Gothic Classics

Мрачный, исполненный мистического ужаса роман о священнослужителе, продавшем душу дьяволу ради любви женщины.Мэтью Грегори Льюис (1775 – 1818) был известен прежде всего, как драматург и поэт круга Байрона и Шелли.

Berenice es un cuento de terror del escritor estadounidense Edgar Allan Poe. Fue publicado por primera vez en el periódico Southern Literary Messenger, en el año 1835. Ante su sadismo espeluznante, los lectores contemporáneos se manifestaron horrorizados con la historia y expusieron sus quejas al director del Messenger. La cita que encabeza el relato, en latín, puede traducirse: «Decíanme los amigos que encontraría algún alivio a mi dolor visitando la tumba de la amada».

Guido has lost it all. At rock bottom and wandering the shore, Guido spies a misshapen creature floating toward him in the water, riding on a huge chest. The creature offers Guido a path of revenge – switching bodies for three days in exchange for the untold riches in the chest. Guido unfortunately fails to see a potential downside. Through skillful handling of the gothic motif of the doppelgänger, Shelley’s tale explores concepts that would eventually culminate into her masterpiece – Frankenstein.

Helt ny full cast indlæsning fra 2015. Medvirkende: Lars Mikkelsen, Lars Thiesgaard, Sofie Vea, Thomas Magnussen, Jon Lange, Kristian Boland, Morten Hauch-Fausbøll, Anette Støvelbæk, Henrik Kofoed, Helle Merete Sørensen og Nis Bank-Mikkelsen. Indlæst af Momo - Skuespillernes Lydbogsværksted.

"The Castle of Otranto" is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word "Gothic" to the novel in the subtitle - A Gothic Story. Set in a haunted castle, the novel merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since. The aesthetic of the book has shaped modern-day gothic books, films, art, music and the goth subculture.

The titular house in this short story sits not far from the state of Missouri. An old, run-down building, missing windows and doors, it has been overgrown with foliage, and its dilapidated appearance has given it an ‘evil reputation’.

The story is set in Padua and follows botanist Giacomo Rappaccini’s garden of poisonous plants. A student from the university of Padua falls for a maiden in the luscious garden, but he soon learns some troubling information about his beloved’s true nature.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is known for her themes of female entrapment and patriarchal control, and she gives this a Gothic twist in "The Giant Wistaria". A wealthy young couple and their friends rent a manor house, excited by the prospect that it’s haunted, and they are not disappointed when they all experience the same vivid dream.

Widely considered a classic of the gothic fiction genre, "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. It follows an unnamed narrator who insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body by cutting it into pieces and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately, the narrator's guilt manifests itself in the hallucination that the man's heart is still beating under the floorboards.

Mary Shelley hat als 18jährige etwas vollbracht, was noch kein Mensch vor oder nach ihr geschafft hat: In diesem zarten Alter einen Roman zu verfassen, der die Zeiten überdauert und eine bis heute aktuelle Thematik behandelt. Können, dürfen und sollen wir Leben auf Basis aller uns zu Verfügung stehenden technischen Mitteln ermöglichen oder sind Gottes bescheidene und beschränkte Grenzen Sperrgebiet für unseren Intellekt?

A Charlotte Riddell novella from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Haunted Houses. When his cousin Geoffrey dies, barrister Hercules Stafford Trevor agrees to act as his young widow’s guardian. But Trevor has troubles of his own when he discovers that the legends surrounding his country house might have more than a grain of truth in them, and it seems these hauntings are destined to become intertwined with the fate of the widow.

The tale of murder and terror, told by a nameless homicidal madman, influenced later stream-of-consciousness fiction and helped secure the author’s reputation as master of the macabre. The narrator relates with relish his murder and dismemberment of an old man. Poe’s revelation of the narrator’s madness is a classic study in psychopathology.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) will forever be known as the author of one of the all-time great Gothic novels, Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus (1818). In 1824, she published her essay "On Ghosts", which offers a personal glimpse into her own opinions and experiences. This edition includes a new preface with historical context and an excerpt from M.G. Lewis' 1796 work The Monk: A Romance that Shelley references in "On Ghosts". 

"The Turn of the Screw" is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James that first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly magazine (January 27 - April 16, 1898). In October 1898 it appeared in "The Two Magics", a book published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemann in London. Classified as both gothic fiction and a ghost story, the novella focuses on a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted.

In the classic Wuthering Heights, Catherine is forced to choose between passionate, tortured gypsy Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton. Catherine surrenders to the expectations of her class and sets off a domino effect with lasting consequences. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal are visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the lovers tortured past.

With its irrepressible heroine and playful literary games, Northanger Abbey is the most youthful and optimistic of Jane Austen's novels. It tells the story of young, impressionable Catherine Morland, whose first experience of fashionable society introduces her to the thrills of gothic romances, and to the sophisticated Tilneys, who invite her to their family home, Northanger Abbey. But there, influenced by novels of horror and intrigue, Catherine begins to think that terrible crimes are being committed, and her imagination threatens to run away with her.

It tells the story of a young woman whose mother died in her childbirth - just as Shelly's own mother died after hers - and whose relationship with her bereaved father becomes sexually charged as he conflates her with his lost wife, while she becomes involved with a handsome poet.

Als junger Mann lernte Frédéric Boutet bereits in den literarischen Cafés von Paris unter anderem Oscar Wilde kennen und machte Bekanntschaft mit den Symbolisten und den Dekadenten. Und im Alter von 24 Jahren gab Boutet im okkultistischen Pariser Verlag Chamuel eine Sammlung erster fantastischer, dekadenter Erzählungen mit dem Titel Contes dans la nuit heraus. In den folgenden Jahren veröffentlichte er im gleichen Verlag weitere groteske und dekadente Geschichten, von denen einige bereits den kommenden Surrealismus vorwegnahmen.

In Edgar Allan Poe's short and turbulent life, he laid the groundwork for the genre of modern horror and, almost as an aside, invented the modern detective story.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a Gothic novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is about a London legal practitioner who investigates strange occurrences between his friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll and the evil Edward Hyde. The phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" has entered the vernacular to refer to people with a dual nature.