Gothic books and short stories are an important part of literary history, and several are defining titles in the genre. The term is often vague, but at its core, gothic stories spark fear in a reader.

Gothic works tend to feature abandoned castles or estates, plots around inheritance, doomed love, and often include supernatural elements. Here, 20 the best gothic books to read this fall: The ...

The Castle of Otranto is considered the first supernatural English novel and also the first gothic novel. It describes itself as a translation of an Italian story from the Middle Ages about ...

THE SCAPEGOAT (209 pp.) — Jocelyn Brooke—Harper ($2.50). When this spooky little novel appeared in England last year, it threw the critics into a tizzy. Elizabeth Bowen wrote: “This book ...

The author of “If We Were Villains” recommends novels that will make you shiver with delight one moment and recoil in horror the next. By M.L. Rio M.L. Rio is the best-selling author of “If ...

Books: Urban Gothic. 5 minute read. TIME. October 10, 1969 12:00 AM GMT-4. THEM by Joyce Carol Oates. 508 pages. Vanguard. $6.95. The difference between heroes and most people is that heroes have ...