Best Served Cold: New and Classic Books About Revenge

"As story engines go, the classic revenge tale is a sturdy piece of narrative equipment. Shakespeare was fond of the theme (Othello). Emily Brontë got a Gothic fiction classic out of it (Wuthering Heights). In recent years, the vengeance template has powered hugely successful popular novels—Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, say.

In honor of this noble, disturbing, and occasionally funny literary theme, we've put together a specially curated package of great revenge stories. These ten books are designed to be a kind of tasting menu of revenge, which—as you may be aware—is best served cold. We've included books both old (1844!) and new (this month!) and have attempted to cover a wide range of styles, tones, and genres.

As always, please bear in mind that this is not intended to be a complete collection or any kind of ranked list. It's just a chance to celebrate the good old revenge story."