gothic odditorium
Explore the Gothic Odditorium: a curated collection of macabre classics, from Edgar Allan Poe's complete tales to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Frankenstein, and Victorian medical curiosities.
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The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition (The Annotated Books)
by Lewis Carroll
Presents an annotated version of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass," including recently discovered John Tenniel illustrations and newly added Martin Gardner annotations.
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A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities
by Jan Bondeson
Discusses several strange diseases, remarkable malformations, uncommon and gruesome ways of death, and unlikely feats of fasting or gluttony, which proliferated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries' medical literature, and shows that sometimes these curiosities did occur
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In Search of Dracula
by Raymond T. McNally
A newly revised edition of the classic account of Vlad the Impaler--just in time for Halloween--now includes entries from Bram Stoker's recently discovered diaries, the amazing tale of Nicolae Ceausescu's attempt to make Vlad a national hero, and an examination of recent adaptations in fiction, stage and screen. 70 b&w illustrations.
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The New Annotated Dracula
by Bram Stoker
The bestselling author of "The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes" returns with this spectacular, lavishly illustrated homage to Bram Stoker's "Dracula." 35 color and 400 b&w illustrations.
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Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Presents the story of Dr. Frankenstein and the obsessive experiment that leads to the creation of a monstrous and deadly creature, and includes a section examining the many film adaptations of the story.
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The Tales of Hoffmann
by Ernst Theodor Hoffman
A lawyer by day and a creator of a world of fantasy by night, Hoffman (1776-1822) lived a Jekyll and Hyde existence. Many of the characters in his stories are subject to a similar split personality. The duality of his nature is frequently reflected in some of his characters—Cardillac the goldsmith in Mademoiselle de Scudéry and Nathaniel in The Sandman, for example. Cardillac is a virtuous, industrious man by day but a violent criminal at night, while Nathaniel, obsessed by a childhood fantasy, is driven to madness and cruelty. These tales can be read on several levels: as an expression of the concerns of the Romantic era, as impressive examples of German Romantic literature and as exciting works of fiction made all the more extraordinary by their concern with the supernatural and the bizarre.
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The Leopard
by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
SOON TO BE A NETFLIX SERIES • Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. "A majestic, melancholy, and beautiful novel."—The New Yorker The dramatic sweep and richness of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power, and place it among the greatest historical novels of our time. Although Giuseppe di Lampedusa had long had the book in mind, he began writing it only in his late fifties; he died at age sixty, soon after the manuscript was rejected as unpublishable. In his introduction, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, Lampedusa's nephew, gives us a detailed history of the initial publication and the various editions that followed. And he includes passages Lampedusa wrote for the book that were omitted by the original Italian editors. Here, finally, is the definitive edition of this brilliant and timeless novel. (Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun.)
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The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
An "innovative" (The New Yorker) retelling of the story of Dracula. Told with the flourish and poise of a talented storyteller, Kostova turns the age-old tale into a compelling "late night page-turner" (San Francisco Chronicle) When a young woman discovers a cache of ancient letters, she is thrown into the turbulent history of her parents' dark pasts. Uncovering a labyrinthine trail of clues, she begins to reconstruct a staggering history of deceit and violence. Debut novelist Elizabeth Kostova creates an adventure of monumental proportions, a relentless tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present, with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful and utterly unforgettable.
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Edgar Allan Poe Complete Tales and Poems
by Edgar Allan Poe
The life of American writer Edgar Allan Poe was characterized by a dramatic series of successes and failures, breakdowns and recoveries, personal gains and hopes dashed through, despite which he created some of the finest literature the world has ever known. Over time his works have influenced such major creative forces as the French poets Charles Baudelaire and Andre Gide, filmmaker D.W. Griffith and modern literary legend Allen Ginsberg. Best known for his poems and short fiction, Poe perfected the psychological thriller, invented the detective story, and rarely missed transporting the reader to his own supernatural realm. He has also been hailed posthumously as one of the finest literary critics of the nineteenth century. In Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems fans may indulge in all of Poe's most imaginative short-stories, including The Fall of the House of Usher, The Murders in Rue Morgue, The Tell-Tale Heart, Ligeia and Ms. In a Bottle. His complete early and miscellaneous poetic masterpieces are here also, including The Raven, Ulalume, Annabel Lee, Tamerlane, as well as select reviews and narratives.