| Author | Message | ||
     Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.254.173.34 |
There's a half-hour feature about this book on Radio 4 this morning, at 11.30. You may be able to listen again or download a podcast version if you've misse dit, but I can't swear to that. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I've read 'The Castle Of Otranto' and must say I found it a hard slog - fascinating but difficult. Despite its reputation I found it more like a proto "sword & sorcery" novel than gothic horror. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.3 |
I found it boring... | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Yep, a real struggle to get through... | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.202.180.203 |
Thanks for posting this. I enjoyed the book, and though I agree it took some effort, I was never bored and found it worth the effort. The programme is on BBC iPlayer for a week. I'll listen to it later. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.163.176.9 |
It's not bad, actually. A bit comic, but nicely presented/produced. | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 217.171.129.70 |
How funny. Here I am sitting at work on my break, looking at the new Penguin Victorian Classics edition of this novel, log on to the website via my phone and find a thread at the top of the page about it. Has anyone read The Demon of Sicily? It's available now only as a print-on-demand looking edition, I think, but I've had it in a to-read pile for some time. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.3 |
Patrick, I've read "The Demon of Sicily", by Edward Montagu, Valancourt Press. It's a vintage piece, rather amusing and often ridiculous even for Gothic standards, imho. Its sublime paragon stays Lewis's "The Monk", of course, not to speak of Hoffmann's "The Devil's Elixirs" (or what the English title may be). | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
The best 5 early horror novels I've read: 1. Melmoth The Wanderer - Maturin 2. The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Justified Sinner - Hogg 3. The Monk - Lewis 4. Frankenstein - Shelley 5. The Double - Dostoevsky | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.202.180.203 |
I adore The Monk. Against all expectations, it chilled me to the bone. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.229.205 |
Frankenstein is a great book, easily the best 'horror' novel of the period. A bit of a shock after seeing the Hollywood and Hammer Frankensteins, even if I like quite a few of the latter. I'm afraid Otranto, Vathek, Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde didn't do much for me. Maybe I ought to try The Monk. Lovecraft was very enthusiastic about that one, if memory serves correctly. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
I was thinking of novels from the first half of the 19th Century and earlier, Hubert. For me 'Dracula' is the greatest horror novel of that "embarrassment of riches" century and still the best that I have ever read (twice). 'The Monk' gets it for the 18th Century. And I'm rapidly approaching the grand climax of Blatty's 'The Exorcist' and now consider it the best horror novel of the 20th Century. Everything else I was reading has been forgotten and every time I put the book down I feel a cold shiver run through me (no bullshit). For a horror re-read I don't think that's happened me before... a genuinely terrifying tour-de-force! Yeah, 'The Monk', 'Dracula', 'The Exorcist'... | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
Yeah, The Monk is ace. Blood and thunder in the true sense. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.203.90 |
Stephen; House on Haunted Hill, House Next Door, Rosemary's Baby. | ||
| Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker) Username: Patrick_walker Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 92.40.34.91 |
I picked up a second hand copy of Rosemary's Baby for £1 today. That it's a suprisingly short book, was the first thing I noticed. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.150.200.187 |
All the best books are thin. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.229.205 |
The Monk can hardly be called thin  | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.202.180.203 |
Stephen, I can't argue with Dracula and The Monk. Rather shamefully, I haven't read The Exorcist yet. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Then do... you won't regret nor, indeed, forget it! |