Six great Gothic castles from literature

Veronica Bond is the pseudonym of a beloved author who has taught high school English for twenty-nine years.

[Writers Read: Veronica Bond]

Her new novel, Death in Castle Dark, introduces a series which Bond describes as Cozy-Gothic. Death in Castle Dark focuses on a young actress who joins a murder mystery troupe in an eerie isolated castle.

At CrimeReads Bond tagged six favorite Gothic castles from literature, including:

Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker

Stoker’s novel fits the category of “Gothic Horror,” but there is delicious mystery in his setting: an isolated castle in the Carpathian mountains that cannot be found on a map, and from which one can hear little more than the howling of wolves. Count Dracula himself describes the chilling atmosphere:

“Moreover, the walls of my castle are broken; the shadows are many, and the wind breathes cold through the broken battlements and casements.”

Read about another entry on the list.

Dracula is on Aimée Carter's list of ten of the best shapeshifters in fiction, Helen Maslin's ten best list of castles and manors in fiction, John Mullan's list of the ten best coach rides in literature, Rowan Somerville's top ten list of good sex in fiction, Arthur Phillips' list of six favorite books set in places that their authors never visited, and Anthony Browne's six best books list. It is one of the books on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best teeth in literature, ten of the best wolves in literature and ten of the best mirrors in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue