The Witch

A monk sells his soul and returns as a warlock, and his descendants become the witches of Pendle Forest. A long Victorian romance built on the real witch trials of 1612.

William Harrison Ainsworth

A pastor's daughter finds amber on a Baltic beach and ends up accused of witchcraft. Written as a 17th-century chronicle, it fooled many readers into thinking it was a real trial record.

Wilhelm Meinhold

An English orphan arrives in Salem in 1691, just as the witch panic begins. Gaskell turns the trials into a quiet, devastating story about fear and suspicion.

Elizabeth Gaskell

A mysterious woman with hypnotic powers pursues a stranger through the streets of 19th-century Prague. Crawford blends occult science, obsession, and the dark atmosphere of the old city.

F. Marion Crawford

A girl who survived her parents' burning in France grows up in Puritan Massachusetts convinced she is the bride of a demon. Told in the voice of an old chronicle, with woodcut illustrations.

Esther Forbes