I am looking for a novel/story/anything with this specific dark, gothic atmosphere. Think Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” or Angela Carter’s “The Lady of the House of Love”.
Something melancholic, eerie, romantic, decadent, tragic, dream-like? with, you know, castles, spider webs, candles, mirrors, tarot, death, doom, grey skies etc
Pls I'm begging 😭
by vic-everglot
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The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli,
The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen
Lewis’s “The monk” is probably the best gothic tales I ever read.
Followed by Maturin’s “Melmoth the wanderer”.
The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake
books that I’ve read that might fit in different ways:
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
Company of Liars, Karen Maitland
I’m gonna assume you’ve torn through the big classics like *Jane Eyre, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Monk,* and *Rebecca*.
One you might look up is *Fludd* by Hilary Mantel. A priest who lost his faith a long time ago now has to host a guy who shows up claiming to have been sent by the diocese. And of course, if you want weirdly romantic and melancholic, I hope you check out *The Shadow of the Wind* by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. And to tide you over because I’m pretty sure you can find these short stories online right now: I rarely see *The Horror at Chilton Castle* by Joseph Payne Brennan recommended anywhere but it’s got the castle, the sickly heir, and a terrible family secret. Sheridan Le Fanu also wrote some good ones and there are a fair few of them, too.