Like many people, myself included, a friend of mine likes to read horror fiction in the month of October. It's a nice lead-in to Halloween. He likes audiobooks, having a somewhat long subway commute to work (as an aside, my commute home from SSC on Wednesday night was a horror story- there was a 4 train stuck in the northbound tunnel near 138th St in the Bronx, accompanied by construction on the other track, so the delays were terrible). Asking specifically for a supernatural tale of terror or two, I unhesitatingly directed him to M.R. James, who I mentioned in a recent blog post, steering him towards Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. The book, which is in the public domain, is available at Gutenberg, with an audiobook at Librivox. I specifically recommended he try 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, Lad' and 'Count Magnus'.
I figure that, if you want supernatural tales, go for the classic, and the classy.
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3 comments:
I'm no horror fan and never have been, but sometimes a classic of the form crosses your path like a coal-black feline, whether you were looking for it or not. There is a British TV treatment of "O Whistle" with the great Sir Michael Hordern that did just that to me when I was visiting in London back in the 80s. Scary is not the word.
I like my chills to have a romantic, humanist strain ... like "The Uninvited". Pure fear and repulsion hang around in my head too tenaciously. But each to their own.
http://www.neilgaiman.com/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/I_Cthulhu
I'm not much for any of the classic horror genre, but by golly if you want to read something filled with existential dread and compelling characters - both human and...err...something else - you can do a lot worse than King's 'The Stand'.
It's an amazing, epic story - especially if you read the un-cut version he was eventually rich and powerful enough to force his publisher to issue.
If a heavily supernaturally influenced fight for the soul of humanity after the end of the world, a battle between a charismatic evil and a lovely old granny who may or may not have been god interests you, you gotta give it a spin...
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