Get Chilled to the Spine: Stories for Spooky Season

First serialized in the journal "The Dark Blue" and published shortly thereafter in the short story collection In a Glass Darkly, Le Fanu's 1872 vampire tale is in many ways the overlooked older sister of Bram Stoker's more acclaimed Dracula. A thrilling gothic tale, Carmilla tells the story of a young woman lured by the charms of a female vampire. This edition includes a student-oriented introduction, tracing the major critical responses to Carmilla, and four interdisciplinary essays by leading scholars who analyze the story from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Ranging from politics to gender, Gothicism to feminism, and nineteenth-century aestheticism to contemporary film studies, these critical yet accessible articles model the diverse ways that scholars can approach a single text. With a glossary, biography, bibliography, and explanatory notes on the text, this edition is ideal for students of Irish and British nineteenth-century literature.

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula , may not be the first vampire novel, but it is certainly the most famous. These scenarios couldn't be more different than the conservative Victorian era during which the book was published — though critically praised from the start as being ahead of its time it was not an immediate bestseller. The story is told through a series of letters recounting a young Jonathan Harker, a lawyer who visits Count Dracula to arrange a real estate transaction and realizes before long that he has been taken hostage there. Harker escapes after a series of horrifying events, and Dracula makes it his mission to go after the young lawyer — and his lovely fiancé, Mina, and Mina's friends. With the assistance of an old teacher, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, the tide turns against Dracula with Van Helsing chasing the Count back to his Transylvania castle, where the ultimate battle takes place.

In this supremely creepy story from horror master H.P. Lovecraft, an unspeakable horror is unleashed upon the quaint burg of Dunwich, Massachusetts in the form of a young boy named Wilbur Whateley, the son of a disfigured albino woman and a mysterious -- and possibly demonic -- father. Wilbur's birth ushers in a series of strange events in the town that only intensify as he grows older. Will the townspeople be able to contain this curse before it's too late?

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus , was completed by Mary Shelley at the age of 19. She infused this original novel with Gothic and Romantic elements. Scientist Victor Frankenstein creates a large and powerful creature in the likeness of man, but is disgusted by his own creation and he abandons the being to fend for itself. Spawning generations of horror stories in the genre, Frankenstein is a gruesome warning against playing God and attempting the engineering of life.

Immerse yourself in one of the classic masterpieces of Western literature. Victor Hugo's sweeping epic The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a timeless tale of unrequited love that also touches on themes of jealousy, passion, purity, social justice, and moral goodness.

In a secluded Dutch settlement in New York, two men vie for the hand of a wealthy farmer's daughter. Ichabod Crane, the superstitious schoolmaster is one of those men. One night, when walking home from the farmer's house, Ichabod is chased by the Headless Horseman, who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head". Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of the earliest examples of American literature still read today.

The Metamorphosis begins almost comically. A man wakes up to find he has turned into an insect. But the claustrophobic, dirty room and the increasingly distressed narrator soon turn this into a tale of slow horror. Most horrifying of all is his family's reaction to his metamorphosis and their final solution to the problem.

A beautiful young man, Dorian Gray, sits for a portrait. In the garden of the artist's house he falls into conversation with Lord Wotton, who convinces him that only beauty is worth pursuing. Gray wishes that his portrait, and not himself, might age and show the effects of time. His wish comes true, and wild, hedonistic pursuits horribly disfigure the portrait. This Faustian story caused much controversy when it was first published, as it discusses decadent art and culture, and homosexuality. It is now considered one of the great pieces of modern Western literature.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is Robert Louis Stevenson's thriller allegory of a medical experiment gone wrong and dual personalities, one the essence of good, the other the essence of evil, fighting for supremacy in one man. Filled with suspense, the book has had such an impact in popular culture that the expression "Jekyll and Hyde" has itself become synonymous with extremes of, or inconsistent behavior.

It is virtually impossible to overstate Edgar Allan Poe's importance in the field of American literature. He is credited not only with inventing or significantly advancing the short story, detective fiction, and science fiction, but also with being one of the first Americans to pursue a career in writing as a vocation. This comprehensive volume is a career-spanning collection of Poe's stories and poems.