Classic Horror Lovers discussion

Nancy recently solicited suggestions for a possible buddy read during the month of October, so I thought to get the ball rolling. Some of the suggestions that follow were first proposed a few years back, the last time buddy reads were being conducted here.

1. The Room in the Tower and Other Stories , E. F. Benson (1912)

The title story, a particular favorite of mine, is probably well known to most ghost story fans and can be found in numerous locations on the web. The collection as a whole ought to be freely available as it has long been out of copyright in most places, but I was only able to find the stories on the Gutenberg Australia site here where they are freely available under the title Collected Stories as a text or HTML download. Included are all of the stories found in the original 1912 edition with the exception of “The Thing in the Hall”. The Gutenberg collection also includes a few stories not found in the 1912 collection. (The contents of the 1912 collection are summarized here.) Additionally, Delphi offers a selection of Benson’s works on Amazon for a couple of bucks that includes this story collection (see here).

2. The Three Imposters , Arthur Machen (1895).

This is really more of an episodic novel with embedded stories than a true story collection. The two stories probably most familiar to genre fans are “The Novel of the Black Seal” and “The Novel of the White Powder”. It’s available here on Project Gutenberg.

3. Tales of the Uneasy , Violet Hunt (1911).

I’ve had this one on my to-be-read pile seemingly forever. According to the Wikipedia article on Hunt, the genre scholar E. F. Bleiler decribed the book as containing “[e]xcellent stories, in which the supernatural is used as a technical device to indicate ironies of fate and the intimate relationship of life and death”; and horror historian R. S. Hadji included it in a list of “unjustly neglected” horror books. The collection can be freely found at both Google Books and at archive.org. See here for a summary of the relevant links. Ash-Tree Press published an electronic version of the book for $8 that also includes the stories from Hunt’s follow-up collection, More Tales of the Uneasy (1925). It can be found on Amazon’s web site; see here.

4. Creep, Shadow! , A. Merritt (1934).

This is one of Merritt’s books that I haven’t read, although one source described it as perhaps his best. From what I gather, it’s pretty pulpish in nature, focusing on genre tropes semi-common to that era — lost races, sorcery, etc. The description reminds me of stuff by H. Rider Haggard, Sax Rohmer, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. It can be found on here on Gutenberg Australia.


These are just suggestions. Comments and/or alternatives are welcome.

Will check if they are at my library!

Those are great suggestions. I champion the idea of getting buddy reads going again. Let me know if you need any help from me as moderator.

Danielle The Book Huntress (Self-Proclaimed Book Ninja) wrote: "Those are great suggestions. I champion the idea of getting buddy reads going again. Let me know if you need any help from me as moderator."

The members should get a message/email alerting them about the buddy read! :)

Will Do.

I'll go along with any of these. And thanks!!!

I just finished "The Magician" by Maugham and it was pretty good. From there I will be going through Crowley's short stories (which I don't remember being all that great) but since Haddo was based on Crowley, I figure now is as good a time as ever.

I also just read "The Inmost Light" by Machen and that was decent too. I hope to read a few more Machen stories this month, and will check out "The Three Imposters".

It is always a good month to pick up some Poe and Lovecraft (when is it not?) so I am aiming for Lovecraft's Dream Cycle collection. Will most likely listen to some Poe stories read by Vincent Price (which are amazing).

Lastly, if you have not read any Thomas Ligotti, it is the perfect time to pick him up.

Happy Reading!

Canavan wrote: "Nancy recently solicited suggestions for a possible buddy read during the month of October, so I thought to get the ball rolling. Some of the suggestions that follow were first proposed a few years..."

I'd love to read Tales of the Uneasy. Anyone else?

Nancy wrote:

I'd love to read Tales of the Uneasy. Anyone else?

I’m in.

I′ve set up a separate thread for a buddy read of of Tales of the Uneasy by Violet Hunt.

Vincent wrote: "I just finished "The Magician" by Maugham and it was pretty good. From there I will be going through Crowley's short stories (which I don't remember being all that great) but since Haddo was based ..."

I've not read Machen - Three Imposters sounds like an intriguing introduction, I'll be reading; and, of course, Poe for October ^_^