#Gothic literature story ideas full
#Gothic literature story ideas series

Set amongst the Canadian wilderness, the story is about a group of men who go camping and the mysterious disappearance – and return – of one of their group. Here, we’ve selected ‘The Wendigo’ (1910), which is one of the longer short stories on this list.

#Gothic literature story ideas series

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a Gothic horror story – it ends with the husband taking an axe to the bedroom door where his cowering wife is imprisoned – but the twist is that she has imprisoned herself in her deluded belief that she is protecting her husband from the ‘creeping women’ from behind the wallpaper, and he is prepared to beat down the door with an axe out of genuine concern for his sick wife.īlackwood (1869-1951) was an important figure in early twentieth-century horror fiction: among other things, he created John Silence, a doctor-cum-paranormal-detective, for a series of entertainingly weird stories.īut Blackwood’s standalone horror stories are also well worth reading. Through a series of short instalments, we learn more about the narrator’s situation, and her treatment at the hands of her doctor husband and her sister-in-law. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around, since he has forbidden her to write until she is well again, believing it will overexcite her. ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, an 1892 short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has the structure and style of a diary. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ‘ The Yellow Wallpaper’. Andrew Lang called the story ‘poisonous stuff which has left an extremely disagreeable impression on my mind’, while William Sharp recommended the story be burnt as a ‘detestable piece of work’.ĩ. This early story by Rudyard Kipling, written when he was still in his early twenties and living in India, is our choice. An analysis into the milestones of Gothic literature, in particular into the theme of madness in two very well related short stories: The Tell-Tale Heart. Perhaps no pick of classic Gothic horror stories would be complete without at least one werewolf tale, or story about lycanthropy.

Rudyard Kipling, ‘ The Mark of the Beast’.

#Gothic literature story ideas full

Written when ‘Egyptomania’ – European interest in all things from ancient Egypt – was at its height in late Victorian England, this tale features a reanimated mummy in what might be regarded as a riff on both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Conan Doyle’s own Sherlock Holmes stories (there is an element of mystery and suspense in the story, with the full truth only become apparent during the story’s dramatic denouement).Ĩ. One of the best Gothic short stories on the subject of Egyptology, this 1892 tale shows why Conan Doyle was such a master of the short-story form. We have analysed this classic horror story here.ħ.