We all know some of the early classic horror stories that came after Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (DB 25835/BR 12173): Dracula (DB 31689/BR 08277) by Bram Stoker; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (DB 26427/BR 11092) by Robert Louis Stevenson; The complete stories (DB 44929) by Edgar Allan Poe; and The invisible man (DB 47064) by H. G. Wells. But there are many others that were published before and after that have influenced the horror genre over the years. 

To honor the genre in this week's Horror in October blog post, we look back at early writings that have come to truly define the horror genre as it is today. There may be stories and authors that are well-known and others you've maybe never heard of before. Celebrate the horror genre and the month of horror with the following books available in our collection to send in the mail or for immediate download using BARD, Braille and Audio Reading Download, provided by the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. To order any of these or learn more information about BARD, please contact the Kansas Talking Books office at 1-800-362-0699 or KTB@ks.gov.

DB 20577 The woman in white by Wilkie Collins (also available in braille as BR 09083) 
A Victorian melodrama concerning a mysterious woman in white who bears an uncanny resemblance to the fiancee of Count Fosco, a sophisticated fortune hunter. First published as a serial between 1859 and 1860, this chronicle of evil, suspense, and villainy is believed to be the first English novel to deal with crime detection. 1859.

DB 31356 Melmoth the wanderer by Grant Douglas (also available in braille as BR 08339) 
This classic gothic novel by an eccentric Anglican curate in Dublin was originally published in 1820 and tells of a Faust-like hero. John Melmoth has sold his soul to the devil in return for a long life. He can redeem himself if he can find someone to take his place in hell. His search takes him from London's Bedlam mental institution to Spain during the Inquisition, and from Ireland to a mysterious uninhabited island.

DB 50339 The collected tales of Nikolai Gogol by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol (contains the short story Viy)

Thirteen stories newly translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Four from Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (1831-32): "St. John's Eve," "The Night before Christmas," "The Terrible Vengeance," and "Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt." From the Petersburg tales: "Nevsky Prospect," "The Diary of a Madman," "The Nose," and "The Overcoat" among others. 1998. 1998.

DB 56794 The picture of Dorian Gray (also available in braille as BR 17780) / DB 12606 El retrato de Dorian Gray por Oscar Wilde  
First published in the late nineteenth century. A beautiful youth has his portrait painted by an artist with a flair for the morbid. The portrait becomes the mirror of its innocent-appearing subject's inner life. Introduction by Edmund White. 1999.

DB 103861 In the shadow of Edgar Allan Poe: classic tales of horror, 1816-1914 edited by Leslie S. Klinger 
A collection of twenty short horror stories, published between 1816 and 1914, that have been overshadowed by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Includes Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Bram Stoker's "The Squaw." Violence. Commercial audiobook. 2015.

DB 16603 Three Gothic novels edited by E. F. Bleiler 
Three examples of nineteenth-century Gothic literature--Walpole's 'Castle of Otranto', Beckford's 'Vathek', and Polidori's 'Vampyre'--plus a fragment of a novel by Lord Byron.

DB 108772 The complete supernatural stories by Algernon Blackwood 
"Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) was an English short story writer and novelist, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator. S. T. Joshi has stated that "his work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's." Though Blackwood wrote a number of horror stories, his most typical work seeks less to frighten than to induce a sense of awe." -- Provided by publisher. -- Violence and strong language. 2020.

DB 74738 The house on the borderland by William Hope Hodgson 
Ireland. Two gentleman on a fishing trip discover a mysterious diary. It documents an elderly man's exploration of the cave beneath his home, which brought him through time and space to find a simulacrum of his house elsewhere. 1908.

DB 91586 Tales by H. P. Lovecraft; edited by Peter Straub 
Collection of twenty-two stories representing the best of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's fiction, much of it originally published in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales and Astounding Stories. Includes a popular work, "The Outsider" (1926), and the nightmarish science fiction tale "The Colour Out of Space" (1927). Some strong language. 2005.

DB 07946 Gothic tales of terror: classic horror stories from Great Britain, Europe, and United States, 1765-1840 edited by Peter Haining (also available in braille as BR 02392; Stories of note: The Cremona violin by E. T. A. Hoffmann and Hugues the wer-wolf is a novel)
A collection of 30 stories from Germany, France, The Netherlands, Italy and America. Each story is introduced with a short note showing its relationship to the author's work and the literature of the period.

DB 23324 Victorian villainies selected by Graham Greene and Hugh Greene (containing The beetle by Richard Marsh)
The authors have chosen four of their favorites from their personal collection of Victorian and Edwardian detective stories. The tales are about a classic murder, a mysterious Eastern sect, murder on a train, and a human lottery.

DB 35421 Victorian ghost stories: an Oxford anthology selected and introduced by Michael Cox and R.A. Gilbert (Stories of note: The captain of the ‘Pole-star’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Canon Alberic's scrap-book by M.R. James)
Thirty-five scary tales about interactions between the living and the dead, selected from the period when supernatural fiction, especially with the help of small magazines, flourished. Many stories are by well-known authors, such as Henry James, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, and R.L. Stevenson. Several are set in haunted houses, typically around Christmas.

DB 108612 Ghost stories: classic tales of horror and suspense edited by Leslie S. Klinger and Lisa Morton (also available in braille as BR 24231) 
"The ghost story has long been a staple of world literature, but many of the genre's greatest tales have been forgotten, overshadowed in many cases by their authors' bestselling work in other genres. In this spine-tingling anthology, little known stories from literary titans like Charles Dickens and Edith Wharton are collected alongside overlooked works from masters of horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe and M. R. James. Acclaimed anthologists Leslie S. Klinger The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes and Lisa Morton Ghosts: A Haunted History set these stories in historical context and trace the literary significance of ghosts in fiction over almost two hundred years--from a traditional English ballad first printed in 1724 up to the science fiction-tinged tales of the early twentieth century." -- Provided by publisher. -- Some violence. 2019.

DB 18129 The turn of the screw by Henry James 
A somewhat neurotic new governess is convinced her two beautiful young pupils are subject to the evil influence of two ghosts, a former steward of the estate and a former governess. She pits her will against the ghosts and is determined to exorcise the demons from her young charges. 1898.

DB 40864 Drácula: la novela original por Bram Stoker 
Una historia de vampiros ambientada a finales del siglo XIX. Jonathan Harker, un abogado inglés, visita al conde Drácula en su castillo de Transilvania para tramitar algunos negocios. No tarda en descubrir que Drácula no es el hombre normal que aparenta ser sino un monstruo. Su horror se acentúa cuanto Drácula se muda a Inglaterra.

DB 25706 Frankenstein por Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, traduccion Manuel Serrat Crespo 
Classic horror story. A monster, endowed with life by a young scientist named Frankenstein, later turns on his creator. Spanish language.

DB 22515 El extrano caso del Doctor Jekyll y de Mister Hyde por Robert Louis Stevenson 
In this psychological novel of the war waged between good and evil within the human personality, a kindly physician commits diabolical crimes when his suppressed personality is released. Spanish language.

BRG04514 Terror by night: classic ghost and horror stories by Ambrose Bierce 
Of all the writers of ghost and horror stories, Ambrose Bierce is perhaps the most colourful. He was a dark, cynical and pessimistic soul who had a grim vision of fate and the unfairness of life, which he channeled into his fiction. There are more than 50 short stories in this excellent collection. Some are no more than a couple of pages long and few are longer than ten pages. Unrated. Marrakesh title.

BR 13701 Gothic tales by Elizabeth Gaskell; edited by Laura Kranzler (contains Lois the Witch and The Grey Woman)
Short stories and the novella Lois the Witch from a nineteenth-century feminist. In “The old nurse's story” a father casts out a daughter and her child to perish in the cold. In “The crooked branch” a son returns home to rob his parents. Introduction and notes by Laura Kranzler. 2000.