A Quaint and Curious Volume

by Various

Introduced by Sarah Perry, the best-selling author of The Essex Serpent.

Uncanny. Mysterious. Eerie. Gothic.

It draws us in with its air of mystery and repels us with its violence and darkness. But who were the first practitioners of the now-prevalent genre?

This curated book collects the works of such masters as Edgar Allan Poe, Christina Rossetti and Mary Shelley, who with flickering candles, mysterious castles and chilling ravens first frightened and delighted readers.

With a brilliantly insightful introduction by Sarah Perry, the contemporary master of the gothic genre, this book will immerse and entangle you in the roots of the gothic. Just be careful not to get lost.

Includes such classic poems as ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ by Robert Browning, and ‘Goblin Market’ by Christina Rosetti.

With extracts from classic gothic novels, such as Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and The Castle of Otronto by Horace Walpole.

And some spine-tingling short stories such as ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ‘The Dream Woman’ by Wilkie Collins, and the famous ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allen Poe.

Genres: Dark Academia, Poetry, Fiction, Horror, Gothic, Classics, Short Stories

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2019

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

November 2019, Rating: 5/5 stars
April 2021, Rating: 5/5 stars

This book is a lustrous wonder, and all it contains are no different. This combines a collection of Gothic poems and short tales from the Victorian era, all loosely themed around five tarot cards: The Lovers, Wheel of Fortune, The Tower, The Magician, and The Devil.

I had already read the majority of the contents and this contained a few number of my personal favourites, but it was pleasant to revisit something so well-known, well-loved, and have them combined in a volume of such evocative beauty. The only sections that did not appeal were the small snippets taken from longer Gothic works. I prefer not to read samples and would instead invest the time to read the entire thing. This formed merely a handful of pages, over the course of the collection, and there were still untold wonders surrounding them for me to enjoy and adore.

Individual ratings:

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe - 5/5 stars
Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning - 5/5 stars
The Song of Wandering Aengus by William Butler Yeats - 4/5 stars
Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe - 3.5/5 stars
The Wedding-Knell by Nathaniel Hawthorne - 3/5 stars
The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy - 4/5 stars
The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell - 5/5 stars
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe - 5/5 stars
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - 5/5 stars
The Body-Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson - 4/5 stars
The Dream Woman by Wilkie Collins - 3.5/5 stars
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti - 5/5 stars
The Tapestried Chamber by Sir Walter Scott - 4/5 stars
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe - 5/5 stars

[Ewerton Lemos · Rating 4 out of 5]

O que me interessava aqui era o Vampiro de Polidori. Mas os demais contos também são ótimos.

[Rhea Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was bought the hardback as a gift and it is a beautiful book, the chapter titles have wonderful graphics, and I have discovered a few more authors within this book who I did not know before, I did not like all the stories but that it the risk of a compilation (it turns out I don't think much of Edgar Allen Poe).

[Jade Borah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great Gothic book
This book holds brilliant poem and short stories with element of mysterious and Gothic vibe . It was amazing reading the short stories coming from different authors . There are some of my favourite stories but all the stories are fabulous. The stories are very well structured and unpredictable.
Recommended to every Gothic book lover

[B. Walborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The quintessential read for October including my personal favs from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Poe, as well as the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Quaint, no. Curious for more? Indeed!

[Emma Wardall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The extracts were frustrating, as I then had to pause and go elsewhere to read the full stories.