INTRODUCTION
744 Words
INTRODUCTIONHorror is a genre of speculative fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, disgust, or startle its readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror. It shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing. It creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere. Horror is frequently supernatural, though it might also be non-supernatural. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society.
This book is a special collection of best horror novels of all time. Plunge into this frightening atmosphere in order to release your fear.
Here they are :
CARMILLA by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
CURIOUS, IF TRUE: STRANGE TALES by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
DRACULA by Bram Stoker
FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley
STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson
THE BURIAL OF THE RATS by Bram Stoker
THE DUNWICH HORROR by Howard Phillips Lovecraft
THE EMPTY HOUSE AND OTHER GHOST STORIES by Algernon Blackwood
THE GREAT GOD PAN by Arthur Machen
THE HOUSE OF THE VAMPIRE by George Sylvester Viereck
THE KING IN YELLOW by Robert William Chambers
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW by Washington Irving
THE MAGICIAN by W. Somerset Maugham
THE METAMORPHOSIS by Franz Kafka
THE NIGHT LAND by William Hope Hodgson
THE RAVEN by Edgar Allan Poe
THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME by Howard Phillips Lovecraft
THE TELL-TALE HEART by Edgar Allan Poe
THE VAMPIRE MAID by Hume Nisbet
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A well-formatted, easy-to-read book suitable for any e-reader, tablet or computer. The reader will go from one section to another one as quick as possible.
Enjoy your reading!
CARMILLA by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
About Le Fanu
Sheridan Le Fanu was born at No. 45 Lower Dominick Steet,
Dublin, into a literary family of Huguenot origins. Both his
grandmother Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu and his great-uncle Richard
Brinsley Sheridan were playwrights. His niece Rhoda Broughton would
become a very successful novelist. Within a year of his birth his
family moved to the Royal Hibernian Military School in Phoenix
Park, where his father, an Anglican clergyman, was the chaplain of
the establishment. Phoenix Park and the adjacent village and parish
church of Chapelizod were to feature in Le Fanu's later stories.
Le
Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin, where he was elected
Auditor of the College Historical Society. He was called to the bar
in 1839, but he never practised and soon abandoned law for
journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin
University Magazine, including his first ghost story, entitled "A
Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter" (1839). He
became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin
Evening Mail and the Warder. In 1844 Le Fanu married Susanna
Bennett, the daughter of a leading Dublin barrister. In 1847 he
supported John Mitchell and Thomas Meagher in their campaign
against the indifference of the Government to the Irish Famine. His
support cost him the nomination as Tory MP for County Carlow in
1852. His personal life also became difficult at this time, as his
wife Susanna suffered from increasing neurotic symptoms.
She died
in 1858 in unclear circumstances, and anguished excerpts from Le
Fanu's diaries suggest that he felt guilt as well as loss. However,
it was only after her death that, becoming something of a recluse,
he devoted himself full time to writing. In 1861 he became the
editor and proprietor of the Dublin University Magazine and he
began exploiting double exposure: serializing in the Dublin
University Magazine and then revising for the English market. The
House by the Churchyard and Wylder's Hand were both published in
this way. After the lukewarm reviews of the former novel, set in
the Phoenix Park area of Dublin, Le Fanu signed a contract with
Richard Bentley, his London publisher, which specified that future
novels be stories "of an English subject and of modern times", a
step Bentley thought necessary in order for Le Fanu to satisfy the
English audience.
Le Fanu succeeded in this aim in 1864, with the
publication of Uncle Silas, which he set in Derbyshire. In his very
last short stories, however, Le Fanu returned to Irish folklore as
an inspiration and encouraged his friend Patrick Kennedy to
contribute folklore to the D.U.M. Le Fanu died in his native Dublin
on February 7, 1873. Today there is a road in Ballyfermot, near his
childhood home in south-west Dublin, named after him.
- Writer
