Good Fiction Guide, Ed. Jane Rogers 2nd ed.
Oxford University Press, 2005.
Supernatural by Michael Cox (12 titles)
1. J.S. LeFanu Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery 1851
2. Bram Stoker Dracula 1897
3. M.R. James Ghost Stories of an Antiquary 1904
4. Algernon Blackwood The Listener 1907
5. H.R. Wakefield They Return at Evening 1928
6. Shirley Jackson The Haunting of Hill House 1959
7. H.P. Lovecraft The Dunwich Horror and Others 1963
8. Robert Aickman Dark Entries 1964
9. Stephen King Carrie 1974
10. Peter Straub Ghost Story 1979
11. Susan Hill The Woman in Black 1983
12. M. Cox and R.A. Gilbert (eds) The Oxford English Book of Ghost Stories 1986
So far, with RIP V in mind, I’ve read:
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1842)
M.R. James’ short story “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” (1904)
and Daphne du Maurier’s collection, The Birds.
But I’d’ve been happy with a carbon copy of Michael Cox’s list, as the only one that I’ve read is the Shirley Jackson novel (terrifically good).
Are any of these on your beside table or in your bookbag just now?
Do you have rules about when you do or don’t read scary tales?
Thanks for the comments, Nathalie and Sakura! I must make time for Ann Radcliffe: maybe she will be one of my Must-Reads for 2011. I’ve been eyeing The Woman in Black too: the fact that it’s such a tidy size makes that one seem more likely to squeeze into my reading list.
Although I read a lot of murder mysteries and gothic fiction, I’ve only just realised that I don’t read a lot of horror. But I have read Frankenstein and Dracula which didn’t really scare me much but which I loved. I’ve got Susan Hill’s Woman in Black on my bedside table which I’m planning to read for R.I.P. V so let’s see how that goes!
In typical books about books fashion, I love how Ann Radcliffe’s _The Mysteries of Udolpho_ is treated in _Northanger Abbey_. Catherine Morland gets so caught up in the contrived frights in the gothic novel that she cannot read the danger in the real world around her. She scares herself silly, and it’s a laugh out loud section of the book. Susan Hill has been on my TBR list, thanks for the reminder to track it down.