The Minister's Black Veil, 1832; Young Goodman Brown, 1835; The Prophetic Pictures, 1837; The House of the Seven Gables, 1851 & The Marble Faun, 1860
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
The Minister's Black Veil by Publication Date: 1832"Mr. Hooper, a gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due clerical neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his band, and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday's garb. There was but one thing remarkable in his appearance. Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil."
Young Goodman Brown by Publication Date: 1835A young Puritan ventures into the forest to meet with a stranger, where it becomes clear that he is approaching a witches’ sabbath in which prominent members of his community are participating.
The Prophetic Pictures by Publication Date: 1837The evil soul that a master painter has seen in a happy young bridegroom finally makes its way through the picture and onto the face itself.
The House of the Seven Gables by Publication Date: 1851In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family.
The Marble Faun; or, The Romance of Monte Beni by Publication Date: 1860This novel tells the story of Donatello (an Italian Count bearing an uncanny resemblance to the faun of Praxiteles), the sculptor Kenyon, and two young art students, Miriam and Hilda.
The Fall of the House of Usher, 1839; The Tell-Tale Heart, 1843 & Arthur Gordon Pym, 1838
Author: Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Edgar Allan Poe's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Publication Date: 1838Arthur Gordon Pym stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus, leading to experiences that include shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism.
The Fall of the House of Usher by Publication Date: 1839The Fall of the House of Usher recounts the terrible events that befall the last remaining members of the once-illustrious Usher clan before it is literally torn apart.
The Tell-Tale Heart by Publication Date: 1843The narrator is so disgusted by an old-man's ghostly eye that he kills him and hides his corpse under his floorboards.
The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall, 1844
Author: George Lippard, 1822-1854
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about George Lippard's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall by Publication Date: 1844The Quaker City is set in a Philadelphia mansion named "Monk Hall," which serves as a private gentlemen's club that is also secretly a brothel and opium den patronized by some of the city's most respected citizens, many of whom engage in acts of debauchery.
Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852
Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896
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Uncle Tom's Cabin by Publication Date: 1852The story of Uncle Tom, a saintly and dignified enslaved man who, while being transported by boat to auction in New Orleans, saves the life of Little Eva, whose grateful father then purchases him.
Pierre, 1852 & Benito Cereno, 1856
Author: Herman Melville, 1819-1891
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Herman Melville's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
Pierre; or, The Ambiguities by
Publication Date: 1852When Pierre Glendinning's lifelong desire for a sister is seemingly realized on the eve of his marriage, his world is suddenly turned upside down, for he must choose between acknowledging his illegitimate half-sister or perpetuating his unsullied family legacy.
Benito Cereno by Publication Date: 1856Amasa Delano, the captain of a seal-hunting ship, encounters off the coast of Chile a slave ship whose human cargo has revolted.
The Diamond Lens, 1858; The Lost Room, 1858 & What Was It?, 1859
Author: Fitz James O'Brien, 1826-1862
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Fitz James O'Brien's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
The Diamond Lens by Publication Date: 1858Tells the story of a scientist who invents a powerful microscope and discovers a beautiful female in a microscopic world inside a drop of water.The Lost Room by
Publication Date: 1858A man leaves his room and enters a garden where a mysterious stranger informs him that he lives in a "queer" house and does not really know its occupants.
What Was It? by Publication Date: 1859Tells of the residents of a particular lodging house who encounter an invisible, seemingly blood-thirsty creature in one of the rooms. Once they manage to apprehend it, they attempt to study it.
The Hidden Hand, 1859
Author: E.D.E.N. Southworth, 1819-1899
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about E.D.E.N. Southworth's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
The Hidden Hand by
Publication Date: 1859Urban street waif Capitola is mysteriously brought to New York City from Virginia as an infant by a domestic trying to save her life and ends up returning there as ward of Ira Warfield, "Old Hurricane." Not content with life as a plantation belle, Capitola ranges around the countryside on horseback looking for adventures, a self-styled female version of Don Quixote.
Circumstance, 1860; The Amber Gods, 1863 & Her Story, 1872
Author: Harriet Prescott Spofford, 1835-1921
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Harriet Prescott Spofford's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
Circumstance by Publication Date: 1860A pioneer woman returning home through the woods at night is caught by a panther; her husband, who has come to save her, can only watch from the ground as she sings for her life, pinned in a tree.
The Amber Gods by Publication Date: 1863A self-obsessed and captivating woman ruthlessly steals her orphan cousin's lover, violating the expected norms of New England society.Her Story by
Publication Date: 1872Narrated by a woman in an asylum whose husband's infatuation with another woman led to her own madness and imprisonment.
Behind a Mask; or, a Woman's Power, 1866
Author: Louisa May Alcott, 1832-1888
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Behind a Mask; or, a Woman's Power, 1866 by Publication Date: 1866Written under the pen name A. M. Barnard, it tells the story of Jean Muir, the deceitful governess of the wealthy Coventry family. With expert manipulation, Jean Muir obtains the family's love, respect, and, eventually, its fortune.
The Grandissimes, 1880
Author: George Washington Cable, 1844-1925
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The Grandissimes by Publication Date: 1880The Grandissimes chronicles the adventures and romances of various members of the Grandissime family—Black, white, mixed-race, rich and poor alike. The story begins when Honoré Grandissime, the scion of the white branch of this powerful New Orleans clan, takes in Joseph Frowenfeld, a young man from Philadelphia whose entire family has died from yellow fever.
The Portrait of a Lady, 1881 & The Turn of the Screw, 1898
Author: Henry James, 1843-1916
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Henry James' life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
The Portrait of a Lady by Publication Date: 1881When Isabel Archer, a young American woman with looks, wit, and imagination, arrives in Europe, she sees the world as 'a place of brightness, of free expression, of irresistible action'. She turns aside from suitors who offer her their wealth and devotion to follow her own path. But that way leads to disillusionment and a future as constricted as 'a dark narrow alley with a dead wall at the end'.
The Turn of the Screw by Publication Date: 1898A governess caring for two children at a remote estate becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted.
The Shadow of a Dream, 1890
Author: William Dean Howells, 1837-1920
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The Shadow of a Dream by
Publication Date: 1890Describes the tragic consequences of a recurrent dream as it affects the lives of Douglas Faulkner, his wife Hermia and his dearest friend, the clergyman James Nevil.
Characteristics, 1891
Author: S. Weir Mitchell, 1829-1915
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Characteristics by
Publication Date: 1891Owen North is a physician caught between the scientific realm and a desire for life beyond the body. A near-death experience causes him to question doctors and the discourse of science as he develops an interest in the supernatural.
The Giant Wistaria, 1891 & The Yellow Wallpaper, 1892
Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1860-1935
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Charlotte Perkins Gilman's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
The Giant Wistaria by Publication Date: 1891A story in two parts, the first takes place at least one hundred years before the second and concerns a young woman's punishment by her parents, especially her father, for bearing a child out of wedlock. The second part takes place in the late nineteenth century as a group of young people discover a house's horrific secret.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Publication Date: 1892The Yellow Wallpaper is structured as a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband has rented an old mansion for the summer.
In the Midst of Life, 1892 & Can Such Things Be?, 1893
Author: Ambrose Bierce, 1842-1914?
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Ambrose Bierce's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
In the Midst of Life, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians by Publication Date: 1892A collection of short stories, including a number of Gothic tales, that explore the weird and curious incidents in the lives of soldiers and civilians during the American Civil War.
Can Such Things Be? by Publication Date: 1893A collection of short stories placing the uncanny and supernatural within the conflict between reason and the unknown of the later 19th century.
The King in Yellow, 1895
Robert W. Chambers, 1865-1933
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Robert W. Chambers' life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
The King in Yellow by Publication Date: 1895A collection of short stories that can be categorized as early horror fiction or Victorian Gothic fiction, but that also includes elements of mythology, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, and romance.
An Itinerant House, 1897
Author: Emma Frances Dawson, 1839-1926
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Emma Frances Dawson's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
An Itinerant House by
Publication Date: 1897A collection of ghost stories that mix sexuality, sadism, and the uncanny.
The Marrow of Tradition, 1901
Author: Charles W. Chesnutt, 1858-1932
Below are the Gothic titles by this author. See the supplementary material for more information about Charles W. Chesnutt's life and work, including biography and context, literary criticism, and searchable online texts.
The Marrow of Tradition by
Publication Date: 1901The Marrow of Tradition centers on two prominent families, the Carterets and the Millers, and explores their remarkably intersected lives.