Top Classic Horror Novels in the Public Domain

Camilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

The Camila is a story of a young adult woman named Laura, who lives with her widowed fathered in a castle. Shortly, a woman arrives with her wounded daughter, Camilla arrives at the castle to join the family but she left Camilla behind in the care of the Laura and her widowed father.

The King In Yellow by Robert W. Chambers

The King In Yellow featuring 10 stories is a book of short stories by Robert W. Chambers and is named after a play with the same title that recurs as a motif through some of the stories. Having stood the test of time, the book has been described by popular critics as a classic in the field of supernatural.

The three Imposters by Arthur Machen

The Three Imposter is an episodic novel that centers on the members of secret occultic groups who weave a web of deception in the streets of London.

The house on the Borderlands by Williams Hope Hodgson

The House on the Borderland centers on a group of people on vacation, who come across the ruins of a house in Ireland. Lies within the ruins is a diary of a lonely man who used to live in the house. The diary unveils how the lonely man’s house turned into a parallel dimension of pigman and other creatures.

The Dunwich Horror by H.P Lovecraft

The Dunwich Horror is a classic tale of terror by Grotesque that introduces us to the grim village of Dunwich where each member of a family named Whateley is more grotesque than the other.

Dracula by Bram Stroker

Dracula by Bram Stroker is one of the most famous horror novels in history. Although Dracula doesn’t have an immediate recognition upon publication but had a sale pick up when It was unofficially adapted into stage play Nosferatu. Bram’s Dracul continues to inspire new and creative adaptation and reinvention in the world of horror writings.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

In the modern sense, Shelly’s Frankenstein is the first horror novel that features a story of creatures created from the parts of dead bodies and reamended by weird science. It is also regarded as the first sci-fi novel.

The Turn of The Screw by Henry James

This classic novel by James was published in 1898 and considered a guaranteed thriller even for contemporary readers as it remains modern. The horror novel presents a story of a governess to two tender children in Essex who become consumed that the ghost of the dead household staffs are possessing the children and haunting the home.

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe’s story is a short one that centers on a man who sets to take an act of fatal revenge on a friend who, he believes has insulted him in an unnamed Italian City during the central period in an unspecified time.

Ghost Story by Peter Straub

Straub’s Ghost Story is a classic ghost story element in modern style, told from the point of view of five older friends who share common secrete but gather every year to tell ghost stories.