'The tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky& seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.'

'The wet winter nights when the door was closed; the smoke, the noise, the wet people: the agony of Netta under the electric light...'

'I'm supposed to say I love you... Well I DON'T. I hate you.'

Forget all that silly symbolism when you studied it a school and rediscover this tale of an innocent 'foreigner in the world of the emotions, ignorant of their language but compelled to listen to it'.

'Cities at night, I feel, contain men who cry in their sleep and then say Nothing. It's nothing. Just sad dreams. Or something like that&'

More of the same from Dan Rhodes - a look at the dark side of love.

A bizarre gothic fairy tale for adults set in a massive castle, from the fantastic but slightly disturbed imagination of Mervyn Peake.

The daddy (or is that mummy?) of Dark British fiction. This is fantastic - a book of wild hate rather than dainty love. Heathcliff is a wild monster from the moors rather than the ponce you remember.