The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales (New ed)

Gothic fiction is generally associated with the repertoire of claustrophobic settings, gloomy themes, and threatening atmosphere.

However, later writers shifted the emphasis from cruelty to decadence, while modern Gothic is distinguished by its imaginative variety of voice, from the chilling depiction of a disordered mind to the sinister suggestion of vampirism.

This anthology illustrates the continuing strength of this special fictional tradition from the 18th century to the present day.

It brings together work of writers such as Le Fanu, Hawthorne, Hardy, Faulkner, and Borges with their earliest forebears, and emphasizes the central role of women writers from Anna Laetitia Aikin to Angela Carter and Isabel Allende.