Free Halloween Ebooks from DPLA

By Kathleen Williams, October 8, 2021.
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The DPLA Curation Corps invites you to get into the Halloween spirit with haunting reads from our collection of more than 10,000 free ebooks. All are available for instant download, no registration, password, or trick-or-treating required.

See the entire Halloween collection here, or read on for recommendations from the Curation Corps: 

Jack o’lantern, courtesy American University and District Digital via dp.la

Grimms’ Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1812) 

Grimms’ Fairy Tales is a collection of German fairy tales, many of which have inspired popular, recent films and retellings. The original Tales are quite dark and violent, and often not recommended for children, but these tellings of Rapunzel, Snow White, and Hansel and Gretel are classics for a reason. – Georgia Westbrook, MSLIS (NY)


Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock (1818)

Nightmare Abbey is a macabre novella set in Lancashire, England that satirizes gothic literature of the time. This is the story of Christopher Glowry and his son Scythrop. Scythrop falls in love with two women, who find out about each other and they both leave. – Mary Ann Lema, Director, Prairie Trails Public Library District (IL)


The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890)

Wilde’s story tells of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. This is both Wilde’s most popular work and, at the time it was published, his most scandalous. – Cynthia Bower, Former Librarian, University of Arizona (AZ)


The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892) 

A chilling depiction of the fate of many women throughout history. This story is based on a true episode in the author’s life. – Amelia Raines, Reference Librarian at Geography & Map Division, Library of Congress (D.C.)


Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

The vampire novel that started it all, and probably sexier, more violent, and edgier than most people anticipate. While not described in gruesome detail, there’s plenty of staking, throat slashing, biting, and blood drinking. Stoker’s Count Dracula is not a tortured romantic hero, but rather an evil monster that must be destroyed. – Cynthia Bower, Former Librarian, University of Arizona (AZ)


The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)


A young woman takes a job as governess to a pair of unusual children at an isolated country estate. What happens next is creepy, twisty, and altogether disturbing. – Stacy Tomaszewski, Electronic Resources Librarian, Alameda County Library (CA)


The Trial by Franz Kafka (1925) 

The Trial is an unforgettable Kafka novel, written in 1915 and published posthumously in 1925. It tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader, leading to an abrupt execution. The story evokes the deepest uncertainty, as the man repeatedly hits closed doors trying to prove his innocence in futility. The existential nightmare stems from the conflict between the individual and a totalitarian authority. – Brianna Furcron, DPLA Curation Corps Team Leader, formerly Special Collections Librarian, State of Arizona Research Library and Archives (AZ)


The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (1843) 

Poe’s classic prose is chilling, engrossing, and supremely creepy. Much like the narrator, you may find you can’t get it out of your head. – Emily Rastovich, Media Coordinator, Malabon Elementary School (OR)


The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (1820) 

Ichabod Crane, a schoolmaster from Connecticut, visits Sleepy Hollow, intent on marrying a local beauty named Katrina Van Tassel. A competing suitor plays tricks on Crane and tells him ghost stories, which seem to come true as he journeys home one evening. Things come to a head when he encounters a cloaked rider near the Old Dutch Burying Ground. – Georgia Westbrook, MSLIS (NY)


The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (1820) 

This novel, Inspired by true events around the Paris Opera during the nineteenth century, is the source material for Andrew Lloyd Weber’s famous musical of the same name. After a stagehand is found dead at a purportedly haunted opera house, mysterious figures and voices appear – ultimately leading the characters into a tangled web of love, jealousy, and passion. – Georgia Westbrook, MSLIS (NY)


The Ghost Pirates and Others: The Best of William Hope Hodgson by William Hope Hodgson (1909) 

A compendium of spooky and fantastical stories, many of them set at sea. You had me at “ghost pirates!” – Amelia Raines, Reference Librarian at Geography & Map Division, Library of Congress (D.C.)


The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells (1895)

This riveting tale of Edward Prendick– shipwrecked on a Pacific island lorded over by the infamous Dr. Moreau–eerily predicts many of the potentially terrifying consequences of the misuse of science.. Here on Dr. Moreau’s island of lost souls, Prendick confronts dark secrets, horrifying creatures, and a reason to run for his life. – Cynthia Bower, Former Librarian, University of Arizona (AZ)


Viy by Nikolai Gogol (1901)

A classic, chilling short story involving the fulfillment of a young student’s promise to pray next to a young girl’s coffin for three successive, terrifying nights. The girl, daughter of a Russian colonel, is suspected of being a vampire. – Cynthia Bower, Former Librarian, University of Arizona (AZ)


The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells (1902)

Clayton describes an encounter he had with a ghost to his friends. He tried to convince the ghost to leave the club, but the ghost had problems going through the correct motions to disappear. – Mary Ann Lema, Director, Prairie Trails Public Library District (IL)


Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by Montague Rhodes James (1904)  

Ancient books, stately manor houses, 17th-century witches and other echoes of bygone centuries haunt the present-day inhabitants of English and Danish country towns. History enthusiasts will love this collection of eerie tales. – Amelia Raines, Reference Librarian at Geography & Map Division, Library of Congress (D.C.)


The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde (1887) 

Oscar Wilde roasts the formalities of the bourgeoisie in this unconventional and hilarious ghost story. The Canterville Ghost gets a taste of his own medicine after haunting the estate for centuries when the game is flipped upon the arrival of the Americans.  – Brianna Furcron, DPLA Curation Corps Team Leader, formerly Special Collections Librarian, State of Arizona Research Library and Archives (AZ)


DPLA’s ebook work is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.