Haunted Castles: The Complete Gothic Stories

This is the complete collection of Ray Russell's Gothic horror fiction, built around the "Gothic S" trilogy of novellas: "Sardonicus," about a nobleman whose face has frozen into a permanent, terrible grin; "Sagittarius," which blends a Jekyll-and-Hyde premise with the Parisian Grand Guignol theater; and "Sanguinarius," the fictionalized confession of Elizabeth Báthory. Four shorter stories round out the volume.

Nearly all the stories are set in centuries-old castles and palazzi rather than contemporary settings, and the horror in them tends to be visceral and human-made rather than supernatural — cruelty, obsession, and the things people do to each other behind old stone walls, more than ghosts.

Stephen King called "Sardonicus" one of the finest examples of the modern Gothic tale. This edition collects Russell's gothic fiction in one volume as part of the Penguin Horror series curated by Guillermo del Toro.