Seeking Some Literary Recommendations: I'm Wanting To Expand My Horizons~

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. The story centers around a family haunted by a dark past - and to boot they live in a creepy New Orleans mansion that much of the story takes place in. The book is nearly 1000 pages, but don't be intimidated by that - it's a quick read that will have you enthralled.

"The Witching Hour," Anne Rice's 1990 foray into witchcraft and the occult, is not really a change of pace for the uniquely gifted author more than it is a better realized creation emphasizing her strengths and obsessions. As most readers know, Rice cut her teeth with the enormously successful Vampire Chronicles including "Interview with the Vampire" and "The Vampire Lestat." With "The Witching Hour," Rice has taken a well-deserved break from the immortal lives of her witty vampire clan, creating a fascinating legend of a family of witches stretching back four centuries and two continents.

The witches, known as the Mayfairs, are connected by the haunting thread of the mysterious spirit Lasher, appearing ghost-like to a selected few, standing within the shadows of ominous trees and forming within mirrors, tears streaking his pale face. Lasher forms an eerie, if not erotic bond with the women of the Mayfair clan, providing untold riches and eventually amorous damnation. But Lasher, much like the legacy of the Mayfair family, is an exotic mystery waiting to be solved, and this intimidating responsiblity falls into the modern-day hands of Michael Curry and Rowan Mayfair. This appealing, love-struck couple, set out for New Orleans to solve the mystery and reclaim the souls of the Mayfair family.

"The Witching Hour" was eventually followed by two sequels, but it stands alone as one of Rice's greatest novels, an enthralling, complex epic filled with gothic mystery, dancing ghosts and heartbreaking irony. Her descriptions of the decayed mansion on First Street, situated in the Garden District of New Orleans, a moody, ancient home owned by the Mayfairs for over 100 years, provides some of this novels most sensual and memorable passages. This house is indeed haunted by spirits and the hovering mysteries of past tragedies, but like Shirley Jackson's classic "The Haunting of Hill House," what is lurking within the home is much more than just crying spirits of the dead.

Rice's body of work has always had an old fashioned taste for the finer things in life, from exquisite bottles of wine to antique furnishings and dusty historic paintings. She caresses these lush trappings, much like a lover embraces an old flame. And her descriptions of these tasteful adornments - clothes, artwork, china, food and even New Orleans culture, all glowing within the flame of yellow candlelight, are examples of her sensual writing style. Granted, the passages leading up to the novel's final conflict, in which Michael and Rowan begin renovating the ancient Mayfair home, move slowly, perhaps providing more architectural detail than the reader is interested in. But Rice is strategically building a growing sense of dread. Horror is going to pay a visit to this young couple, and when it eventually does, the reader's mouth will be agape.

"The Witching Hour" is a mesmerizing novel, combining comfortable elements of the English ghost story with a feather-touch dash of erotica, witchcraft and the occult. As in all Anne Rice novels, the dead will simply not go away. They lurk in the shadows of history, as they have for centuries. Time may have passed these pseudo banshees by, but their power is far reaching. Even within the shadows of skyscrapers, automobiles and computers, these timeless supernatural fears are hiding. In Anne Rice's fascinating worlds, ancient legends live and wait, and our imagination is entranced.

My friend lived in that house prior to Anne Rice.

I love Rice's works!!!!!!

[Josh2003]

One of my favorite classics is "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Very dark, somewhat creepy, and it certainly inspired Stevie with many of her lyrics.

[CharmedHour]

Originally Posted by paleshadow

Me too! Though it took me a little while to warm up to it, since I blamed that show for Joan of Arcadia getting canceled.

LOL! I didn't start watching it right away either, so through the summer I have been catching up on reruns. This past Friday's was a good one!

[JWS]

Originally Posted by Josh2003

One of my favorite classics is "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Very dark, somewhat creepy, and it certainly inspired Stevie with many of her lyrics.

Oscar Wilde's great novel.

[Musicman408]

You all, seriously, thank you for all of the suggestions. I find them all to be quite intriquing. I'm thinking about picking up a copy of Anne Rice's novel in the very near future. Anyone else have any experience with her work?

[Blondie85]

You should definitely check out "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's a very cool and fascianting read. Here's a short review that really sums it up.

"I first heard of "House of Leaves" about a year ago on the Internet. Somebody said it was the best new horror novel they had read in years. Then when I started working at a bookstore in town, one of my new friends there told me it was the scariest book he had ever read.

All of this quite intrigued me. So I bought the book and read it over a period of about six months. It's not a quick read, or at least it wasn't for me. I had to have other, more normal, sane books going on at the same time. "House of Leaves" is over seven hundred pages long and it's loaded with literary detour signs, unespected landmines (some duds, some live), and good old "holding the book upside down in a mirror so you can read the words printed that way" fun.

This whole thing is very postmodern. The house is aware of itself as a house, and the book is aware of itself as a book. There is a story of a family moving into a house, trying to sort out its interpersonal demons, and finding that the insides of things (lives, minds, houses) can often be darker, scarier, stranger, and more convoluted than they would appear from the outsides.

[Ghost_Tracker]

Dracula is considered to be "good literature," in fact it's part of something called the "Western Canon." You might want to read about it on Wikipedia either before, during or after reading the novel - there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

i.m.o. The Christmas Stories of Charles Dickens are WELL worth reading, no matter how you look at it. (A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, etc.)

If you're looking for something a little more mainstream, Stephen King really does have some good stuff out there, i.m.o. Personally I think Bag of Bones and Pet Semetary are well worth reading. Dean Koontz also has his moments, literary and otherwise. (Intensity, Whispers, From the Corner of His Eye, Seize the Night etc.)

[ajmccarrell]

Try "Green Light" by Lloyd C. Douglas. It isn't dark at all, it is more intellectual. It has one of my all time favorite quotes, "I believe I could have stood the world, except for the loud vulgarity of those trying to save it."

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Ghost_Tracker

Dracula is considered to be "good literature," in fact it's part of something called the "Western Canon." You might want to read about it on Wikipedia either before, during or after reading the novel - there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

I was actually going to recommend Dracula myself. I read it for the first time when I was in middle school, and have probably read it 5-6 times in the 15 years or so since. This is without question my favorite book of all time. When friends ask me for book recommendations, this is always my first. Something about it -- the darkness, the style of writing (letters, journal entries, newspaper clippings that all seem to flow together) and the haste and suspense at the end get me every time. Plus of course the sexual and good versus evil themes throughout. An excellent read, IMO.

Brad

[jadegypsy]

Anything by Anne Rice is great for the "creepy" aptmosphere. The Witching Hour and Interview with the Vampire are her best.

Silence of the Lambs is a great book as well.

The Dante Club is a good mystery aa bit gruesom though...

In the completely not creepy but just plain good is The Godfather.

The Cobra event is a good one if your'e into suspense.

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by paleshadow

Try "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James. You've got a creepy house, 2 creepy children and a governess who believes the children are being manipulated by ghosts only she sees. Is she really seeing them, or is she just crazy?

Henry James is my favorite author. So if Turn of the Screw ends up interesting you, you should check out (gosh anything) my very favorites:

The Ambassadors
The Portrait Of A Lady
Washington Square
Wings of The Dove
The Golden Bowl
The Bostonians
(omg I could keep going)

Incidentally, my favorite book OF ALL TIME is not by James, it's by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Tender Is The Night

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

Henry James is my favorite author. So if Turn of the Screw ends up interesting you, you should check out (gosh anything) my very favorites:

The Ambassadors
The Portrait Of A Lady
Washington Square
Wings of The Dove
The Golden Bowl
The Bostonians
(omg I could keep going)

Incidentally, my favorite book OF ALL TIME is not by James, it's by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Tender Is The Night

Okay - you and I could so start a Henry James literary club a la "The Jane Austen Club." I love all the James novels and I love Fitzgerald. I have a first edition of "The Bodely Head," which I had to have dictionary next to me when I read it. I also really like E. M. Forster.