Science Fiction Fantasy Chronicles: forums - View Single Post - Horror Recommendations for the Unenlightened

j. d. worthington · 14th October 2007, 03:12 PM

Ravenus hit it on the head. There are some I'd add (and will, as I go along) from the Victorian/Edwardian era, whose works were difficult to find when HPL wrote his piece, or whom he was not aware of for one reason or another -- for instance, there was a recent collection of the supernatural fiction of Sarah Orne Jewett, Lady Ferry & Other Uncanny People, and Jewett is generally known for quite a different sort of writing; or Edith Wharton, Rhoda Broughton (the niece of Le Fanu, by the way), etc....

However, I'll add this note specifically for you, Con: I don't think you'd probably care for most of the actual Gothics or a fair amount of the early nineteenth-century novels, but if you'd like to try some of the best, give Charles Robert Maturin's Melmoth, the Wanderer a try (there's a really nice recent edition from Penguin I'd suggest), as well as William Harrison Ainsworth's The Lancashire Witches. (The dialect in the latter may be a bit thick at first, but I find that the music of that dialect quickly captures me, and adds to the feel of the story.) I personally would recommend Bulwer-Lytton, but that's because I'm not put off by his mysticism, which takes up a great deal of text (he was very much into the Rosicrucian ideas of the day, and they inform his work -- also, some find his work quite windy; I don't, particularly); you ought to try the full text version of "The Haunted and the Haunters; or, the House and the Brain" first, as if the latter portion of that one doesn't put you off, you'll probably enjoy Zanoni and A Strange Story as well. If that part of the shorter tale gets on your nerves, avoid his novels.

And, if you like Le Fanu, I highly recommend the following:

The Supernatural Short Stories of Charles Dickens, ed. Michael Hayes

The Woman in White, The Moonstone, and Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, by Wilkie Collins (the last edited by Herbert Van Thal)

"The Adventure of the German Student", by Washington Irving

And I'll give some suggestions below on books/editions where you can find a lot of the things suggested in the essay, too (though a great deal of this is available on the web at various sites).

14th October 2007, 03:12 PM	#7 (permalink)
j. d. worthington Moderator Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 8,744	Re: Horror Recommendations for the Unenlightened Ravenus hit it on the head. There are some I'd add (and will, as I go along) from the Victorian/Edwardian era, whose works were difficult to find when HPL wrote his piece, or whom he was not aware of for one reason or another -- for instance, there was a recent collection of the supernatural fiction of Sarah Orne Jewett, Lady Ferry & Other Uncanny People, and Jewett is generally known for quite a different sort of writing; or Edith Wharton, Rhoda Broughton (the niece of Le Fanu, by the way), etc.... However, I'll add this note specifically for you, Con: I don't think you'd probably care for most of the actual Gothics or a fair amount of the early nineteenth-century novels, but if you'd like to try some of the best, give Charles Robert Maturin's Melmoth, the Wanderer a try (there's a really nice recent edition from Penguin I'd suggest), as well as William Harrison Ainsworth's The Lancashire Witches. (The dialect in the latter may be a bit thick at first, but I find that the music of that dialect quickly captures me, and adds to the feel of the story.) I personally would recommend Bulwer-Lytton, but that's because I'm not put off by his mysticism, which takes up a great deal of text (he was very much into the Rosicrucian ideas of the day, and they inform his work -- also, some find his work quite windy; I don't, particularly); you ought to try the full text version of "The Haunted and the Haunters; or, the House and the Brain" first, as if the latter portion of that one doesn't put you off, you'll probably enjoy Zanoni and A Strange Story as well. If that part of the shorter tale gets on your nerves, avoid his novels. And, if you like Le Fanu, I highly recommend the following: The Supernatural Short Stories of Charles Dickens, ed. Michael Hayes The Woman in White, The Moonstone, and Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, by Wilkie Collins (the last edited by Herbert Van Thal) "The Adventure of the German Student", by Washington Irving And I'll give some suggestions below on books/editions where you can find a lot of the things suggested in the essay, too (though a great deal of this is available on the web at various sites).