Revelling in terror, suspense and the exotic, Gothic novels abound in dark forests, subterranean passages, cemeteries, thunderstorms and ruined castles - these three works are superb examples of this spinechilling literary form. Among the first Gothic novels, Horace Walpole´s The Castle of Otranto (1765) depicts a tyrannical nobleman whose unholy deeds cause the downfall of his family, despite warnings from doom-laden portents and supernatural phenomena. In William Beckford´s Vathek (1786), described by Lord Byron as his bible, a depraved servant of te Devil commits monstrous crimes in his desire to gain eternal powers. And in one of the world´s most famous tales of horror, Mary Shelley´s Frankestein (1818) portrays the calamitous results of a young man´s quest to cheat death and meddle whit the nature of life itself.

In his introduction, Mario Praz traces the influence of the Gothic novel on later writing and considers the very different ways in which Walpole, Beckford and Shelley experimented with the genre. This edition also includes suggestions for further reading and notes.