There’s much in the Gothic that has the capacity to entertain and enthral even the most reluctant readers, but the genre can present some accessibility challenges too. Archaic language, lengthy wordcounts and unfamiliar contexts can be barriers for many students who would otherwise love the twisting, brooding thrill of Gothic novels.
We’ve gathered together a collection of our short texts, written by award-winning authors, perfect for teaching the Gothic at KS3. Showcasing widely-studied literary conventions and packaged with all our super-readable features, these stories offer a rich source of study that can be enjoyed by both confident and struggling readers in the classroom.
Each book comes with free accompanying teaching notes - click the links below to download.
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The Boy at the Window by Lucy Strange
Award-winning author Lucy Strange spent 15 years as a secondary school English teacher and has crafted this perfectly formed short novel specifically designed to support study of the Gothic in KS3.
The book comes with free classroom notes, written by Lucy herself, to help develop reading strategies and support teaching around the novel.
Read Lucy's blog post featuring useful tips for teaching the Gothic to KS3 students.
You can watch author Lucy Strange introduce The Boy at the Window below:
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Dyslexia-Friendly Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The world-famous Victorian tale and definitive Gothic text, made accessible to more readers. Completely unabridged and beautifully packaged in a dyslexia-friendly format, this edition is ideal either as a whole class read or for groups of struggling readers.
The book comes with free classroom notes designed to embed understanding, help develop reading strategies and encourage wider research.
Click here to see the full range of dyslexia-friendly classics.
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Classic retellings
Timeless classics retold by award-winning authors to make them available to more readers. Key themes and scenes are accentuated in a more concise format with dyslexia-friendly layouts.
Dracula: a Retelling by Tanya Landman
Bram Stoker's Dracula is a masterpiece of horror fiction in which he creates a nightmarish world of vampires, evil-doing and insanity. A ship steered by a dead man… A huge black dog springing from its deck… A girl, sleepwalking towards disaster… When rising young solicitor Jonathan Harker helps the mysterious and sinister Count Dracula purchase property in London he unleashes an evil that threatens to destroy the whole of humanity.
Particularly suitable for readers aged 11+ with a reading age of 9. Free discussion guide available.
Wuthering Heights: a Retelling
The night that Heathcliff, an unkempt orphan, arrives at the Heights, Cathy’s life will change for ever … but theirs will not be a happy love story. From a harsh childhood to a foolish marriage, a troubled path of pain and punishment lies ahead. Yet no matter how they suffer, they cannot stay apart – for whatever souls are made of, Cathy’s and Heathcliff’s are the same. After all these years, will Cathy’s ghost find the peace that life denied her?
Particularly suitable for readers aged 11+ with a reading age of 9. Free discussion guide available.
Frankenstein: a Retelling by Tanya Landman
A thrilling gothic tale of hubris gone badly wrong. A young man’s search for the secret of the spark of life leads him to a horrific experiment in which he creates a gigantic creature from dismembered body parts. Rejected by his creator, the initially gentle creature turns monstrous when his desire to find companionship and love are thwarted.
Particularly suitable for readers aged 11+ with a reading age of 9. Free discussion guide available.
Great Expectations: a Retelling by Tanya Landman
Orphaned as baby, Pip is raised by his sister to live the simple life of a blacksmith’s boy. But a chance encounter in a graveyard and a visit to a ruined mansion set him on a different path. When a secret benefactor pays for him to become a gentleman, Pip’s life takes a greatly unexpected turn …
Particularly suitable for readers aged 11+ with a reading age of 9. Free discussion guide available.
Jane Eyre: a Retelling by Tanya Landman
Orphaned as a child, tormented by her guardian and cast out to a harsh boarding school, Jane Eyre has been raised in the shadow of cruelty and isolation. But when she takes a job as governess in Thornfield Hall, where secrets lurk in the attic and strange laughter echoes through the night, Jane meets the elusive Mr Rochester – and her life is irrevocably transformed.
Particularly suitable for readers aged 11+ with a reading age of 9. Free discussion guide available.
Coming soon...
Keep your eyes peeled for the next in this series, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, arriving March 2026 ...
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