The Book of Lists: Horror

by Wallace, Amy

  10. Paper Mask, by Thomas Wiloch. This is but one, almost arbitrarily chosen, collection among the numerous volumes of prose poems by Wiloch. He is the best at what he does, and what he does is seduce his readers into a world of quiet apocalypses, bitter ecstasies, and tiny derangements. While the prose poem form is compact by its nature, Wiloch’s imagination is vast with sinister conceits.

  JAMES D. JENKINS’S TEN WEIRDEST

  GOTHIC NOVELS

  James D. Jenkins is founder/publisher/editor of Valancourt Books (www.valancourtbooks.com), a small press specializing in new editions of rare Gothic, supernatural, and decadent novels. Since 2005, Valancourt has published over fifty works originally published between 1790 and 1950, and has dozens more titles in the works. In addition to new editions of well-established classics, Valancourt has reprinted novels so rare that they survived in only one known copy worldwide prior to republication.

  1. The Witch of Ravensworth (1808), by George Brewer

  The hideous Witch of Ravensworth is the clear precursor to more famous literary monsters such as Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster. But even more entertaining than her propensity for sacrificing infants and drinking their blood is Brewer’s bizarre, darkly comic style, with its rapid-fire staccato sentences and delectably gruesome descriptions, not to mention the exclamation “It was the Hag!!!” every time she appears on scene.

  2. Horrid Mysteries (1796), by Carl Grosse, translated by Peter Will

  Jane Austen immortalized this book by including it among the “horrid novels” read by her heroines in Northanger Abbey, and Thomas Love Peacock joked that Shelley slept with a copy under his pillow. Don’t worry if you find the plot (which involves multiple murders and a secret society) incomprehensible. The author or translator apparently lost track of the plot too, as evidenced by the beautiful Elmira’s dying no fewer than three times in the course of the novel.

  3. The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest (1794), by Peter Teuthold

  Another of the “Northanger Novels,” and only slightly more intelligible than Horrid Mysteries. This one is a series of interconnected tales set in Germany’s Black Forest, centering on the mysterious figure of Volkert the Necromancer.

  4. The Animated Skeleton (1798), by Anonymous

  Set in France during the Dark Ages, where the good Count Richard has disappeared, and lawlessness, including wanton rape and murder, reigns. Surreal in its narration, this strange story culminates with a moving, talking skeleton that reveals Richard’s fate and leads to the exposure of the guilty.

  5. The Demon of Sicily (1807), by Edward Montague

  Satan comes to the Convent of St. Catherina, determined to win the souls of Sister Agatha and Father Bernardo. This process is drawn out over a couple hundred pages, and to keep things lively in the meantime, Montague tosses in kidnappings, imprisonments, impalings, decapitations, drownings, rendings asunder by demons, and burnings at the stake.

  The Demon of Sicily by Edward Montague (Design by Ryan Cagle, used by permission of Valancourt Books)

  6. The Mysterious Hand; or, Subterranean Horrours! (1811), by Augustus Jacob Crandolph

  Not to be missed is the great scene in the first volume, where the evil Count d’Egfryd inveigles the beautiful and innocent Julia Bolton into a hot-air balloon, and takes her up several miles in the air in an elaborate and ill-fated scheme to rape her.

  7. Manfroné; or, The One-Handed Monk (1809), by Mary Anne Radcliffe

  Although the author’s pen name recalls the more famous Ann Radcliffe and the title evokes Lewis’s The Monk, Manfroné is hardly the derivative plagiarism one might expect. It’s worth the cover price for the opening scene alone, in which a sinister monk enters Rosalina’s room at night in an attempt to rape her and suffers the gruesome severing of his hand in the process.

  8. Santa-Maria; or, The Mysterious Pregnancy (1797), by Joseph Fox Jr.

  Besides its wonderful title, this novel is intriguing because, as Montague Summers puts it, it is “a tornado of circumstances and events curiously reminiscent of Sade.”

  9. Deeds of Darkness; or, The Unnatural Uncle (1805), by G. T. Morley

  This probably has one of my favorite titles among all Gothic novels (what exactly is that unnatural uncle doing in the darkness?), although one contemporary journal was quick to state that “the sentiments in this tale are proper, and the moral is good.” But don’t let that deter you from reading it—the most shocking of the early Gothic novels tended to justify themselves with claims of “morality.”

  10. Rosalviva; or, The Demon Dwarf (1824), by Grenville Fletcher

  The title pretty much says it all.

  MARK VALENTINE’S TOP TEN WORKS

  OF DECADENT HORROR FICTION

  Mark Valentine is the editor of Wormwood, the literary journal of the decadent and fantastic, and creator of the Connoisseur, an aesthetical occult detective whose curious adventures are recounted in In Violet Veils (1999) and Masques and Citadels (2003).

  1. The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde: The cornerstone book of the brief flame of English decadence in the 1890s, and a languorous and dangerous account of how to sin in style.

  2. The Hill of Dreams, by Arthur Machen: Described as “the most decadent book in the English language,” a sensuous and searing account of the fate of the artist and dreamer in a dreary and Philistine world.

  3. Studies of Death, by Eric, Count Stenbock: Sombre and ironic stories by an Estonian nobleman described by W. B. Yeats as “Scholar, connoisseur, drunkard, poet, pervert, most charming of men.”

  4. Shapes in the Fire, by M. P. Shiel: Highly ornate, original, and refulgent prose in a set of tales that outdo Poe in their grotesquerie, by the Montserrat-born king, philosopher, and fantasist.

  5. The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink: The finest example of middle-European decadence in the dying days of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, an occult tale drawing on the rich traditions of Jewish folklore.

  6. The Book of Jade, by Park Barnitz: Poems by a Midwest pastor’s son who died young after creating the most nihilistic and doomridden volume ever.

  7. Flower Phantoms, by Ronald Fraser: A golden-haired young woman with the look of a sly page at the Russian court achieves a high hothouse communion with a strange orchid.

  8. Doctors Wear Scarlet, by Simon Raven: A rich, riotous, and erudite thriller by the best exemplar of twentieth-century decadence, creator of memorable cads and haughty scholars learned in the ways of evil.

  9. An Itinerant House, by Emma Frances Dawson: Moody and atmospheric ghost stories from the enigmatic young woman whose work is the epitome of the flourish of San Francisco Decadence.

  10. The Stone Dragon, by R. Murray Gilchrist: Strange tales by a recluse who lived in a candlelit manor house in the English Peak District and made this one book of high decadent weirdness among regional and folk fiction.

  KARL EDWARD WAGNER’S THREE LISTS OF THE

  THIRTEEN BEST HORROR NOVELS

  Karl Edward Wagner trained as a psychiatrist before becoming a writer of horror and fantasy. Wagner created the fantasy hero Kane, recounting his exploits in three novels and many short stories. He also wrote novels featuring the Robert E. Howard characters Conan the Barbarian and Bran Mak Morn. Among his other works are the novel Killer (with David Drake), and the collections In a Lonely Place and Why Not You and I? With David Drake and Jim Groce, Wagner also founded Carcosa Press to preserve the work of great pulp authors. He was the editor of The Year’s Best Horror Stories anthologies from 1980 until his death in 1994.

  I. The Thirteen Best Supernatural Horror Novels

  1. Hell! Said the Duchess, by Michael Arlen

  2. The Burning Court, by John Dickson Carr

  3. Alraune, by Hanns Heinz Ewers

  4. Dark Sanctuary, by H. B. Gregory

  5. Falling Angel, by William Hjortsberg

  6. Maker of Shadows, by Jack Mann

  7. The Yellow Mistletoe, by Walter S. Masterman

  8. Melmoth the W
anderer, by Charles Maturin

  9. Burn, Witch, Burn, by A. Merritt

  10. Fingers of Fear, by J. U. Nicolson

  11. Doctors Wear Scarlet, by Simon Raven

  12. Echo of a Curse, by R. R. Ryan

  13. Medusa, by E. H. Visiak

  II. The Thirteen Best Science Fiction Horror Novels

  1. The Death Guard, by Philip George Chadwick

  2. Final Blackout, by L. Ron Hubbard

  3. Vampires Overhead, by Alan Hyder

  4. The Quatermass Experiment, by Nigel Kneale

  5. Quatermass and the Pit, by Nigel Kneale

  6. The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck, by Alexander Laing

  7. The Flying Beast, by Walter S. Masterman

  8. The Black Corridor, by Michael Moorcock

  9. Land Under England, by Joseph O’Neill

  10. The Cross of Carl, by Walter Owen

  11. Freak Museum, by R. R. Ryan

  12. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

  13. The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham

  III. The Thirteen Best Non-Supernatural Horror Novels

  1. The Deadly Percheron, by John Franklin Bardin

  2. Psycho, by Robert Bloch

  3. Here Comes a Candle, by Fredric Brown

  4. The Screaming Mimi, by Fredric Brown

  5. The Fire-Spirits, by Paul Busson

  6. The Crooked Hinge, by John Dickson Carr

  7. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, by Hanns Heinz Ewers

  8. Vampire, by Hanns Heinz Ewers

  9. Fully Dressed and in His Right Mind, by Michael Fessier

  10. The Shadow on the House, by Mark Hansom

  11. Torture Garden, by Octave Mirbeau

  12. The Master of the Day of Judgment, by Leo Perutz

  13. The Subjugated Beast, by R. R. Ryan

  Originally appeared in the June and August 1983 issues of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Magazine; reprinted by permission of the Karl Edward Wagner Literary Group.

  MARK JUSTICE’S SEVEN FAVORITE HORROR STORIES

  FROM THE BLOODY PULPS

  Mark Justice is the author of Deadneck Hootenanny and Bone Songs, as well as coauthor (with David T. Wilbanks) of Dead Earth: The Green Dawn. He produces and hosts horror’s top podcast, the aptly named Pod of Horror. He lives in Kentucky with his wife in a house filled with cats, DVDs, books, and stacks of beautiful, moldering pulps.

  1. “The Call of Cthulhu,” by H. P. Lovecraft. Weird Tales, February 1928.

  In compiling a list of pulp horror stories, I’ve found the biggest problem was deciding which Lovecraft stories to include. After all, he’s the granddaddy of pulp fear fiction. His impact on the genre cannot be overstated. And he’s #1 on our Hellish Hit Parade. “The Call of Cthulhu” is noteworthy for the only HPL-written appearance of the tentacled elder god and for the disturbing sunken city of R’lyeh. Cosmic horror began here.

  2. “The Shadow Kingdom,” by Robert E. Howard. Weird Tales, August 1929.

  King Kull. Reptile men who can pretend to be human. Sorcery. A palace filled with hidden passages. Chill-inducing fantasy by one of the masters.

  3. “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” by H. P. Lovecraft. Weird Tales, May and July 1941.

  One of Lovecraft’s longer pieces, this novella was written in 1927 but not published until 1941. Lovecraft set this story of madness and necromancy in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. In addition to the author’s dense, melancholy prose, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” includes the first mention of the Great Old One, Yog-Sothoth.

  4. “Let’s Play Poison,” By Ray Bradbury. Weird Tales, November 1946.

  Another of Bradbury’s early children-are-evil stories (see “The Small Assassin”) finds a teacher who grows certain that kids are demons from Hell. While Bradbury could successfully make children the heroes in his writing, he also understood too well how alien some adults might find them.

  5. “For Fear of Little Men,” by Manly Wade Wellman. Strange Stories, June 1939.

  Wellman, the king of regional tales of terror, spins a moody, evocative yarn about Native American myths. “For Fear of Little Men” gets bonus points for its Minnesota setting—a rarity in horror, then and now—and for the sheer coolness of tiny little Indians attacking the hero with tiny little arrows.

  6. “Johnny on the Spot,” by Frank Belknap Long. Unknown, December 1939.

  In a change of style for Long, this is a hard-boiled tale of the Eternal Hitman. Brief, with an impact like a sharp stick to the eye.

  7. “Death and The Spider,” by Novell Page writing as Grant Stockbridge, The Spider Magazine, January 1942.

  Though not strictly a horror title, Page’s Spider novels were always crazy, surreal, and almost hallucinogenic, with the title character engaged every month in a bloodbath that often killed thousands. In the 100th issue, the Spider battled Death himself, and the high-strung crime-fighter finally died. But by the end of the novel, he got better.

  J. F. GONZALEZ’S TOP THIRTEEN OBSCURE SHOCKERS

  FROM THE PULPS AND BEYOND

  J. F. Gonzalez was born May 8, 1964, and ten years later, almost to the day, he read his very first pulp horror story. It was “Sweets to the Sweet,” by Robert Bloch, and he’s been hooked on horror ever since. He writes in addition to reading and collecting pulps. He is the coauthor of such novels as Clickers (with Mark Williams) and Clickers II: The Next Wave (with Brian Keene), both homages to those classic fifties hybrid sci-fi/horror films. His other novels include Shapeshifter, Bully, The Beloved, Survivor, and Hero (cowritten with Wrath James White), among others. His short fiction is collected in Old Ghosts and Other Revenants and When the Darkness Falls.

  1. “Claimed,” by Francis Stevens, from The Argosy, March 6–20, 1920.

  2. “Beyond the Door,” by J. Paul Suter, from Weird Tales, April 1923.

  3. “The Copper Bowl,” by George Fielding Elliot, from Weird Tales, December 1928.

  4. “They Bite,” by Anthony Boucher, from Unknown Worlds, August 1943.

  5. “The Man Who Cried ‘Wolf,’ ” by Robert Bloch, from Weird Tales, May 1945.

  6. “ Island of the Hands,” by Margaret St. Clair, from Weird Tales, September 1952.

  7. “ Call Not There Names,” by Everill Worrell, from Weird Tales, March 1954.

  8. “The Other Side,” by Arthur Porges, from Fantastic, Feb 1964.

  9. “After Nightfall,” by David Riley, from Coven 13, 1969.

  10. “Screaming to Get Out,” by Janet Fox, from Weirdbook #12, 1977.

  11. “Window,” by Bob Leman, from Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1980.

  12. “Bagman,” by William Trotter, from Night Cry Magazine, Fall 1985.

  13. “14 Garden Grove,” by Pierre Comtois, from The Horror Show, Winter 1986.

  SARAH PINBOROUGH’S “ROUGH GUIDE” TO

  HORROR TRAVEL LIST

  Sarah Pinborough is a British author of four horror novels and several short stories. Her next novel, Tower Hill, is due out in 2008 from Leisure Books, and she also has a novella, The Language of Dying, due from PS Publishing at the end of 2008. Sarah is a member of the writers’ collective MUSE with fellow writers Sarah Langan, Alexandra Sokoloff, and Deborah LeBlanc. She is currently working on her next novel, a screenplay, and stroking her cats. She is not planning a vacation in the near future.

  Vacationing can be a precarious business. Plan wisely and take care where you choose to stop a while and take in the view. What seems pleasant on the surface may have a nasty surprise lurking. Whether you’re a thrill-seeker wanting a vacation with an edge (although I warn you that edge may be rather sharp), or a more squeamish traveler who wants to know where to avoid to stay relaxed and breathing on your two weeks off . . . you need to read on . . .

  1. Got a luxury budget? Then why not try a night or two in the Overlook Hotel? Located in an isolated Colorado resort, the hotel promises old-style glamor and guaranteed privacy. You’ll find you like it so much you might not want to leave . . . or maybe the O
verlook just won’t let you.

  The Overlook Hotel is, of course, the setting for Stephen King’s The Shining. The hotel has a grisly past and almost a life of its own, enjoying the company of the long-dead and manipulating the living, until they join the ranks of those that have already been consumed by its malevolence. This is a hotel that’s definitely worth a visit, but perhaps only through the pages of that book.

  Incidentally, the Overlook Hotel was based on the Stanley Estes Hotel, which is only a few miles away from where the horror and crime writer Tom Piccirilli now lives. Let’s hope the hotel doesn’t work any of its black magic on him!

  2. Feeling the pinch and don’t have the cash for a flash hotel? Driving late into the night and your eyes are starting to burn? Well, look here . . . there’s a flashing neon sign coming up . . . a motel . . . just what you need. A cheap room and a hot shower . . .

  If you see a sign for the Bates Motel, just keep on driving, or your stay may be longer than you expect. Famous as the setting from Robert Bloch’s Psycho, and the home for Norman Bates and “Mother,” the iconic shower scene in the movie destroys any enjoyment to be had in a long, hot shower for at least a month after viewing. However, it is great for keeping the water bills down, and even years after seeing it, I’m always wary of having the curtain pulled totally shut. But really, what do we expect from an author who stated, “Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk,” eh?