"The Lock and Key Library" is an anthology of short stories edited by Julian Hawthorne (1846-1934), an American writer and journalist who was the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The edition featuring "Classic Mystery and Detective Stories," in Old-time English was published in 1909, and features stories from such illustrious authors as Charles Dickens, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Thomas De Quincey, Charles Robert Maturin, Laurence Sterne, and William Makepeace Thackeray, as well as some stories of anonymous authorship. This is a collection and study of popular short stories from various regions in the world. Gothic fiction often features topics of haunted houses, ghosts and similar supernatural mysteries.