Horror Classics

[Dark Muse]

Other than Poe and H.P Lovecraft I have not read much in the way of classical horror. I have a couple of anthologies of horror stories that have a mix of both modern and classical authors. But I would be interested in reading more of the classics of horror.

What authors or stories do you reccomend?

[SirRaustusBear]

I loved The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux but I guess that's more mystery than horror.

[Dark Muse]

I really liked the new movie they made from it

[barbara0207]

Try Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' and Mary Wollstonecraft-Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Then you might proceed to 'Melmoth the Wanderer' by Charles Robert Maturin and afterwards try the stories by Stanislaw Lem.

Being 19th century, the first three may appear to you to be a bit wordy, but they're worth reading all the same. Enjoy! :)

[Dark Muse]

I have read Frankenstein and I loved it. Though I have not acutally read Dracula yet, I read a short story by Stoker, called Dracula's Guest, and I enjoyed that

[book_jones]

Ambrose Bierce wrote some good ghost stories, but he also write some dumb ones too. I guess it's the same way for most authors.

[CathyEarnshaw]

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a bit of a horror classic. Good choice if you haven't read it yet.

[Jozanny]

The odd thing, for me, not that I mean to be the spoiler of the discussion, is that I cannot think of any classical literary work that actually horrifies me, or causes terror. So many things have been done with vampirism that the challenge for the author is how do you keep it fresh. The original certainly doesn't scare me, and in terms of movies, I like Coppola's(?) emphasis on Dracula as the romantic anti-hero, but Nosferatu is more sophisticated in how it develops the plague motif, at least in the modern remake. Before my mother died, I had an anthology of vampire stories and wish I knew what happened to it, because I would not have thought it possible, but towards the contemporary section, at the end of the book, there was a nearly post-modern version by a woman contributor, and she played the story straight, hard 20th century realism. The vampire was named Weslayn, I think, more human than monster--very powerfully written, and not frightening.

Writers like Poe and Maupassant sustain tension and suspense in their strongest works, but scare? No.

I hate to give Stephen King any credit, but I read Carrie when I was 14, home bound on a cot, at night, late, before Sissy Spacek made the role, and the novel truly frightened me. I thought my heart was going to stop as well as Carrie's mother's.

I tend not to like modern thrillers though, and cannot think of the usual psychotic genius plots that really frighten me, unless I take the time to actually read Highsmith rather than see her madmen in movies. I did find the modern Ripley disturbing, chilling in a way--Matt Damon taps on some interesting resources to inhabit these characters.:p

But this is an instance where I think film has taken over from what written stories can do. Horror as a literary genre is... I hate to say quaint, but quaint. It cannot match what you can find even browsing the Associated Press crime articles. Anyone read about the decapitation on Canadian Greyhound which just recently occurred?

I think literary authors are at a loss in terms of having an answer for this, and mine horror conceptually rather than viscerally.

[Janine]

Try Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' and Mary Wollstonecraft-Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Then you might proceed to 'Melmoth the Wanderer' by Charles Robert Maturin and afterwards try the stories by Stanislaw Lem.

Being 19th century, the first three may appear to you to be a bit wordy, but they're worth reading all the same. Enjoy! :)

Barbara, I am the same as Dark Muse; I read "Frankenstein" several times and love it, but haven't gotten to "Dracula" yet. I recently read "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", and I bought a book of Ambrose Bierce's famous ghost stories/civil war stories. I hope to read that soon. I saw a TV production, featuring several of the stories and loved them all; even though Civil War themed they have a ghostly aspect.

[Joreads]

Try Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' and Mary Wollstonecraft-Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Then you might proceed to 'Melmoth the Wanderer' by Charles Robert Maturin and afterwards try the stories by Stanislaw Lem.

Being 19th century, the first three may appear to you to be a bit wordy, but they're worth reading all the same. Enjoy! :)


I have read Dracula and loved it. I have added Frankenstein to my list today

[Janine]

"Frankenstein" is a great read; and to think such a young woman wrote it. I just love it! I could read it again; in fact, recently I started to listen to it on audiofile and loved the narration by Kenneth Branagh. I must resume that soon.

[barbara0207]

Janine and Joereads - try Stanislaw Lem and Poe by all means. You'll enjoy their stories.

And I'd recommend Lem to you, too, Jozanny - if you're not too hardened by the news yet. And then there's Poe for you, of course, e.g. Pit and Pendulum. Still gives me the shivers. The story is about a (political) prisoner that has been sentenced to death. He finds himself in a pitchdark cell. He knows death is waiting for him there - but what will it be? Or the pendulum - a sharp blade swinging over him, deeper and deeper, and he can watch and imagine what part of his body it will cut first and how death will be very slow but certain.

Of course 19th century gothic novels do not horrify us in the same way as their contemporaneans. Nowadays' news may be more horrible. I also heard of the beheading, Jozanny. It's certainly a matter of how far you get into the stories and their time and their symbolism (e.g. Frankenstein: men's hubris).

[Jozanny]

Janine and Joereads - try Stanislaw Lem and Poe by all means. You'll enjoy their stories.

And I'd recommend Lem to you, too, Jozanny - if you're not too hardened by the news yet.

I only know who Lem is because of American entertainment media. Solaris was filmed/adapted here, and died a quick death. I will put him in my reading notes.

[integrity]

Bram Stoker (Dracula) and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), of course.

Ambrose Bierce, J.S LeFanu, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James (Turn of the Screw), Washington Irving (of Legend of Sleepy Hollow fame), Oscar Wilde, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood (a bit like H.P. Lovecraft), W.W. Jacobs, E.T.A. Hoffman, Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson. Charles Dickens wrote a number ghost stories, as did Wilkie Collins as well.

[Dark Muse]

Thanks for the great list of names

[papayahed]

I seconf Shirley Jackson.

[bounty]

hey dark muse...if you need any more convincing, im in agreement with everyone who is recommending dracula!

[Dark Muse]

I really do need to read that one. I think I am just put off by the fact I did not care for the moive, though I know the books and movies are never really the same. And it had been ages sense I even saw the movie.

[LitNetIsGreat]

[QUOTE=Jozanny;612940] I did find the modern Ripley disturbing, chilling in a way--Matt Damon taps on some interesting resources to inhabit these characters.:p



I know that this is not the main point of your very interesting point, but this is my favourite film and the only one that is better than the book. Every other film that I have read the book to fails hopelessly to it. The most recent Frankenstein film is a disgrace in comparisson to the incredible and beautifully written novel.

How about The Picture of Dorian Gray, hauntingly brilliant novel, perhaps my favourite.

[DeadAsDreams]

Thomas Liggoti, Robert Bloch, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood

[Terror Firmer]

... Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, E Nesbit, Walter De Le Mare, Harlan Ellison, Oliver Onions...

and Robert Aickman, a very sought after author who wrote 48 short stories. Really there is only four collections affordably available most of the time... Cold Hand In Mine, The Painted Devils (revised), The Wine-Dark Sea (revised), and The Unsettled Dust (revised, tho it repeats many of the stories of the previous revised collections yet has three great stories not included in either TPD and TW-DS but both the former titles together are 19 Aickman tales.)

[Thespian1975]

The Signal Man - Charles Dickens

[MattG]

Specifically, Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" was one that played with my head. Highly recommended.

[Terror Firmer]

Specifically, Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" was one that played with my head. Highly recommended.

Ditto. Richard Matheson's Hell House and I Am Legend.

Check the local library and see if they have a copy of Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco. Now out of print, but a damn scary novel, forget the Dan Curtis film starring Oliver Reed and Betty Davis. Only criticism is the ending of novel I wasnt completely satisfied with to this day I cant really make odds or ends of it, it went into Rod Serling land. This is the novel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining.

[Pecksie]

Try Horacio Quiroga's short stories, "The Feather Pillow" and "The Decapitated Chicken".

[Joreads]

Janine and Joereads - try Stanislaw Lem and Poe by all means. You'll enjoy their stories.

.

Thanks barbara0207 I will check them out.

[Hank Stamper]

anything by M.R. James if you like spooky ghost stories

turn of the screw by henry james is also pretty chilling stuff

[Pecksie]

anything by M.R. James if you like spooky ghost stories

turn of the screw by henry james is also pretty chilling stuff

I'll second both! Very very creepy (and M. R. James had a pretty creepy life as well --- see Richard Holmes's essay about him in his book 'Sidetracks').