Top 10 Short Stories - Gothic: The top ten short gothic stories of all time

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted 'Top Tens' across many different themes and authors.

But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions - Why that story?

Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.The word 'Gothic' may be teamed with romance but here it brings an immediate feeling of unease. This unease, this disquiet, is sumptuously captured by ten masters of their art.01 - The Top 10 - Gothic - An Introduction02 - The Signalman by Charles Dickens03 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 1 by Edgar Allan Poe04 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 2 by Edgar Allan Poe05 - The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson06 - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving07 - The Phantom Rickshaw by Rudyard Kipling08 - The Phantom Coach by Amelia Edwards09 - The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman10 - Lost Hearts by M R James04 - Thurnley Abbey by Perceval Landon12 - The Vampyre.

A Tale - Part 1 by John William Polidori13 - The Vampyre.

A Tale - Part 2 by John William Polidori