A master of gothic literature, Elizabeth Gaskell's darkest horror stories are collected in this haunting anthology. From ghostly apparitions to unsettling family secrets, these stories helped define classic gothic literature. Gaskill’s writing is filled with vivid imagery, emotional depth, and a haunting sense of foreboding that showcases her exceptional storytelling. Exploring the darker side of human nature, each tale will linger in the mind long after the final page. Some of the short stories featured include: The Old Nurse’s Story Morton Hall The Doom of the Griffiths The Ghost in the Garden Room The Grey Woman Lois the Witch This volume is part of the Mothers of the Macabre series, celebrating the works of pioneering women writers who shaped the genre of gothic horror. Elizabeth Gaskell’s stories in this collection, originally published in the mid-nineteenth century, continue to captivate readers and are not to be missed by lovers of dark tales.

This collection contains works by such writers as Poe, Hawthorne, Gaskell, Dickens and M.R. James. It brings together stories from the earliest decades of Gothic writing with later 19th and early 20th century tales.

This anthology revitalises the stale gothic romance genre with stories span-ning across centuries and the world. A Sioux woman returns from the grave seeking true love. A young boy and his ghostly boyfriend dodge American soldiers and landmines in 1970s Vi-etnam. A young mother in slavery faces demons on the eve of liberation in 1800s Jamaica. A Brazilian writer-in-exile discovers his sanctuary's dark secrets - and the burning touch of a ghostly lord.

Drawing on dark fantasy and the fairy tale as well as horror and wild humor, ten acclaimed authors pay homage to the gothic tale in wide-ranging stories of the supernatural and surreal.

Nothing is as it seems in this chilling, twisting tale by bestselling author Andrea Portes, perfect for fans of Madeleine Roux and Danielle Vega. Rife with dark humor and chilling twists, This Is Not a Ghost Story is American Horror Story meets There’s Someone Inside Your House. It will have readers flipping back to the very first page after the shocking finale. I am not welcome. Somehow I know that. Something doesn’t want me here. Daffodil Franklin has plans for a quiet summer before her freshman year at college, and luckily, she’s found the job that can give her just that: housesitting a mansion for a wealthy couple. But as the summer progresses and shadows lengthen, Daffodil comes to realize the house is more than it appears. The spacious home seems to close in on her, and as she takes the long road into town, she feels eyes on her the entire way, and something tugging her back. What Daffodil doesn’t yet realize is that her job comes with a steep price. The house has a long-ago grudge it needs to settle . . . and Daffodil is the key to settling it.

New Authors and collections. A deluxe edition with a chilling selection of original and classic short stories. The new tales, many of them published here for the first time, are written by today's top authors, and they bring a modern twist to the outstanding mix of intrigue that lurks in the furtive imagination of E.F. Benson, Henry James, Wilkie Collins, Washington Irving, Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde, and so many more within this outstanding collection. New, contemporary and notable writers featured are: Philip Brian Hall, Annette Siketa, Cathy Smith, Amanda C. Davis, Donna Cuttress, James Dorr, Lesa Pascavis Smith, Luke Murphy, Jonathan Balog, Michael Penkas, Raymond Little, Rhiannon Rasmussen, Tim Foley, Trevor Boelter, Vonnie Winslow Crist, Brian Rappatta, M. Regan, Zach Chapman, Kurt Bachard, and Jeff Parsons.

This remarkable anthology of gothic fiction, spanning two centuries of American writing, gives us an intriguing and entertaining look at how the gothic imagination makes for great literature in the works of forty-six exceptional writers. Joyce Carol Oates has a special perspective on the “gothic” in American short fiction, at least partially because her own horror yarns rank on the spine-tingling chart with the masters. She is able to see the unbroken link of the macabre that ties Edgar Allan Poe to Anne Rice and to recognize the dark psychological bonds between Henry James and Stephen King. In showing us the gothic vision—a world askew where mankind’s forbidden impulses are set free from the repressions of the psyche, and nature turns malevolent and lawless—Joyce Carol Oates includes Henry James’s “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes,” Herman Melville’s horrific tale of factory women, “The Tartarus of Maids,” and Edith Wharton’s “Afterward,” which are rarely collected and appear together here for the first time. Added to these stories of the past are new ones that explore the wounded worlds of Stephen King, Anne Rice, Peter Straub, Raymond Carver, and more than twenty other wonderful contemporary writers. This impressive collection reveals the astonishing scope of the gothic writer’s subject matter, style, and incomparable genius for manipulating our emotions and penetrating our dreams. With Joyce Carol Oates’s superb introduction, American Gothic Tales is destined to become the standard one-volume edition of the genre that American writers, if they didn’t create it outright, have brought to its chilling zenith.