: “Acerca de la Condesa Sangrienta”) by Alejandra Pizarnik; trans. by Alberto Manguel
• The Gospel According to Mark (1970) by Jorge Luís Borges; trans. by Norman Thomas di Giovanni
• The Lady of the House of Love (1975) by Angela Carter
• Secret Observations on the Goat-Girl (1988) by Joyce Carol Oates
• Blood Disease (1988) by Patrick McGrath
• If You Touched My Heart (1991) by Isabel Allende

Edited by Chris Baldick.