Halloween month is upon us and I really only needed an excuse to compile a list of my favourite chilling reads for all your spooky needs. Here are my favourites, ranging from insidious fear to absolute anguish (in disorder).
House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski — a hybrid, dizzying tale of primal and metaphysical fear, following the distorted subjectivities of very terrified protagonists as they advance in the pure darkness of a house without end.
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie — a controlled series of murders in the stifling atmosphere of a remote house, where predators suddenly become preys to a cruel and cynical little game.
The Turn of the Screw, Henry James — the original open-ended ghost story, where a new governess comes face to face with the face of evil and discovers that children can be both frightened and frightening.
The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson — the epitome of closed-quarters horror. Four strangers come together to investigate and experience Hill House, where a series of ghastly events begin to unfold, and eat slowly, slowly at the subjects’ mind.
Dark Tales, Shirley Jackson — a plethora of chilling and awfully entertaining tales of social cruelties, ghostly apparitions, and body horror.
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Angela Carter — less frightening than perniciously eerie, Carter’s short stories merge eroticism and anguish in luscious, gothic prose.
Seven Gothic Tales, Isak Dinesen — Dinesen comes back to the origins of gothic themes in focusing on existential dread (fear of death and decline), peppered with supernatural elements that push her protagonists over the edge.
The Nurse’s Story, Elizabeth Gaskell — a very short, very effective family drama that subverts the sweet children fireside story of Olde.
Carrie, Stephen King — King’s first novel is a stellar, raw scream of violence, experimental and insightful, a story of marginality and loneliness and fear, with bloody, terrifying consequences. Also, some of his best prose work.
Short Stories, Edgar Allan Poe — you don’t need me to sell this to you, do you?
Fantastic Stories, Guy de Maupassant — it seems that Maupassant isn’t that well known abroad, but his fantastic short stories (our equivalent for the gothic) are deliciously chilling, intricately and neatly written, an elegant series of lost loves, ghostly apparitions, and slow-growing insanity.
Don’t Look Now, Daphné du Maurier — with her usual flair for atmospheric settings and pitiless endings, du Maurier compiles flashes of suspens and sudden bursts of violence in this rather eclectic and creepy collection.
Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu — the very first vampire story, full to the brim with looming castles, empty chapels, urgent escapes and dark forests, as well as horror-filled sensuality : Le Fanu literally shaped the whole vampire tradition, it seems.
And here a few anthologies and short stories compilation I would so love to own. You can find more ideas in their table of contents (Wharton ! Fitzgerald ! Dickens ! Riddell !) :
The Folio Book of Ghost Stories
The Oxford Book of Victorian Short Stories
Come Along With Me, Shirley Jackson
I would happily grab a hot cup of tea, dim the lights, and live off ghost stories for a month, basically. I hope you have as much fun as I did in reading these !
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