I Capture the Castle is Dodie Smith's first novel, written in 1949 while living in USA. Smith was already an established playwright and later became famous for authoring the children's classic The Hundred and One Dalmatians. This coming-of-age novel recounts in the first person the adventures of an eccentric family, the Mortmains, struggling to live in a decaying English castle during the 1930s. The narrator is Cassandra Mortmain, an intelligent

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Izzy grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens and never doubted romance would be in her future, too. Now at 26 an impoverished spinster, she'll settle for a roof over her head. Instead, she's sent to a dark castle inhabited by a scarred duke.

In 1965 Rome, aspiring actress Silvia Whitford seeks out the Italian aunt she's never met who lives in a crumbling castello where Silvia gets cast in a new horror movie, but when her aunt disappears, the film's make-believe terrors seep into reality, revealing a growing menace.

"In 1865, orphaned Daisy Francois takes a position as housemaid at a midwestern Wisconsin castle and finds that the reclusive and eccentric Gothic authoress inside hides more than the harrowing tales in her novels. With women disappearing from the area and a legend that seems to parallel these eerie circumstances, Daisy is thrust into a web that may threaten to steal her sanity, if not her life. In the present day, Cleo Clemmons is hired by the grandson...

"An outcast her entire life, Corvina Clemm is left adrift after losing her mother. When she receives the admission letter from the mysterious University of Verenmore, she accepts it as a sign from the universe. The last thing she expects though is an old, secluded castle on top of a mountain riddled with secrets, deceit, and death. An enigma his entire life, Vad Deverell likes being a closed book but knowing exactly everything that happens in the...

"They say one's home is one's castle, but when it comes to Wynter Castle, Merry would like it to belong to someone else. But until a buyer bites, she could use some extra dough, so she decides to take in renters. The idea pans out, and Merry's able to find a handful of tenants eager to live in a real castle. The only problem is most of them are crumby, tea-swilling old biddies. The Legion of Horrible Ladies, as Merry calls them, is led by the terribly...

"Ellie has an ailing sister to care for, and working as a ghost hunter who doesn't believe in ghosts helps cover the bills for both of them. When she's lucky, it also pays for the occasional tropical vacation. Her brother doesn't exactly approve, but Ellie figures she's providing a service. On her latest job, though, she may be in for some genuine scares. The skeptical, reserved, and very rich Nicholas Hartford III has flown her all the way to his...

"From "a master of verbal burlesque [and] a connoisseur of psychological blackmail" (John Updike), Witold Gombrowicz's harrowing and hilarious pastiche of the Gothic novel, now in a new, authoritative English translation. Witold Gombrowicz is considered by many to be Poland's greatest modernist, and in The Possessed, he demonstrates his playful brilliance and astonishing range by using the familiar tropes of the Gothic novel to produce a darkly funny...