soyonscruels:

those who dream only by night: the gothic short stories rec list

have you ever felt like you want to read more fiction in the gothic tradition, but you haven’t the money or the time, or you’re the sort of person who only reads a novel if you’re sure you like the writer? i can help with that! here is a list of short stories, novellas, and one poem, all of which are important in the gothic tradition, the gothic revival, or contemporary gothic fiction, and they are all on the internet! for free! (i enjoy making rec lists, but i particularly enjoy making rec lists where i know that everyone who reads the list can get all of it for free.) so, take a night, make some hot chocolate, and frighten the life out of yourself. you’ll thank me!

1. manfred by lord byron (1817)
2. the tell tale heart by edgar allan poe (1843)
3. carmilla by sheridan le fanu (1872)
4. lord arthur savile’s crime by oscar wilde (1887)
5. the yellow wallpaper by charlotte perkins gilman (1892)
6. lot no. 249 by arthur conan doyle (1892)
7. the great god pan by arthur machen (1894)
8. the turn of the screw by henry james (1898)
9. the monkey’s paw by w.w. jacobs (1902)
10. sredni vashtar by saki (1911)
11. casting the runes by m.r. james (1911)
12. the damned by algernon blackwood (1914)
13. the tomb by h.p. lovecraft (1922)
14. the garden party by katherine mansfield (1922)
15. a rose for emily by william faulkner (1930)
16. the lottery by shirley jackson (1948)
17. lamb to the slaughter by roald dahl (1953)
18. a good man is hard to find by flannery o’connor (1955)
19. the company of wolves by angela carter (1979)
20. i, cthulhu by neil gaiman (1986)