# Gothic Tales

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/elizabeth-gaskell/gothic-tales/9780140437416

![Gothic Tales](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/elizabeth-gaskell/gothic-tales_978-01-4043-741-6.jpg?v=2026-04-23%2004%3A15%3A25)

- Book: [Gothic Tales](https://www.bookquiver.com/elizabeth-gaskell/gothic-tales) ([Gothic Tales.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/elizabeth-gaskell/gothic-tales.md))
- Authors: [Elizabeth Gaskell](https://www.bookquiver.com/elizabeth-gaskell)
- Publisher: penguin_classics
- ISBN: 978-01-4043-741-6
- Pages: 416
- Published: 2004-07-29
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. 'Disappearances', inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; 'Lois the Witch', a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria; while in 'The Old Nurse's Story' a mysterious child roams the freezing Northumberland moors. Whether darkly surreal, such as 'The Poor Clare', where an evil doppelgänger is formed by a woman's bitter curse, or mischievous like 'Curious, if True', a playful reworking of fairy tales, all the stories in this volume form a stark contrast to the social realism of Gaskell's novels, revealing a darker and more unsettling style of writing.