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Tales of Mystery, Imagination, & Humour, and Poems [8 stories, 11 poems]

Edgar Allan Poe1852

6 of 6 directions open

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    Joyce Carol Oates2013

    A supernatural curse strikes 1905 Princeton, involving historical figures like Woodrow Wilson in a series of gothic disappearances.

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Denser prose

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  • Ghost Stories

    Henry James2001

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  • Ambergris

    Jeff VanderMeer2020

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  • Gormenghast

    Mervyn Peake1950

    A young heir and a social climber navigate the rigid rituals of a decaying, labyrinthine castle. The prose is dense and descriptive.

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To recover

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  • The Score

    Elle Kennedy2016

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  • Walking Disaster

    Jamie McGuire2013

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  • This Man

    Jodi Ellen Malpas2013

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Faster

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  • The Rising

    Brian Keene2003

    A father travels across an apocalypse where the dead are possessed by malevolent, intelligent demons. The world is ending permanently.

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  • Shattered

    Dean Koontz1973

    A man and his future stepson drive across America while being stalked by the woman's vengeful ex-husband.

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  • The Executioner

    Chris Carter2010

    A Los Angeles detective hunts a serial killer who murders victims using their specific phobias. Each crime scene features a blood-scrawled number.

    elegiac → tense

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Slower

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  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

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  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    Same elegiac register, still unreliable narrator

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  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

    A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

    elegiac → meditative

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Heavier

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  • The Monk

    Matthew Gregory Lewis

    A celebrated monk is seduced by a woman in disguise and descends into a cycle of rape, murder, and sorcery. He eventually makes a pact with Satan.

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  • The House Next Door

    Anne Rivers Siddons1978

    A couple watches as a newly built house next door causes a series of tragedies for its occupants. The house preys on the flaws of those inside.

    elegiac → dread, still gothic

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  • The Elementals

    Michael McDowell1981

    Two families vacation at a coastal estate where one of three houses is slowly being buried by sand and inhabited by a malevolent presence.

    elegiac → dread, still gothic

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1