Never been real big into horror. Real life ( history buff here) is so unbelievably terrifying!! Having said that, some of these classics interest me....
Michael, I just have to say that it’s been 10 years since I’ve read a full book (besides in school). The RU-vid gods blessed me by putting your channel in my feed roughly 3 weeks ago & since then I’ve been binging your videos. About 5 days ago I decided it was time to get back into this amazing hobby & picked up a classic collection of H.P Lovecraft. Though the generational vocabulary is a bit tricky (being in my 20s), I’m still having a blast with each story. Keep doing what you do, I’ll always be here for the Vaughn Manor.
Leslie Klinger’s annotated volumes of Lovecraft are good for help with that, along with pictures of places Lovecraft refers to and all kinds of other stuff. And it’s another reason I like reading on the Kindle or Kindle app in a phone or tablet, being able to get pop-up definitions. It takes time to get used to rugose, crepuscular, cyclopean, squamous, and all the rest. :)
@@MriInterocitor on sight definitions would definitely be a worthwhile investment for classics, good call on the Kindle. Something about flipping the physical pages of a book is so satisfying to me though, will definitely look into Klinger’s volumes. Appreciate the insight👍
I'm really happy to finally see some recognition for M.R. James on Booktube. His stories are incredibly chilling. Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You My Lad is one of the very few works of horror fiction that actually scares me.
Let's just make it clear, we have a favorite horror monster and she absolutely made an appearance in this video. This is a really exciting series! I can't wait - I've actually read a lot more of these than I expected!
Great idea for a series, I'll be watching! You didn't mention all of the classics you'll be covering, but perhaps you will include some of the short stories of de Maupassant (e.g., The Horla)? And Henry James, who wrote many ghost stories including the classic Turn of the Screw? Also some of Kafka's works are quite horrific although they may not fit neatly into the genre.
Roger has a stiff neck - he won't let you use his time machine. Dracula LOOMS, eh? I thought Cerberus entered the scene for a second... Stevenson! Great imaginative writer! Poe is horror, but more than horror. Varney?
That Folio edition of Phantom of the Opera is something to behold. And yes, the translation is indeed important (apparently that Oxford one is the best). I actually finally read some Blackwood for Horror May-hem (the John Silence stories). Definitely want to read more (I have one of those Delphi complete works ebooks with everything in it). Delighted to see the William Sloane books in there. This looks like being a great series.
Ooh. I will be looking forward to these so that I can argue over petty details and ramble irrelevantly in the comments. :D I nodded along happily at each of your picks. Sometimes I’d think “What about…?” and there they’d be. You should do one video just on covers of various editions good and bad and what we get jaded about as horror fans. :)
I'm looking forward to this series. I remember reading an article that said that M R James didn't write ghost stories - there were few, if any, ghosts. Lots of demons and other entities, but no ghosts. I'll need to re-read him and work out if that's true or just nit-picking.
Another good video. I always enjoy your clips. I'll have to read 'Dracula' at some point....I just have this dread that it's going to be a Victorian epic that drags along at a snail's pace.
Discovered your channel through your H.P Lovecraft videos. I really enjoy the content you bring to your channel. Classics I've only read are Mary Shelly's Frankenstein currently reading Bram Stokers Dracula which is quite enjoyable I also got the complete tales of H.P Lovecraft so I'm looking forward to diving into that when I can. I've watched a lot of classic universal horror movies in my life. You earned yourself a sub! 😊❤📚
The Monk and The Castle of Otranto are some hard ones to get through. I have a beautiful edition of Bram Stoker's Jewel of Seven Stars I'll have to show off in a future video. I'm looking forward to all these videos!
Great stuff. Looking forward to the best edition recommendations. All of those are staples of my reading but look forward to the ones I haven't heard of 😊
I think you've identified many of the very important horror works of the last 220; it's interesting that SF and horror crossed over so much in their early years. I read Dracula a couple of years ago and I still have a lot of difficulty accepting Stoker's treatment of Mina and Lucy so I'll be very interested to hear your thoughts Michael. I read The Monk a couple of months ago and it's fresh in my mind - I loved its arch, superior tone. Roger is correct about the time machine, he's told me that he knows Bradbury's story "A Sound Of Thunder" is based on fact so best not to play around with time.
I’m reading Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. A ghost story.. Jeffrey Deaver said it’s Jack London meets Stephen King , about an artic expedition that goes wrong. The main charachters diary lays I all out. A fun,bleak read. Must read more lovecraft…. Things keep getting in the way…
I'm interested in hearing your views on a lot of this, more than I would've thought. I've been looking for a particular illustrated version of Alraune, which sounds like it explores some of the same themes as Machen's Great God Pan (which I really enjoyed when I first read it.) It's been ages since I read the Monk, a wonderfully twisted book that could've only been written by a young writer. I have this bargain bin volume by Peter Haining called the Art of Horror Stories and it's amazing to see how many illustrated, cheaply printed lurid chapbooks of the early nineteenth century were inspired by or just plain rip offs of the Monk.
Couldn't agree more about Walpole & Sloane. You snuck Machen in at the end but still didn't mention Hodgson. He needs to be there IMO. There are others, of course. Popular writers whose stories may have been read by more people at the time (Richard Marsh, Seabury Quinn et al). I think these authors need to be put in context. Yes, their work didn't stand the test of time, but they are important in the formation of both the authors you will be talking about and what passes for modern horror.
Excellent selection. May I also suggest The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Justified Sinner, by James Hogg. Published in 1820s and was an influence on R.L. Stevenson. Presented as a found manuscript. Madness, the devil, and religious zealotry. With an unreliable narrator...maybe.
Sounds cool, though I'd do it in chronological by preference. I'd think Nathanial Hawthorne might deserve a spot too. When is the line between classic and modern to you, 1950? Your birth? :P
As for H. G. Wells, I would recommend, "The Sea Raiders." (Short Story).....it may count as horror.....also I would recommend "The Invisble Man." which is my favorite Well's novel.....and I consider a horror story.
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Amongst the classic short story people, there are an awful lot who wrote in multiple genres. Saki, W.W. Jacobs, Jerome J. Jerome. I think the ghost story was so popular in the Victorian era that most fiction authors tried their hand at it. Some of the better period anthologies will need to be considered, I think.
@@michaelk.vaughan8617look up LEONAUR books. They have published a lot of collections of old supernatural and weird fiction writings. It was that publisher that I got the Robert w chambers set. Some collections have up to 8 volumes of a single writer’s work.
Now that the excitement is incubating (and I truly mean that because there is a lot you mentioned that I know nothing about) will you be touching on Jane Webb's 1827 classic The Mummy? Or is that too much for Roger's sensitivity?
Several thoughts. First of all you've got to attempt a general definition of horror. I dont think Frankenstein is a horror story, imo. The stuff in the arctic sort of haunt, but is there anything creepy or "unnerving" in the text itself? Do the Odyssey or Medea qualify as horror? How about some Greek Myths or Myths of other cultures. Certainly there are unusually creepy or disturbing scenes but horror? What about the Bible? Are there any horror stories there? Are there any horror novels based on biblical passages? If not what a missed opportunity. Finally, is there a moral dimension to horror? Certainly there are horror stories that reify moral thought or behavior. Is horror, though, more a mirror or funhouse mirror on morality? A disturbing glimpse on power. Not just political or supernatural but on any kind of power? "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most memorable stories I've ever read. Is it a horror story or a crime story? What to make of all those true crime stories on cable?
Wait, you don’t think a creature that was created out of dead bodies who takes horrible vengeance on his creator by slaughtering the people he loves ( including a child) is creepy or unnerving? I think you might want to read that book again. It is definitely a horror story.
@@michaelk.vaughan8617 Having been brought up by Hollywood and comic books and science, 18th or 19th century sensibilities seemed familiar, outdated or "hokey". Like watching an old movie by Ed Wood: pretentious. The only part of the book that really touched me was the end, in the Arctic or antarctic? The cold atmosphere juxtaposed the monster's thumos, the heat of his search for justice; against the tepid, incoherence of Frankenstein's intrinsic, moral contradiction. The "damn the consequences" of Frankenstein's, scientific Hubris vs the "consequences damn you" of the monster's Nemesis. Horror? Or crime? Terror of the physical unknown, or loss of one's immortal soul? Cold, catatonic, fear or cold 🥶, indifferent, moral judgement.
Aw, come on, Roger. Lighten up and let him go interview those authors. What's a little ripping apart of time & space? I mean, how can the world be any much worse than it is now?
