'Salem's Lot
A writer goes home to Jerusalem's Lot and finds the neighbours have started keeping very strange hours.
The directory
Books: Gothic
Horror on the page: what each book is, who wrote it and how scary it gets.
Dracula
A young solicitor's business trip abroad turns into something he never signed up for.
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
A scientist stitches together a new kind of life, then can't face what he's made.
Interview with the Vampire
Anne Rice’s debut novel lets a vampire tell his life story to a reporter, with plenty of room for unease.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
A London solicitor investigates his old friend, a respectable doctor, and the violent man who holds an unsettling grip over him.
The Black Cat
A drunken man turns on the pet cat he once loved, with terrible consequences.
The Castle of Otranto
A haunted castle, medieval atmosphere and a feeling that the walls know something you do not.
The Damnation Game
Clive Barker's 1985 debut novel, a horror story about a deal that costs far more than anyone realises.
The Phantom of the Opera
A Gothic horror novel about a mysterious presence haunting the Paris Opera House.
The Queen of Spades
A Russian novella about a man drawn in by the promise of a card game secret that could make him rich.
The Shining
Stephen King's breakthrough horror novel, shaped by his own hotel stay and his fight with drink at the time.
The Tell-Tale Heart
A calm, precise confession from a narrator killing an old man over nothing but the look of his eye.