Strictly real horror discussion

Like Jack London or Melville?

definitely. I love gothic novels. I recently read Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights and The Picture of Dorian Gray are two of my all time favorites. I have Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier on my short list of books to start reading.

Stoker's Dracula. Edgar Allan Poe, H.P Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, Sheridan Le Fanu, Clarke Ashton Smith, Saki (H.H. Munro), William Hope Hodgson. Thee's a small list to be going on with :)

John Cheever, Flannery O'Connor, Shirley Jackson, Fitzgerald, Rawlings, Sinclair Lewis, Edith Wharton, Hawthorne, Twain, Kafka, Shakespeare, Anonymous (ha ha, Beowulf is my favorite poem of all time), Crane, Goethe, Henry James, Miller, Orwell, Steinbeck, Zora N. Hurston, Kate Chopin.

Have never been a fan of Hemingway, the Brontes, or Austen. I like Faulkner's short stories but it's hard to get through his novels, although I pat myself on the back every time I remember getting through, understanding, and actually enjoying The Sound and the Fury.

There are plenty of horror classics. Some good, some not so good. I just picked up a paperback edition of Varney the Vampire. Yikes...although it serves as a landmark in vampire ffiction it does put the 'dreadful' in Penny Dreadful.

Lately I've been re-reading Poe. For so many years I'd read more of his poetry than prose, but since a colleague of mine, the noted Poe Scholar Ed Pettit, has been lecturing on the writer, I decided to dig out the old collections. Even better than I remembered.

I've only read 2 Jack London books. They were given as gifts. White Fang & Call Of The Wild.

I've been trying to get to the classics that I've missed previously. Last year I read and loved Moby Dick by Melville. Really worth the read, quite a challenge. I love Stoker's Dracula and Shelley's Frankenstein. I also really enjoy Alcott, Austen, Twain, Poe, Buck and Lovecraft to name a few. I've been working on Les Miserables for the last few months. It's a challenge and I keep needing a brake, but I am enjoying the story. I'm anxious to check out some more classics that I haven't gotten to yet. You just never know.....

We can't forget The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories. TYW is one of my alltime short stories; a great psycho drama with a lasting moral tale.

Hi everyone, I saw the title of this group and had to join.

I'm a fan of the classical period of horror and welcome any recommendations regarding modern day authors that write that way.

I just finished The Sinner by K. Trap Jones and love it, now I'm looking for another.



Thanks!

To me, Dracula is still definitive. I also love Carmilla. Really love Poe. He's still astonishing I think. I own an amazing edition of Frankenstein that I love. I enjoyed that book more. How far back are we going to consider it a classic?

Tales of Terror: The World's Most Terrifying Stories Presented by a Leading Icon of Fear really defines what I think of as "classic" horror and yeah, I love it. "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs is one of the great horror stories of all time.

Tyler wrote: "Hi everyone, I saw the title of this group and had to join.

I'm a fan of the classical period of horror and welcome any recommendations regarding modern day authors that write that way.

I just fi..."

You know who you might like, Tyler? Robert Aickman. He's an amazing prose stylist and has a really unconventional perspective on what constitutes horror. Painted Devils or The Wine-Dark Sea. "Ringing the Changes" is probably his most famous story. And I recommend Clive Barker's Books of Blood: Volume One to everyone because he's brilliant and crazy.

I've read only a couple of things, but I remember reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and I loved it.

Hello all, new to this group but a huge fan of horror and ghost stories since I was a child. Hope this thread is still active. I noticed none of you mentioned M R James. He wrote his classic English twisted tales to read aloud to his friends gathered on dark nights at university. Consequently, they are very readable and full of humour but leave a lingering unease in the reader. He was a huge influence on many contemporary horror writers. I also love Du Maurier, especially Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, though I wouldn't really class them as horror, more as mystery. I should also mention Dennis Wheatley. These are all 20th century but I would call them classics because they were groundbreaking and influential.

Just realised 2014 was last year, not this year! Maybe we can revive the group?

Hello All,
I'm a forever fan of Edgar Allen Poe. I have been ever since I purchased my first copy of "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" through one of those grammar school Arrow Book Clubs in 7th grade while attending Catholic School. (I'll bet the nuns were ready to call an exorcist when they saw this title delivered to me! LOL) "The Tell-Tale Heart"! Does early suspense get any better?
Would Manley Wade Wellman be considered within this heading of "classics" ? I recently purchased a copy of "Who Fears The Devil" and I'm waiting for the right moment to crack the spine on this title.