18 books like The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales

What to read after The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead Jeffrey Eugenides · 2008 · ★ 3.7 · 587p · ≈ 19h · Moderate A collection of love story excerpts from classic literary works, culled by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Middlesex, includes selections by such writers as Alice Munro, William Faulkner, and Milan Kundera, in a volume published to benefit the McSweeney literacy project 826 Chicago. Shares: Gentleman's Agreements, Mentally ill women, Nonlinear Narrative, Tradition

The Best Short Stories of the Modern Age -- Revised Douglas Angus · 1974 · 334p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Tell-tale Heart/ Edgar Allan Poe The jewels / Guy de Maupassant Gooseberries / Anton Chekhov The tree of knowledge / Henry James A clean, well-lighted place / Ernest Hemingway Youth / Joseph Conrad The rocking-horse winner / D.H. Lawrence Bliss / Katherine Mansfield The dead / James Joyce Little Herr Friedemann / Thomas Mann Sophistication / Sherwood Anderson The story of my dovecot / Isaac… Shares: Gentleman's Agreements, Mentally ill women, Nonlinear Narrative, Tradition

The Faulkner Reader William Faulkner · 1954 · 682p · ≈ 22h · Moderate Shares: Gentleman's Agreements, Nonlinear Narrative, Tradition, Allegory Shares: Gentleman's Agreements, Nonlinear Narrative, Tradition, Allegory

Fiction R. S. Gwynn · 1993 · ★ 4.0 · 356p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Masque of the Red Death / Edgar Allan Poe -- The necklace / Guy de Maupassant -- The storm / Kate Chopin -- The lady with the pet dog / Anton Chekhov -- Roman fever / Edith Wharton -- Paul's case / Willa Cather -- The dead / James Joyce -- The horse dealer's daughter / D.H. Lawrence -- The jilting of Granny Weatherall -- A rose for Emily / William… Shares: Gentleman's Agreements, Nonlinear Narrative, Tradition, Allegory

Never Whistle at Night Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. · 2023 · ★ 3.8 · 444p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear—and… Shares: Paranormal, Short Stories, Horror

Ghost story Peter Straub · 1979 · ★ 3.9 · 507p · ≈ 16h · Moderate In a seedy motel in Florida, a young man holds captive a little girl in a soiled pink dress. He is anxious, tormented, introspective. She is calm, passive, strangely detached. She says her name is Angie Maule. Shares: Paranormal, Horror, Mystery

It Stephen King · 1986 · ★ 4.2 · 1105p · ≈ 36h · Challenging "It" is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King. "It" was his 22nd book and his 17th novel written under his own name. The story follows the experiences of seven children as they are terrorized by an evil entity that exploits the fears of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey. "It" primarily appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown to attract its preferred… Shares: Nonlinear Narrative, Horror

The September House Carissa Orlando · 2023 · ★ 3.9 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Moderate When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would… Shares: Paranormal, Horror, Mystery

Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë · 1847 · ★ 4.2 · 468p · ≈ 15h · Challenging The novel is set somewhere in the north of England. Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations and oppression; her time as the governess of Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her… Shares: Mentally ill women, Drama

Coldheart Canyon Clive Barker · 2001 · ★ 3.7 · 681p · ≈ 22h · Moderate Aging star Todd Pickett flees to a secret corner of Hollywood to heal from botched plastic surgery and discovers that his newfound hideaway is in fact haunted by ghosts from the 1920s. Shares: Recluses, Horror

This Year It Will Be Different Maeve Binchy · 1996 · ★ 3.6 · 263p · ≈ 8h · Moderate From the New York Times bestselling author of Circle of Friends and The Glass Lake comes This Year It Will Be Different, a stunning new work that brings us the magic and spirit of Christmas in fifteen stories filled with Maeve Binchy's trademark wit, charm, and sheer storytelling genius. Instead of nostalgia, Binchy evokes contemporary life; instead of Christmas homilies, she offers truth; and… Shares: Change, Short Stories

Everville Clive Barker · 1994 · ★ 4.0 · 643p · ≈ 21h · Moderate "Our most accomplished contemporary purveyor of horror fiction strikes again in Everville, a tale of worlds in conflict. . . . [Barker's] extravagantly unconventional inventions are ingenious refractions of our common quest to experience and understand the mysterious world around us and the mysteries within ourselves."  — New York Times Book ReviewFrom master storyteller and New York… Shares: Horror, Mystery

The Room In The Dragon Volant Sheridan Le Fanu · 2002 · 144p · ≈ 4h · Moderate The Room in the Dragon Volant is somewhat unusual for le Fanu, since it’s not really a supernatural tale. It does however have plenty of gothic elements and some genuine horror, and it’s an ingenious and entertaining tale. Shares: Paranormal

Cameos Marie Corelli · 1895 · ★ 3.4 · 291p · ≈ 9h · Challenging The FICTION & PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from some of the 18th and 19th century’s most talented writers. Written for a range of audiences, these works are a treasure for any curious reader looking to see the world through the eyes of ages past. Beyond the main body of… Shares: Paranormal

Timon of Athens William Shakespeare · 1771 · 96p · ≈ 3h · Demanding ''The Fugitive, Study for Timon of Athens'', [[Thomas Couture (c. 1857)]] Shares: Recluses, Drama

Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang · 2002 · ★ 4.3 · 316p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Ted Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF. Now,… Shares: Change, Short Stories

Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand · 1897 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Challenging A Representation at the Hotel de Bourgogne. The hall of the Hotel de Bourgogne, in 1640. A sort of tennis-court arranged and decorated for a theatrical performance. The hall is oblong and seen obliquely, so that one of its sides forms the back of the right foreground, and meeting the left background makes an angle with the stage, which is partly visible. On both sides of the stage are benches.… Shares: Drama

Night Shift Stephen King · 1960 · ★ 4.0 · 326p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Stephen King has brought together nineteen of his most unsettling short pieces--bizarre tales of dark doing and unthinkable acts from the twilight regions where horror and madness take on eerie, unearthly forms...where noises in the walls and shadows by the bed are always signs of something dreadful on the prowl. The settings are familiar and unsuspected--a high school, a factory, a truck stop,… Shares: Paranormal, Short Stories, Horror, Mystery

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