For those new to my page: each year I join in #GothicAdvent, sharing a line from different spooky 19thc. stories every day. Tune in each morning to see what's behind the door, and perhaps you'll find a new favourite
VIY, Nikolai Gogol (1835)
"something in these features…appalled him; a terrible depression seized his heart, as when in the midst of dance and song someone begins to chant a dirge. He felt as though those ruby lips were coloured with his own heart's blood." #GothicAdvent
THE EBONY FRAME, Edith Nesbit (1891)
"I hope I shall never again know a moment of terror as blank & absolute…Either all the known laws of nature were nothing, or I was mad. I stood trembling…while the black velvet gown swept across the hearthrug towards me." #GothicAdvent
TO BE READ AT DUSK, Charles Dickens (1852)
"The face of a dark, remarkable-looking man, in black, w. black hair & a grey moustache…Not a face she ever saw, or at all like a face she ever saw. Doing nothing in the dream but looking at her fixedly out of darkness" #GothicAdvent
THE WITCH, Mary E. Coleridge (1908)
"My hands are stone, and my voice a groan,
And the worst of death is past.
I am but a little maiden still,
My little white feet are sore.
Oh, lift me over the threshold, and let me in at the door!" #GothicAdvent
THE SECRET OF GROWING GOLD, Bram Stoker (1892)
"Before his horror-struck eyes the golden-hair from the broken stone grew…as it increased, so his heart got colder & colder, till at last he had not power to stir, & sat with eyes full of terror watching his doom" #GothicAdvent
Felt it was time for a makeover for #GothicAdvent. Note the name change, as you may not find me by searching for 'Gothic Girl' anymore (alas, I feel too old to call myself that now...)
#WyrdWednesday In 'Ken's Mystery' (Julian Hawthorne, 1888), an American visiting Ireland meets a vampire who seems to bend the laws of time. The only evidence of his encounter is his new banjo, which suddenly looks ancient after their strange affair
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Fancy reading this chilling story about the vampiric fae of Ireland hunting on Halloween? You can find a copy of 'Ken's Mystery' (1888) in the Victorian Gothic Library here: