Deece in MN Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 My ds is into horror stories and I want to incorporate his interest in our lit. studies. This is not a genre I have ever had an interest in, so I am not sure what books fall into this category and what ones are good/worth reading. Also, I was thinking of having him read 2 or 3 classic horror stories and 2 or 3 from contemporary authors with which to do some comparisons. Does Frankenstein and Dracula fall into the classic horror story category? Are there other works that would be better? Which contemporary works/authors would be good? Any suggestions? Thanks! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paisley Hedgehog Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deece in MN Posted October 18, 2008 Author Share Posted October 18, 2008 But, to answer your question, yes, I would think Dracula and Frankenstein would fall under the category of "classic horror". Also in this category would be stories by Edgar Allan Poe ("The Fall of the House of Usher" is an all time favorite of mine!), "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle (yes, it's a mystery -- but the spectral hound and the creepy moors could be borderline horror), "The House of the Seven Gables" by Hawthorne, "The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux, "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. I could go on and on .... :001_smile: Modern stories are a little harder, as I said before, because it seems that s*x and gore have to be a part of the plot :glare:. "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson is a good one from the 1950's (?). Thanks! I was also thinking of Poe, but some of the others you listed I would not have thought of so I appreciate the suggestions. I agree with what you said about contemporary/modern horror stories and I don't want to go down the "shock value" road in terms of plot. I would like stories with substance and something to think about in the end not just mind candy (and yucky candy, at that). I may not do the contemporary works if I can't find ones worth reading, but I will check out the classics that you mentioned. Thanks, again! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncmomo3 Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 I just finished Dracula--yes, waay creepy. It would be an excellent choice. Frankenstein was surprisingly existential (I wasn't expecting that) and not very heavy on the creepy scale, but very good. Poe's A Tell-Tale Heart always sends a shiver up my back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 I love Edgar Allan Poe! I just realized I like horror stories too, as I like many of the ones you mentioned. I just didn't think of them as such (I love Anne Rice's The Witching Hour, I read it twice but would NOT recommend it for your dc -- it's definitely for adults). Agatha Christie murder mysteries are not technically horror but mystery stories, but they are interesting and have some scary elements in them as well. I read Misery by Stephen King too, and if I remember correctly this has nothing about s*x in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura K (NC) Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 I wish there were 5 years of high school homeschooling, so we could afford to take a year off of regular 4 year cycle and take a semester to do a "unit" on horror books, and another semester to do a unit on "political/espionage thrillers," like that other thread was collecting. My sons would love these, I think, and I don't know when they'll get another opportunity to do reading for fun after high school. I hate to have to choose between books they need to read, and books I think they would love to read. The obvious answer is to do both, but to be able to focus on these for a while means that some critical books will be left behind. A few years ago my kids were doing a geography fair presentation on Russia. I took about 4 months to read some great Russian literature, and I just loved that. I hope to instill a love of reading in my sons -- a real love of reading, so they can come back to some great books after they have finished their formal education. Two of my sons really, really love reading. The other, though, I think may hardly open a book after his schooling is done. Just musing out loud..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 Don't forget E.T.A. Hoffman. There are numerous collections of his tales, but no one definitive collections that I've found. A unit including his story "The Sandman" and Gaiman's modern graphic novel series "The Sandman" might be fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2cents Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 We just finished reading "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury. It was fantastic and the children loved it! We're celebrating by watching the 1983 Disney movie made from the book tonite with pizza and popcorn. :lurk5: We really enjoy Poe too. Both Poe and Bradbury have wonderful descriptions and vocabulary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 Even though I'm not in general a fan of horror, I have always loved Poe! My younger son has read a ton of Alvin Schwarz's books of scary stories. I don't know that I'd class them with real literature, but I do think they're a step up from Stein's books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deece in MN Posted October 19, 2008 Author Share Posted October 19, 2008 Thank you all for the suggestions! You have brought up titles that I would not have thought of. I did read Something Wicked This Way Comes about a year ago and I thought it was weird and didn't really care for it. Maybe I just didn't get it? My ds might like it though and watching the movie afterward might be a fun way to finish it off. I like the Sandman idea with the graphic novel as my dc have enjoyed a variety of graphic novels lately. I appreciate the ideas! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Buckin' Longhorn Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 I don't want to hijack your thread, but my son would LOVE all of the books you are describing. That's exactly what the genre he WANTS to read but I don't seem to have the smarts or resourcefulness to know how to turn them into a "literary study." Do you know how you will incorporate them into a real study as opposed to just reading them, or is that not your goal? Thanks, again sorry for the hijack, but I just about jumped up and down when I saw this thread. It's extremely interesting to me. Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilary Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 It might be interesting to read two classic Gothic novels, The Monk by Matthew Lewis (I remember reading this one in college) and The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe ... followed by Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, which is a sendup of the Gothic genre. Another classic writer of the horror novel is J. S. Le Fanu. His Uncle Silas is supposed to be a masterpiece of its kind, and still gives me the creeps. Another of my favorites is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. And what about Turn of the Screw by Henry James? Really, there are a lot of superlative novels in this area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deece in MN Posted October 20, 2008 Author Share Posted October 20, 2008 I don't want to hijack your thread, but my son would LOVE all of the books you are describing. That's exactly what the genre he WANTS to read but I don't seem to have the smarts or resourcefulness to know how to turn them into a "literary study." Do you know how you will incorporate them into a real study as opposed to just reading them, or is that not your goal? Thanks, again sorry for the hijack, but I just about jumped up and down when I saw this thread. It's extremely interesting to me. Thanks in advance! Hi, My somewhat of a plan is to use what I have learned from Teaching the Classics and apply it to the books we read. This way we can really get into some discussion of plot, setting, character, conflict, etc. I also plan on having my ds do a couple analysis papers. I don't know now what question/prompt I will have him write about at this point, but will figure that out when I decide exactly which books we will read. This is a bit of new territory for me as I have used lit. programs (Literary Lessons from LOTR, Mosdos Press, lit. guides, etc.) in the past and now I am having to pull this together on my own. I hope this helps a little. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deece in MN Posted October 20, 2008 Author Share Posted October 20, 2008 It might be interesting to read two classic Gothic novels, The Monk by Matthew Lewis (I remember reading this one in college) and The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe ... followed by Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, which is a sendup of the Gothic genre. Another classic writer of the horror novel is J. S. Le Fanu. His Uncle Silas is supposed to be a masterpiece of its kind, and still gives me the creeps. Another of my favorites is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. And what about Turn of the Screw by Henry James? Really, there are a lot of superlative novels in this area. Thank you for the additional suggestions. I can't say that I am excited about this venture, but I am definitely becoming more intrigued. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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