Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) was said by her to have been inspired by a dream, and in much Gothic fiction, characters have visions in dreams.

In Peter Ibbetson (1891) by George du Maurier, Peter lives a life in dreams, preferring them to everyday life. While actually in prison, Peter inhabits an ideal dream world with the woman he loves. George Borrow referred to his fictionalized autobiographies Lavengro (1851) and The Romany Rye (1857) as a "dream of life," and his books share with The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath a wandering plot. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) made dream-world literature a staple of fiction for children. Its weird and eccentric characters echo those of Lovecraft's novel.