When we think of the Gothic, a wide variety of dark and frightening images spring to mind. But as well as stormy nights and decaying castles, readers of the Gothic will also find scientific laboratories and even ordinary, modern houses. Catherine Redford draws on a whole range of classic Gothic texts to explore the genre, from William Beckford's Vathek to Bram Stoker's Dracula, from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. She also explores the way modern writers have treated the Gothic in novels like Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory, Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark, William Faulkner's Light in August and Toni Morrison's Beloved.