As a genre, gothic fiction was first established with the publication of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto in 1764. Characterized by a dark, foreboding atmosphere and outlandish, sometimes grotesque, characters and events, gothic fiction has flourished and branched off into many different subgenres in the centuries since its creation. 

While Walpole introduced what would later become the definitive tropes of the genre (creepy castles, cursed families, gloomy atmosphere), it was not until Ann Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance in 1790 that gothic romance began to develop as its own legitimate subgenre. Radcliffe kept many of the same tropes established by Walpole’s work, such as isolated settings with semi-supernatural phenomena; however, her novels featured female protagonists battling through terrifying ordeals while struggling to be with their true loves. This concept is what ultimately separates gothic romance from its cousin, gothic horror.

Female leads would come to dominate gothic romance, especially after the publication of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre in 1847. A young woman struggling to maintain her independence as she falls for a dark, brooding, handsome man became a genre-defining plot of gothic romances published in the decades that followed.

A renewed public interest in gothic romance came on the heels of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca upon its publication in 1938.  Authors such as Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and Phyllis A. Whitney  dominated the gothic romance trade paperback market from the 1960s to the 1990s. The image of a young woman running away from a darkened castle became a staple of gothic romance novel covers. Then, in 1983, Gaywyck, by Vincent Virga, became the first published gay gothic romance.

Modern additions to the genre continue to reflect its interest in both terror and romance, while also delivering updated or reimagined versions of familiar tropes. As an example, here's a list of 15 gothic romances that will thrill both new and veteran readers! (You can also check out our brief history of gothic horror, and our top selections of YA gothic fiction!)

Early Gothic

The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole

In a faraway medieval realm, Manfred, an arrogant and evil prince, rules with an iron fist. Banishing his wife to the castle dungeon, he confines—and plans to wed—the lovely Isabella, fiancée of his recently deceased son.

The prince's plans are foiled, however, when a well-meaning peasant helps the young woman escape through the castle's underground passages. Grisly, supernatural events further aid in fulfilling a prophecy that spells doom for the prince and justice for Isabella's rescuer and rightful heir to the throne.

 

The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe

If beautiful, orphaned Emily St. Aubert is to resist the predatory demands of her new guardian, the inscrutable Signor Montoni, she must quell the superstitious imaginings that pervade her mind.

Within the somber walls of Montoni's medieval castle, the boundaries of real and imagined terrors are blurred as Emily is drawn into a Gothic web of mystery and intrigue which threaten her with the loss of not only her inheritance but also her identity.

Northanger Abbey (1817) by Jane Austen

During an eventful season at Bath, young, naïve Catherine Morland experiences the joys of fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted with her new acquaintances: flirtatious Isabella, who shares Catherine's love of Gothic romance and horror, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their father's mysterious house, Northanger Abbey.

There, her imagination influenced by novels of sensation and intrigue, Catherine imagines terrible crimes committed by General Tilney. Originally written as a satire of Gothic Romance, this Austen novel was published posthumously.

Victorian Gothic 

Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë

The orphaned Jane Eyre has emerged a fiercely independent young woman. As governess at Thornfield Hall, she’s found her first real home—though it stands in the shadow of the estate’s master, Mr. Rochester, and its haunted halls ring with maniacal laughter. For even the grandest houses have secrets.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The windswept moors are the unforgettable setting of this tale of the love between the foundling Heathcliff and his wealthy benefactor’s daughter, Catherine. Through Catherine’s betrayal of Heathcliff and his bitter vengeance, their mythic passion haunts the next generation even after their deaths.

A Long and Fatal Love Chase (1866) by Louisa May Alcott

Rosamond, a smart, strong-willed young woman who desires love and adventure falls for wealthy, dangerously seductive Phillip Tempest, who takes her away to France to mingle with high society.

When Rosamond learns that her husband has hidden an amoral past and a frightening nature, she flees. Phillip follows her across Europe in this high-paced drama of deception, bigamy, domination, and murder. Written in 1866, A Long Fatal Love Chase was finally published in 1995.

Mid-Century Revival

Rebecca (1938) by Daphne Du Maurier

Recommended by Alexandria Abenshon and Amanda Pagan

The unassuming young heroine of Rebecca finds her life changed overnight when she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome and wealthy widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. Rescuing her from an overbearing employer, de Winter whisks her off to Manderley, his isolated estate on the windswept Cornish coast—but there things take a chilling turn.

Max seems haunted by the memory of his glamorous first wife, Rebecca, whose legacy is lovingly tended by the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. As the second Mrs. de Winter finds herself increasingly burdened by the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, she becomes determined to uncover the dark secrets that threaten her happiness, no matter the cost.
 

Dragonwyck (1944) by Anya Seton

In the spring of 1844, the Wells family receives a letter from a distant relative, the wealthy landowner Nicholas Van Ryn. He invites one of their daughters for an extended visit to his Hudson Valley estate, Dragonwyck. Eighteen-year-old Miranda, bored with the local suitors and her commonplace life on the farm, leaps at the chance for escape.

She immediately falls under the spell of Nicholas and his mansion, mesmerized by its Gothic towers, flowering gardens, and luxurious lifestyle—unaware of the dark, terrible secrets that await.

 

Nine Coaches Waiting (1958) by Mary Stewart

Recommended by Anne Rouyer and Amanda Pagan

When lovely Linda Martin first arrives at Château Valmy as an English governess to the nine-year-old Count Philippe de Valmy, the opulence and history surrounding her seems like a wondrous, ecstatic dream. But a palpable terror is crouching in the shadows.

Philippe's uncle, Leon de Valmy, is the epitome of charm, yet dynamic and arrogant—his paralysis little hindrance as he moves noiselessly in his wheelchair from room to room. Only his son, Raoul, a handsome, sardonic man who drives himself and his car with equally reckless abandon, seems able to stand up to him. To Linda, Raoul is an enigma—though irresistibly attracted to him, she senses some dark twist in his nature. When an accident deep in the woods nearly kills Linda's innocent charge, she begins to wonder if someone has deadly plans for the young count.

The Pride of the Peacock (1976) by Victoria Holt

Recommended by Anne Rouyer

An overseas voyage. A cursed opal. Forbidden desire. Raised in the shadow of her family's financial ruin, Jessica Clavering has never felt as though she fit in. When her only friend, an elderly neighbor, offers her the chance at a new life, she's eager to take it. His only condition: she must marry his son, Joss.

The newlyweds inherit a fabled opal mine in Australia. It's only once they arrive on the faraway continent that Jessica starts to uncover her family's dark past and her connection to the Green Flash, an exquisite and spellbinding opal. The stone arouses a dangerous desire in anyone who sees it—even her husband.

Gaywyck (1980) by Vincent Virga

Young, innocent Robert Whyte enters a Jane Eyre-world of secrets and deceptions when he is hired to catalog the vast library at Gaywyck, a mysterious ancestral mansion on Long Island, where he falls in love with its handsome and melancholy owner, Donough Gaylord.

Robert's unconditional love is challenged by hidden evil lurking in the shadowy past, crammed with dark sexual secrets sowing murder, blackmail, and mayhem in the great romantic tradition.

Be Buried in the Rain (1985) by Barbara Michaels

There are terrible secrets from generations past buried at Maidenwood. Medical student Julie Newcomb has returned to her family's decaying plantation—the site of so many painful childhood memories—to tend to her tyrannical grandmother, felled by a stroke. The fire of malevolence still burns in the cruel, despotic matriarch's eyes—yet, for Julie, a faint spark of redemption and second chances flickers in this hated, haunted place.

But Julie's hope—and her life—are seriously threatened by a nightmare reborn… and by the grim discovery on the lonely road to Maidenwood of the earth-browned skeletons of a mother and child.

 

Modern

Affinity (2002) by Sarah Waters

An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by on apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist, Selina Dawes.

Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s freedom, and her own.

Silence for the Dead (2014) by Simone St. James

Recommended by Anne Rouyer

In 1919, Kitty Weekes, pretty, resourceful and on the run, falsifies her background to obtain a nursing position at Portis House, a remote hospital for soldiers left shell-shocked by the horrors of the Great War. Hiding the shame of their mental instability in what was once a magnificent private estate, the patients suffer from nervous attacks and tormenting dreams. But something more is going on at Portis House—its plaster is crumbling, its plumbing makes eerie noises, and strange breaths of cold waft through the empty rooms.

It's known that the former occupants left abruptly, but where did they go? And why do the patients all seem to share the same nightmare, one so horrific that they dare not speak of it?

Kitty finds a dangerous ally in Jack Yates, an inmate who may be a war hero, a madman or maybe both. But even as Kitty and Jack create a secret, intimate alliance to uncover the truth, disturbing revelations suggest the presence of powerful spectral forces. When a medical catastrophe leaves them even more isolated, they must battle the menace on their own, caught in the heart of a mystery that could destroy them both.

Crimson Peak (2016)

When her heart is stolen by a seductive stranger, a young woman is swept away to a house atop a mountain of blood-red clay; a place filled with secrets that will haunt her forever. Between desire and darkness, between mystery and madness, lies the truth.