A Scots Quair
Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1932–1934)
Read on Project Gutenberg Australia
A modern Scottish classic comprising the novels Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite. Through the life of Chris Guthrie, A Scots Quair traces the transformation of rural Scotland across the early twentieth century. It combines lyrical prose and social realism. Gibbon’s trilogy depicts the tensions between land and industry, tradition and change, individuality and community.
Carmilla
J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)
Read on Project Gutenberg
A foundational work of Gothic fiction and one of the earliest vampire narratives in English. Carmilla combines psychological suspense with themes of desire and secrecy, anticipating later vampire literature, including Dracula. Le Fanu’s novella is central to Irish Gothic writing and to the development of supernatural fiction.
Melmoth the Wanderer
Charles Robert Maturin (1820)
Read on Standard Ebooks
A definitive digital edition of Maturin’s Gothic novel, edited and presented by Standard Ebooks. Melmoth the Wanderer is a landmark of Irish Romantic and Gothic fiction, exploring themes of damnation and transgression. The Standard Ebooks edition offers a carefully proofread text with modern formatting.
The House with the Green Shutters
George Douglas Brown (1901)
Read on Project Gutenberg
A landmark of Scottish realist fiction, The House with the Green Shutters exposes the small-town hypocrisy and moral suffocation of the Kailyard era. Brown’s unflinching social vision and psychological depth marked a sharp break from sentimental portrayals of rural Scotland, influencing later writers such as Lewis Grassic Gibbon and George Blake.
The Watcher by the Threshold and Other Tales
John Buchan (1902)
Read on Project Gutenberg
A collection of supernatural and psychological stories set in Scotland and beyond, The Watcher by the Threshold mixes elements of Gothic fiction with Buchan’s profound sense of landscape and folklore. The tales move between realism and the uncanny, examining guilt and the fragile boundary between the rational and the mysterious.