Classic gothic books are the perfect reading choice when you’re feeling melancholy or you just want something dark, slightly philosophical, and maybe a little scary. I adore reading gothic books in late autumn and during winter because the mood just fits, but there are those gloomy, stormy summer days when they work just as well.
Over time, I’ve read so many gothic classics, and ran into a lot that I liked, some that I disliked, and some that aren’t quite gothic but definitely fit the vibe. Below you’ll find my favorite, the very best classic gothic books you can find. I hope you find what you’re looking for!
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist, becomes obsessed with uncovering the secret of creating life. After managing to create what he sees as a monster, Victor is horrified by his creation and abandons it, leaving the lonely and intelligent creature to fend for itself.
Rejected by society and consumed by anger, it starts seeking revenge against Victor, setting both of them on a tragic path of destruction. I loved the way this story was told, and it’s such a good, very philosophical read, pondering on life and death, creation, obsession and so much more. There’s a recent movie people almost universally loved, but trust me, the book is so much better.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
This is another one of those books I got obsesed with at around 16 and it never left my mind since. The Picture of Dorian Gray is about Dorian Gray who is so obsessed with his own portrait that he exchanges his soul for eternal beauty and youth. He also gets pulled into a decadent, scandalous life by his friend Henry. It’s pretty short at 250 pages (thereabouts) but it will prove mesmerizing.
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
“No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in mould, and tilled with manure. Happiness is a glory shining far down upon us out of Heaven. She is a divine dew which the soul, on certain of its summer mornings, feels dropping upon it from the amaranth bloom and golden fruitage of Paradise.”
This is probably the weirdest, most melancholy Bronte book, and that’s saying something. We follow the story of Lucy Snowe who escapes England and her past to become a teacher at a French boarding school. She keeps herself guarded and away from the world to avoid heartbreak, but it catches her anyway, when she falls for a man she cannot have. And if you want both this and Jane Eyre to hit even harder, learn a little about Charlotte Bronte’s life and her infatuation with a certain married professor.
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
“He was persuaded he could know no happiness but in the society of one with whom he could for ever indulge the melancholy that had taken possession of his soul.”
In Otranto Castle, where its heir Conrad has just died, his father Manfred becomes obsessed with getting another heir and he’s set on seducing his son’s young fiancee, but there are mysterious forces in his way. This is widely regarded as the first Gothic novel, so it’s well worth reading for that alone (it’s also good, so!).
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
“You will think me cruel, very selfish, but love is always selfish; the more ardent the more selfish. How jealous I am you cannot know. You must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me, and still come with me, and hating me through death and after. There is no such word as indifference in my apathetic nature.”
Laura, a young woman living in an isolated Austrian castle is changed when mysterious and alluring Carmilla arrives at her home. As Laura grows increasingly fascinated by her new companion, strange illnesses and unexplained deaths begin occurring in the surrounding area. And Carmilla’s secrets are slowly revealed.
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
“I tore off my mask so as not to lose one of her tears… and she did not run away!…and she did not die!… She remained alive, weeping over me, weeping with me. We cried together! I have tasted all the happiness the world can offer.”
Christine Daaé is a talented young opera singer who becomes the obsession of the mysterious Phantom, a disfigured man secretly living beneath the Paris Opera House. As Christine’s childhood friend Raoul tries to protect her, the Phantom’s jealousy and possessiveness escalate into a terrifying struggle.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
“I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.”
A young English solicitor travels to Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase property in England. When Harker discovers the count’s terrifying nature, he returns to London, where strange things start to happen. A group led by Professor Van Helsing joins forces to uncover Dracula’s secrets and stop the vampire before he can spread his influence further.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
“I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind. And this is one: I’m going to tell it – but take care not to smile at any part of it.”
I’ve loved this book since I was thirteen and I will probably love it always. It’s the perfect read for melancholy days, moody weather, to read while the wind howls.
Wuthering Heights is about the Earnshaws and the Lintons who live isolated on the moors, two very different families (one cultured, genteel; the other wild, rough around the edges) and how an obsessive love between Catherine Earnshaw and her father’s ward Heatcliff breaks both families into pieces.
It’s a tragedy, it’s a love story, it’s a family saga, and you’ll love it too if you give it a try. You can find my full review here.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
“There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. It’s an inside kind–wrapped tight like skin. Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one’s own feet going seem to come from a far-off place.”
Sethe is haunted by the ghost of her dead, unnamed child, whose grave is still at the farm where Sethe was kept as a slave. This is very literary but also very much a horror of the kind Stephen King would flinch at. Yes, there’s a ghost but also horrors of slavery, abuse, torture, and so much more, which to the reader prove much scarier and more disturbing. It’s not an easy read, but do read it if you like horror.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you, – and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!”
Jane Eyre is an inescapable classic that you’ve probably read before (or if not, then you’ve heard a lot about it). It tells a story of Jane Eyre, a proud, resilient young governess who begins tutoring a young ward of Mr. Rochester and he, in the process, falls in love with her (and she with him, but not in such a way that she’d lose her mind). But Rochester has secrets upon secrets and these soon threaten to tear everything apart. Give it a try if you haven’t already!
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
“I was pretending that I did not speak their language; on the moon we spoke a soft, liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world.”
Merricat Blackwood is a young woman who lives in isolation with her older sister Constance and their ailing uncle Julian in a large family home. Years earlier, several members of the Blackwood family died from arsenic poisoning, and Constance was accused of the murders.
When their cousin Charles arrives and begins disrupting their secluded life, long-buried tensions and unsettling secrets rise to the surface, threatening the fragile world the sisters have built.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
“Does such a thing as ‘the fatal flaw,’ that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn’t. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”
If you’re looking for a more modern classic and something more readable than say, Horace Walpole, I highly suggest The Secret History. It’s a fantastic dark academia story about a group of students who kill one of their friends, and then the story tries to explain why and how this happened at this elite college. It’s fun, full of great themes and you’ll definitely have a good time with these pompous yet strangely fun to follow people.
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
“She herself is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her ancestors sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyes and that is very frightening.”
In this short story collection, Angela Carter takes familiar and unfamiliar fairy tales and gives them a daker, more feminist twist. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s a short collection of even shorter stories (240 pages total), and you should give it a go if you like fairytale retellings.
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
“Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful part is that, even at the time, I perfectly knew I was. But I gave myself up to it; it was an antidote to any pain, and I had more pains than one.”
The Turn of The Screw is a classic short story that’s about 140 pages long (with the mandatory introductions), so you can easily read it in one sitting. A young governess begins caring for two children (Miles and Flora) but then she starts to believe there’s something malevolent inside the house stalking the children. It’s a bit horrory too, so give it a go if that’s your cup of tea!
The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe
“I rather think the world is like sand. The fundamental nature of sand is very difficult to grasp when you think of it in its stationary state. Sand not only flows, but this very flow is the sand.”
A man is searching the dessert for beetles (he’s an entomologist), but he gets stuck in the dessert overnight and has to seek shelter in a creepy village where (surprise surprise) they trap him in a sand pit with a woman and force him to work or they’ll kill him.
This book is so claustrophobic and eerie, so don’t go into it lightly but it’s an excellent moody, grim read. Kind of like Kafka!
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
“We were dreamers, both of us, unpractical, reserved, full of great theories never put to test, and like all dreamers, asleep to the waking world. Disliking our fellow men, we craved affection; but shyness kept impulse dormant until the heart was touched. When that happened the heavens opened, and we felt, the pair of us, that we have the whole wealth of the universe to give. We would have both survived, had we been other men.”
If you already like Rebecca, here’s another du Maurier to try. I found it even more gripping perhaps, and I’m sure you’ll appreciate its similar yet different narrative.
In this book we meet Phillip who was raised by his eccentric uncle Ambrose, who has sworn never to marry and avoids women. They live a charmed life together until Ambrose travels to Italy during the colder months in Cornwall for his health.
There he meets and marries their cousin Rachel, and sends letters to Phillip which increasingly become sporadic and confusing. Phillip decides to travel to Italy where he finds that Ambrose is dead. Could the mysterious Rachel have something to do with it or is Phillip’s perception colored by grief?
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
“I say what other people only think, and when all the rest of the world is in a conspiracy to accept the mask for the true face, mine is the rash hand that tears off the plump pasteboard, and shows the bare bones beneath.”
This book can fit many categories, because it’s moody and gothic but also there’s a mystery and a bit of horror as well. You’ll follow the story of Walter Hartright, a young drawing teacher who encounters a mysterious woman dressed entirely in white on a London road.
His new position at Limmeridge House soon connects him to her and to a dangerous conspiracy involving identity, inheritance, deception, and murder. As Walter and others try to uncover the truth, they find themselves caught in a web of secrets that threatens the lives and fortunes of everyone involved.
Final Thoughts
Classic books with gothic themes are perfect reads any time of year, whether it’s a sticky slow summer, a rainy, melancholy autumn, or quiet, hushed winter with long nights to boot. I highly recommend trying these out and I hope you find your next favorite read on this list. If not, leave a comment below and I’ll give you a personalized recommendation that will surely fit what you enjoy. And if you’re the DIY type, here are some good places to start:
- If you want to read classics but don’t know where to start, you should try these classic books for beginners.
- If your perferred genre in general is romance, you should give some of these classic books with romance a try.
- And I have a full list of dark academia books you’ll surely enjoy here.
- Plus, a list of autumn books that are just perfect for the season.
- And some winter books if you’re up to enjoying some snowy landscapes.
What are your favorite classic gothic books? Let me know in the comments and let’s chat!
