The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey

The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey is a gothic novel first published in 1797 in one octavo volume by the sensationalist Minerva Press of London.

A gothic tale of horror, rather than suspense, it centres on the physical and grotesque, rather than on metaphysical terror.

The novel tells the story of Laura, a foundling refugee from revolutionary France, her attempted seduction at the hands of Lord Oakendale and her explorations of the haunted Cumberland abbey of the title which lead her to stumble upon a den of resurrection men and body snatchers.

It is unusually graphic in its depiction of death and decay, even by the standards of the day, in terms of its descriptions of the gruesome.

The book is similar in some respects to Eliza Parsons' The Castle of Wolfenbach although it does not have the same emotional subtlety of that work.