A Word to the Reader
This collection is an homage.
An homage to the writer who first stirred my imagination in its cradle, Edgar Allan Poe. I was five years old when I first encountered his words. I didn’t yet understand every line, but I understood the feeling: the gravity of dread, the elegance of decay, the strange music in ruin. I have loved him ever since.
In Echoes from the Dark, you will find deliberate references to Poe’s world, not only in tone and structure, but in names like Eleanor, Silas, Cyril. These are not random. They are invitations. Ghosts. Echoes. Names that resonate with the 19th century Gothic landscape: evocative, old, formal, tinged with tragedy.
This book seeks to capture that same feeling, the dusky light of gas lamps, the hush of moorland fog, the rustle of drapes in uninhabited rooms. That feeling when words feel embroidered, when death seems romantic, and madness poetic.
The language you’ll encounter is often elaborate. This is intentional. The Gothic tradition is not built on economy; it thrives on excess, on atmosphere,                              on embellishment. It is not here to tell you a story efficiently, it is here to ensnare you. To lull and unsettle.
Some stories lean into anatomical grotesquerie. Others, into spiritual torment or dark farce. But each, in its way, is Gothic.
Each tale is a room. Some are locked. Some are bleeding. Some may never let you leave.
Enter carefully. And listen for echoes.
Wertheim, June 2025, Gerardus Baron von Sachsen