Classic Horror

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

Had a google for this, couldnt find that specific title but I did find "Hell House" (1953)
Is this the Richard Matheson of I Am Legend fame?

A) Hell House in 1953? What was your source on this one, Larry? Hell House is a novel by Richard Matheson which was first published in 1971, not 1953.

B) Yes, it's the same Matheson. Hell House is a very good novel, but there are also some pretty graphic passages dealing with both sex and violence. They aren't gratuitous, but they are uncompromising and uncomfortable to read. Nonetheless, it is one I would highly recommend.

Incidentally, a peculiar little personal note: When I first read the novel shortly after it was published, I kept picturing Roddy McDowall as Benjamin Franklin Fisher. He just immediately came to mind. Sure enough, when the film The Legend of Hell House was made two years later, that is who was cast in the role....

[J Riff]

It's a scary flick. Spoiler>>>> The original owner of the house, a Mr. Belasco, killed himself by sitting in a chair and staring at a glass of water until he died of thirst!
His body was in the Chapel, in a lead-lined room, decades before anyone knew that lead shielding would protect his body, or spirit, from being zapped- which a scientist does while Roddy McDowell is getting clobbered by the evil presence in the house.
The prof's. machine seemingly clears the house of evil, but then -
Worth a watch, one of the best of the seventies, and not massacred like I Am Legend and other Matheson stuff. Altho The Shrinking Man was OK.
Earlier versions of I am Legend were The Last Man on Earth w/ Vincent Price and The Omega Man w/ Charlie Heston.

[Extollager]

Elizabeth Gaskell's "The Old Nurse's Story" is good.

[TedKeller]

I read Algernon Blackwood's The Willows and Wendigo last year and was stunned. True masterpieces of atmosphere which seem to have influenced both Lovecraft at his best and also... Castaneda.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by TedKeller

I read Algernon Blackwood's The Willows and Wendigo last year and was stunned. True masterpieces of atmosphere which seem to have influenced both Lovecraft at his best and also... Castaneda.

Ooof! It has been decades (since the early 1970s) since I read Castaneda; I'd have to go back and refresh my memory, which has grown very dim indeed, on the subject. But I don't believe I've ever encountered this connection before... and, if accurate, it is verrry interesting....

[TedKeller]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Ooof! It has been decades (since the early 1970s) since I read Castaneda; I'd have to go back and refresh my memory, which has grown very dim indeed, on the subject. But I don't believe I've ever encountered this connection before... and, if accurate, it is verrry interesting....

Aha, the early 2-3 books especially: dimly perceived forces manifesting themselves in a breeze, or in weird sounds, or in cries mimicking companions who then reappear and say it wasn't them. The witches that stalk with giant bounds like the Wendigo.

And judging by Blackwood's 'psychic detective' stories, he knew the evil weed intimately, so possibly there's not direct connection, just very similar paranoid trips out in nature...

But I prefer thinking Castaneda channeled Blackwood and Lovecraft and tied an anthropological ribbon on it. And then it all spun out of control and he had to distill increasing amounts of mystical schools just to keep one step ahead of the growing expectations of his hordes of followers.

Or, yet another version: Blackwood soaked up some injun folklore and made it into classics like The Wendigo, and used it to describe eerie events on an island in the Danube too.

[Myra]

Lovecraft all the way...but there are other classics which are brilliant as well.

[Myra]

Also! The old Point Horror Classics are brilliant as well! R.L. Stine's works are very good

[j. d. worthington]

Good or bad, I'm not at all sure I'd incline Stine as "classic" horror, given the brief time involved....

[Myra]

Yeah true now that I think about it I always felt he had a classic feel about his writing... I might be wrong lol

[j. d. worthington]

Actually, this is a discussion of classic literary horror, not film. That would be in the subforum on film discussion.....

[nerd literature]

I am not sure if this was mentioned in this thread, but Wordsworth put out a collection of classic horror, supernatural and mystery short fiction. The series is called Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural. I bought the King in Yellow. I know that many if not all are free a ebooks but the covers are really well done and they are not that expensive. I think if anyone is searching for a good collection of classic horror these are the ones to get.

Best, Rob

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by nerd literature

I am not sure if this was mentioned in this thread, but Wordsworth put out a collection of classic horror, supernatural and mystery short fiction. The series is called Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural. I bought the King in Yellow. I know that many if not all are free a ebooks but the covers are really well done and they are not that expensive. I think if anyone is searching for a good collection of classic horror these are the ones to get.

Best, Rob

And for those interested in a discussion on this series:

Wordworth Tales Of Mystery & Supernatural

[J Riff]

Not to be confused with Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
Ed. by Herbert A. Wise and Phyllis Fraser, which I just found a 1st ed. 1944.... minus the cover dangit, but heyho 'tis a great reading copy.
It's chronological, and 'Terror' starts w/ Balzac, Poe, Collins, Bierce, Collins and ends w/ Faulkner, Hemingway, Collier, Household....and "Supernatural' which starts w/ Bulwer-Lytton, Hawthorne, Dickens, Le Fanu and ends w/ HPL.
For some reason, I started reading Suspicion by Dorthy Sayers. Great stuff.

[nerd literature]

The Wordsworth Tales of Mystery and Supernatural is actually a series of books written by some of the authors mentioned above. It is usually a collection of their short stories that were either previously collected in one or put together. I know the book J Riff is talking about and it's really quite good. It has Machen's Great God of Pan and a couple Lovecraft stories (I know one is Rat in the Walls).

Sorry I didn't see the sticky.

Best, Rob