Books like “Melmoth the Wanderer”

What to read after “Melmoth the Wanderer” by Charles Robert Maturin: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

About “Melmoth the Wanderer”

Another favorite book?

Or start with a well-known book

1
The Beetle
Richard Marsh · 1897
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Gothic
- Creeping Dread
A strange, insect-like creature arrives in London bent on revenge against a member of Parliament, and its powers reach into the lives of everyone near him. The story is told through several witnesses who each encounter the being and try to stop it.
2
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson · 1962
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Gothic
- Creeping Dread
Eighteen-year-old Merricat lives with her sister and uncle in a large house outside a village that despises them, after the rest of the family died years earlier from poison. When a cousin arrives hoping to claim the estate, the careful order of Merricat's world is broken.
3
The Monk
Matthew Gregory Lewis · 1796
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Faustian Bargain
Ambrosio, a celebrated monk in Madrid, is admired for his apparent virtue until a novice leads him into pride, desire and crime. Around him runs the legend of a sorcerer, and the story follows the abbot's fall from purity into a bargain he cannot undo.
4
Uncle Silas
J. Sheridan Le Fanu · 1864
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Gothic
- Creeping Dread
Orphaned heiress Maud Ruthyn is sent to Bartram-Haugh, the remote house of her uncle Silas, a man once suspected of murder. Isolated there with him, his strange son and a governess, she slowly realises the household is closing in on her.
5
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe · 1794
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Gothic
- Creeping Dread
After her parents die, Emily St. Aubert is left to the care of an aunt who marries an Italian nobleman. Taken to the gloomy castle of Udolpho, she is surrounded by unexplained sounds, sealed rooms and sinister men, while she tries to keep her love and her safety.
6
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë · 1847
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
An orphan becomes a governess at the brooding Thornfield Hall. A bond grows between her and its stern master, but the house hides a dangerous secret that threatens the life she is beginning to hope for.
7
Dracula
Bram Stoker · 1897
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Gothic
- Creeping Dread
A young solicitor journeys to a remote castle in the Carpathians to settle a client's estate, only to find his host is no ordinary nobleman. As the count travels to England, letters and diaries record a creeping sickness spreading from Whitby to London.
8
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton · 1973
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Gothic
- Creeping Dread
A collection of Edith Wharton's ghost stories, written across her career and gathered in one volume. Old houses, railway carriages and country estates hold grudges, apparitions return with unfinished business, and the supernatural creeps into the lives of people who insist they do not believe in it.
9
Interview with the Vampire
Anne Rice · 1976
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Immortal Protagonist
A young interviewer listens as the vampire Louis tells the story of his long life: turned by the powerful Lestat, endlessly hunting to survive, and raising the child vampire Claudia with him in a small, doomed family.
10
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier · 1938
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
A shy young woman marries the widowed Maxim de Winter and arrives at Manderley, his grand estate by the sea. There she is measured against his first wife, the beautiful Rebecca, whose presence lingers in every room, in the servants' loyalty and in a secret nobody will speak.
11
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson · 1886
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Gothic
- Creeping Dread
A respected London doctor is oddly close to a violent, mysterious man named Hyde. When a friend investigates the link between them, he uncovers a scientific experiment that set loose a darker self.
12
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
James Hogg · 1824
From the same world: “Gothic”
- Gothic
- Faustian Bargain
A young man raised to believe he is one of the elect is drawn into a double life by a stranger who may be a demon, a double, or a delusion. His own account of his crimes is set against an editor's, and the two versions refuse to agree.