It’s that season of the year. Snowy evenings, foggy mornings, and early sunsets. Shadows on the streets.
The quiet in the house with the radiator buzzing in the background. The quiet outside as everyone stays in avoiding the cold. The quiet everywhere. Winter is the time for ghosts to come calling. I know Halloween month is for spooky stories, but where is the fear in silly costumes and golden autumn light. No, it is the ominous grey cloudy wintry days that set the perfect stage for us to crawl into the pages of ghost stories.
So here we go — five gothic classics to creep you out on cold winter nights.
1. The Woman In Black by Susan Hill
Kipps encounters of the strange kind begin early in his trip, when he spots the woman in black lurking in the graveyard at Mrs Drablow’s funeral service. His stay at Eel House reveals many dark secrets about the Drablow family and the town. Is he going to get out of there alive?
The Creepy Factor
I get the chills just writing about it. This is a no-nonsense horror story. The hero literally stranded on a haunted mansion with no means to escape, deathly marshes, a house full of tragic memories, dead children and proper ghosts. You will want to read this with all the lights on!
“Whatever was about, whoever I had seen, and heard rocking, and who had passed me by just now, whoever had opened the locked door was not ‘real’. No. But what was ‘real’? At that moment I began to doubt my own reality.”
― Susan Hill, The Woman in Black
2. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
In this Australian classic, set in Victoria, a bunch of girls from a stuck-up boarding school plan a picnic to Hanging Rock on Valentine’s day.
During the picnic, four girls and a teacher decide to climb the monolithic rock that gives the place its name. Only one girl returns with no memory of what happened. All she remembers is watching the other climb the clock under some hypnotic influence.
“Where were they going? What strange feminine secrets did they share in that last gay fateful hour?” — Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock
The local community is shaken with rumors of rape and murder. Extensive searches of the picnic grounds are conducted, but nothing is found. What happened to those girls?
The Creepy Factor
Young teenage girls disappearing in their white picnic dresses, never to be seen again–what can be more horrifying than that?
The oppression of the school boundaries, the head teacher’s rules, the suppressed sexual desires of teenage girls in the heat of summer, the brutal natural elements of the Australian bush–all add to making it a riveting read.
Trivia: In the original publication, the last chapter which solved the mystery was withheld from the readers to create buzz; sort of 20th century viral marketing!
3. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” — Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
Goodness knows how often this opening line has been quoted or has made its way into Trivia quizzes! Du Maurier’s famous novel, made even more so by Hitchcock’s adaptation, is the story of a naïve young girl who marries a rich, older widower and finds herself in a Gothic nightmare.
Mr. Maxim De Winter discovers our narrator in the service for an old lady. For reasons never clearly explained, he falls in love with her and whisks her away to his country estate, Manderley.
A novel that starts with a whirlwind romance takes an unexpected dark turn. When the new Mrs. De Winter arrives at Manderley, she finds she is not quite welcome there, especially by the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. This lady was a devoted fan of Rebecca De Winter, the first wife who died in a tragic accident only a year ago.
Manderley seems to be possessed by the ghost of Rebecca, a women that the new Mrs. De Winter can’t measure up to. A women whose dead body was never found. What secrets does Manderley hold and will the truth be too late for Mrs. De Winter?
The Creepy Factor
Mrs. Danver, Mrs Danvers and Mrs. Danvers!
No one makes this book as uncomfortable as the Manderley housekeeper, whose affection with Rebecca (the previous mistress) is borderline obsessive. Mrs. De Winters can barely hold on to her self-esteem and sanity against Danvers many mind games. Manderley could have been a wonderful home to a couple in love, but the shadow of Rebecca, abetted by Mrs. Danvers, falls long on the pages of the book never letting the new Mrs. De Winters or the readers really settle in.
4. The Turn of The Screw by Henry James
A governess has been hired by a charming young man to look after his orphaned niece and nephew at his country mansion. Her wards Flora and Miles possess the saintly goodness that only kids in horror movies demonstrate, the unnerving kind. Soon enough, paranormal experiences abound and our heroine learns of strange ongoings between the previous valet and ex-governess (both now dead!)
While James never makes it apparent, there is some implication to the ‘nature’ of the relationship between children and the dead couple that is haunting them. The governess’s odd, obsessive attachment to her wards also makes one wonder to what’s really going on. The plot loosely dabbles with religious themes, corruption of souls, sexual abuse and the meaning of sanity itself. That there are more questions than answers, add palpable uncertainty and horror to the events that follow to the end.
The Creepy Factor
Old Country house manor -check. Angelic, golden-haired, creepy children- check. Conspiring servants — check. Floating shadows — check. Unhinged potentially misunderstood heroine–check. The Turn of the Screw fulfills all the horror tropes; in fact, I wonder if this is where tropes come from.
5. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Photo Credit: Wikimedia.com
Before Bram Stoker made love (or hate) for Vampires mainstream, a 100-page story by Sheridan Le Fanu, written in 1872, laid the foundation for Dracula. Carmilla is a gripping gothic tale steeped in darkness, cold, and death.
Laura, our narrator is a resident of pretty, though isolated mansion. She is the daughter of a lord and lacking sorely in company and friends. One day, Carmilla shows up at her door and becomes her friend. But who is this strange, beautiful, girl constantly hitting on Laura? During Camilla’s stay, strange things transpire in the village, and Laura’s health begins to decline.
The Creepy Factor
Set in a horror wonderland of an isolated mansion, dark forests and cold rivers, there is a lot to enjoy here. If that doesn’t convince you, then how about this line describing Laura’s vision?
“The room was lighted by the candle that burnt there all through the night, and I saw a female figure standing at the foot of the bed, a little at the right side. It was in a dark loose dress, and its hair was down and covered its shoulders. A block of stone could not have been more still. There was not the slightest stir of respiration. As I stared at it, the figure appeared to have changed its place, and was now nearer the door; then, close to it, the door opened, and it passed out.” — Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Honorable Mentions
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Yes, I know technically this a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery but the atmosphere ! A gothic mansion, phantom hound, haunted moors, the family curse, inheritance at stake, escaped murderer — so many elements here that make it a great chilling read. Enough said.
The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins is famous for genre-defining novels like The Moonstone & The Women in White–these novels often make it to the top hundred lists. The Haunted Hotel is a lesser-known work but makes a good addition to this list. Without spoiling the plot, there is a lot making it a page-turner. A hush-hush marriage, a scorned lover, the rivalry between brothers, missing servants, and phantom visions–so much repressed Victorian goodness!
Any other gothic classics that should have made this list?
