Halloween and Horror

Got a hankering for top-notch Gothic horror? Lose yourself in J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, a titillating tale that centers on a lady-loving vampire who terrorizes an unsuspecting family in nineteenth-century Austria. Experts of the genre say that this novel exerted a significant influence on Bram Stoker when he was preparing to write Dracula.

Centered on the volatile issue of the repatriation of Native American skeletal remains, Chancers follows a group of student Solar Dancers who set out to resurrect native remains housed in the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula, may not be the first vampire novel, but it is certainly the most famous. These scenarios couldn't be more different than the conservative Victorian era during which the book was published — though critically praised from the start as being ahead of its time it was not an immediate bestseller.
The story is told through a series of letters recounting a young Jonathan Harker, a lawyer who visits Count Dracula to arrange a real estate transaction and realizes before long that he has been taken hostage there. Harker escapes after a series of horrifying events, and Dracula makes it his mission to go after the young lawyer — and his lovely fiancé, Mina, and Mina's friends.
With the assistance of an old teacher, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, the tide turns against Dracula with Van Helsing chasing the Count back to his Transylvania castle, where the ultimate battle takes place.

In this supremely creepy story from horror master H.P. Lovecraft, an unspeakable horror is unleashed upon the quaint burg of Dunwich, Massachusetts in the form of a young boy named Wilbur Whateley, the son of a disfigured albino woman and a mysterious—and possibly demonic—father. Wilbur's birth ushers in a series of strange events in the town that only intensify as he grows older. Will the townspeople be able to contain this curse before it's too late?

Lurking in the caves of eastern New Mexico, Falke, a thousand-year-old vampire, chooses his next bride: Melissa Roanhorse, an Albuquerque teenager. To regain his granddaughter's life, Michael Roanhorse, an old Navajo sheepherder wise to the power of myth, must outwit the vampire and his loyal coven.

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, was completed by Mary Shelley at the age of 19. She infused this original novel with Gothic and Romantic elements. Scientist Victor Frankenstein creates a large and powerful creature in the likeness of man, but is disgusted by his own creation and he abandons the being to fend for itself. Spawning generations of horror stories in the genre, Frankenstein is a gruesome warning against playing God and attempting the engineering of life.

Do you have a taste for the weird and macabre? Delve into this spine-tingling collection of spooky tales, expertly curated by renowned novelist Joseph Lewis French. It's the perfect accompaniment to a dark and stormy night or a storytelling session around the campfire.

H.G. Wells' 1897 science fiction novella The Invisible Man tells the story of a scientist named Griffin who theory is this: if the refractive index of a person's body is adjusted to exactly that of air, then his body will not absorb or reflect light and he will become invisible. Griffin subjects himself to a procedure to do this, becoming an invisible man. But he cannot manage to reverse it and become visible once more, resulting in his mental unhinging.

When sixteen-year-old Cynda goes to stay with her father and his second wife, Susan, at their remote bed-and-breakfast inn in Maine, everything starts off well despite legends about ghosts and a murder at the inn. But Cynda feels like a visitor in Dad's new life, an outsider. Then intense, handsome stranger Vincent Morthanos arrives at the inn and seems to return Cynda's interest. At first she is blind to the subtle, insistent signs that Vincent is not what he seems-that he is, in fact, a vampire. Can Cynda free herself-and her family-from Vincent's power before it's too late? Full-bodied characterizations and page-turning suspense ensure that this eerie, riveting novel will appeal to middle school fans of mystery and horror.

In this celebrated work, his only novel, Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.

This poem tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as a student,[1][2] is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further distress the protagonist with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is Robert Louis Stevenson's thriller allegory of a medical experiment gone wrong and dual personalities, one the essence of good, the other the essence of evil, fighting for supremacy in one man. Filled with suspense, the book has had such an impact in popular culture that the expression "Jekyll and Hyde" has itself become synonymous with extremes of, or inconsistent behavior.

The String of Pearls is the first installment of the Sweeney Todd penny part serial. It introduces the homicidal barber who became a staple of Victorian melodrama. In his barber shop on Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd murders his clients by tipping them down a chute and cleaning them off afterward with his straight razor. The bodies are then carried through an underground passage to Mrs. Lovett's pie shop, where they're made into pies.

"The man in black now advanced, and taking one of the cords from his left arm, he bound the woman's hands together. She held them meekly toward him as he did so. Then he took her arm with a rough grip and led her toward the wooden horse, which was little higher than her waist. On to this she was lifted and laid, with her back upon it, and her face to the ceiling, while the priest, quivering with horror, had rushed out of the room. I saw that the rough varlets in attendance had fastened cords to her ankles and secured the other ends to iron rings in the stone floor.
My heart sank within me as I saw these ominous preparations, and yet I was held by the fascination of horror, and I could not take my eyes from the strange spectacle."

The Turn of the Screw is s ghostly Gothic tale by Henry James. A masterpiece in ambivalence and the uncanny, The Turn of the Screw tells the story of a young woman who is hired as governess to two seemingly innocent children in an isolated country house. As the tale progresses she begins to see the ghost of her dead predecessor. Or does she? The story is so ambivalent and eerie, such a psychological thriller, that few can agree on exactly what takes place. James masters "the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy" in this chilling Victorian classic.

Offers brief profiles of Ambrose Bierce, Charles Brockden Brown, Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, Edgar Allan Poe, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bram Stoker

A volume of original essays on horror and fantasy writing as a genre and one of the few critical guides to the subject. Creepers concentrates on the rich and neglected vein of British 20th century horror and fantasy, tracing its influences from 19th century vampire-gothic to Christmas ghost tale and exploring the historical, formal and aesthetic concerns of this diverse group of writers.

The expanded second edition of this award-winning readers' advisory guide describes and organizes hundreds of horror titles according to reading preference. Focusing on titles published in the last decade as well as older classics, the authors cover 13 popular subgenres of horror fiction; lively annotations, commentary, background information, and lists of pertinent resources accompany titles. New features include streamlined organization for easy access, the inclusion of graphic novels, and indications of audio, e-book, and large print formats.

It's a dark and scary world. Fans are rabid. Blood, guts, and gore are the norm. Welcome to the horror genre. Horror classics have been scaring people for years. Nowadays, who doesn't know about Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Dean Koontz? Profiled in a special section, the'Big Three'have turned horror into best-sellers. For all the horror fans that haunt your library, this is the must-have guide. Readers'advisors and reference librarians will appreciate the key tools provided to expand upon this genre, including listings of top books, authors, and award winners within eleven horror subgenres-like mummies, biomedical, monsters, and splatterpunk. Clear descriptions of characteristics within subgenres are provided throughout. To further help you engage new readers, expert horror mavens Spratford and Clausen draw a savvy connection between film and horror as a potent reminder that the scariest movies have been adapted from novels. Their classic and contemporary recommendations like Rebecca, The Shining, and Rosemary's Baby reinforce activities between readers'advisors and library programming and open up the (cellar) door for further patron involvement. Readers'advisors and reference librarians will also learn: The art of the readers'advisory interview for horror Strategies to develop, and tools to market, the horror collection Tactics for introducing non-horror readers to the genre Where to go for more details and resources Horror may be an acquired taste, but under the guidance of two passionate aficionados, any librarian can master the basics to add horror into readers'advisory services.

The twelve horror story writers examined in this book are Robert Aickman, E.F. Benson, Algernon Blackwood, Robert Bloch, Walter de la Mare, L.P. Hartley, William Hope Hodgson, Shirley Jackson, M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen and Richard Matheson. Each profile includes biographical information, critical extracts, and a bibliography.

In Recreational Terror, Isabel Cristina Pinedo analyzes how the contemporary horror film produces recreational terror as a pleasurable encounter with violence and danger for female spectators. She challenges the conventional wisdom that violent horror films can only degrade women and incite violence, and contends instead that the contemporary horror film speaks to the cultural need to express rage and terror in the midst of social upheaval.