Victorian Psycho
Published on 12. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-0-00-873963-8 (ISBN)
Description
'Jane Eyre meets American Psycho. Gloriously outrageous, sensationally unhinged' SUNDAY TIMES
'Simmering with rage, propulsive and laugh-out-loud funny' CATRIONA WARD
'Weird and wonderful' LUCY MANGAN, GUARDIAN
Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She'll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifred spends within the estate's dreary confines and the more she learns of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family, the more trouble she has sticking to her plan.
Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past until her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning. Wielding her signature sardonic wit and a penchant for the gorgeously macabre, Virginia Feito returns with a vengeance in Victorian Psycho.
NOW BEING ADAPTED FOR A MAJOR FILM BY A24
What readers are saying...
'Psychotic, strange, utterly hilarious, strangely relatable'
'Dark, gruesome, hilarious, wild, weird'
'One hell of a ride. Perfection!'
'I frequently found myself blindsided, mouth agape, and loved every second of it'
'Simmering with rage, propulsive and laugh-out-loud funny' CATRIONA WARD
'Weird and wonderful' LUCY MANGAN, GUARDIAN
Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She'll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifred spends within the estate's dreary confines and the more she learns of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family, the more trouble she has sticking to her plan.
Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past until her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning. Wielding her signature sardonic wit and a penchant for the gorgeously macabre, Virginia Feito returns with a vengeance in Victorian Psycho.
NOW BEING ADAPTED FOR A MAJOR FILM BY A24
What readers are saying...
'Psychotic, strange, utterly hilarious, strangely relatable'
'Dark, gruesome, hilarious, wild, weird'
'One hell of a ride. Perfection!'
'I frequently found myself blindsided, mouth agape, and loved every second of it'
Reviews / Votes
'So weird and wonderful I am already adding it to my recommendations at the end of this year' Lucy Mangan, Guardian 'Elegant and viciously funny. Think Jane Eyre meets Patrick Bateman. Sensationally unhinged.' Sunday Times 'Simmering with rage, propulsive and laugh-out-loud funny, this novel is nothing less than a masterpiece' Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street 'The literary lovechild of Jane Eyre and American Psycho. Murderous literary fun.' The Times 'I am OBSESSED. A gleeful, gory pastiche shot through with pitch-black humour.' Kirsty Logan 'Virginia Feito turns Victorian tropes upside down in this gloriously grotesque period horror' Independent 'Brutal, bold, and brilliantly macabre. A decadent delight for all lovers of the darkest Victorian gothic.' Essie Fox 'Riotous, devilishly clever, and deliciously appalling, Victorian Psycho is flat out brilliant. Long live Winifred! She is the anti-hero this, or any other, century deserves' Paul Tremblay 'Relentlessly moody in the best possible way, Victorian Psycho asks how anyone could live sanely in a time so systemically cruel. Atmospheric, funny, bloody as hell, I finished it in one sitting' Ainslie Hogarth 'Night-black and altogether delicious fun.' Paraic O'Donnell 'A wicked delight and a hilariously twisted tale, underlining the cruelty of Victorian society with a humourous deftness that is to be admired' Emma Hinds Praise for Mrs March: 'A brilliantly tense psychological study from a writer who keeps pace with Du Maurier' Guardian 'Virginia Feito's noirish debut novel left me rapt. An elegant, claustrophobic psychological thriller that feels incredibly original' Evening Standard 'There are shades of Hitchcock and Highsmith here, while the opening chapter puts one in mind of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Nastily good fun' Metro 'I read Mrs. March in one sitting and was so captured by it. As a character, she is fascinating, complex, and deeply human' Elisabeth MossMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
190 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-873963-8 (9780008739638)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Virginia Feito was raised in Madrid and Paris, and studied English and drama at Queen Mary University of London. She worked as a copywriter until she quit to write her debut novel. She lives in Madrid.