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Most impressive! You've stumbled across our library of literary lurkings and the lively dead! Whether you fancy yourself a Watcher or a Willow, this guide will help to provide reference to older and more specific guides (we call them "books") which can further serve to enable you, dear White Hat Warrior, to vanquish (or run away screaming from) your foes (and ours) in this constant struggle between the forces of light and dark that we call "living." As always, you are invited to join our research — two heads are better than one, in this case, provided neither head has a taste for human flesh. The table below lists the title of a book/article/wall hanging, its year of publication (if we can dig that up), and each troublesomely tricky situation that the book/article/cave painting addresses, as well as the author of the piece (so you know to whom you need to send flowers or a troll, depending upon the value of what's been written). Additionally, each title also serves as a link to the most appropriate or relevant page for the literature in question. Each piece's title also lists the publisher, if their work is, on the whole, relevant to our attempts to become smarter, wiser, and more effective dark-sparring vigilantes in the ceaseless battle between the good, the bad, and the run-on sentence. | |||
| Title | Author(s) | Year Published | Horror Baddie(s) Concerned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anything you can get your hands on | Edgar Allan Poe, a Master of Horror | 1827-1849 | Wow ... just ... well, check him out! (more detailed entries in this guide to follow) |
| The Body Snatcher | Robert Louis Stevenson | 1884 | Systematic murder, grave looting |
| Carmilla | Joseph Sheridan le Fanu | 1872 | Vampire — namely, a female vampire named Carmilla |
| Dracula | Bram Stoker | 1897 | Vampires — Count Dracula |
| Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus | Mary Shelley | 1818 | Frankenstein's monster, science and industry vs. morality, the monster's half-finished mate |
| The Haunting of Hill House | Shirley Jackson | 1959 | Ghosts, haunted house, possible neurotic narrator |
| House of Leaves | Mark Z. Danielewski | 2000 | Just absolutely crazy "haunted" house, and even that is a horrific simplification; also possibly haunted book(s)/film(s)/photo(s) and definitely haunted people |
| I Am Legend | Richard Matheson | 1954 | Surviving (alone) an apocalypse, vampirism(ish), complete dissolution of "normal" life |
| Misery | Stephen King | 1987 | Crazed fan (as in fanatic), prolonged sadistic violence, inability to escape |
| The Old Nurse's Story | Elizabeth Gaskell | 1852 | Women threatened, tyrannical males, omens, portents, visions, overwrought emotions (terrifying beastie indeed!) |
| Rosemary's Baby | Ira Levin | 1967 | Shifty neighbors, possible Satanic links |
| The Stepford Wives | Ira Levin | 1972 | Gynoids, mass conspiracy to create mindless, docile citizens (in this case, the "perfect" hosuewives) |
| The Talented Mr. Ripley | Patricia Highsmith | 1955 | Murder for profit, identity theft |
| The Turn of the Screw | Henry James | 1898 | Ghosts, "evil" children, old & mysterious buildings, possibly neurotic narrator (and isn't that always a good time?) |
| Wuthering Heights | Emily Brontë (or pseudonym Ellis Bell) | 1847 | "Gothic moments"; try it on as horror and see what you get. |
Questions, comments, criticism, praise — make a suggestion or contact the author at: meghan[dot]armes[at]gmail[dot]com.