I'd like to start this recommendation thread early, because I am having problems coming up with potential reads.

For some reason, I can easily think of a large number of Japanese books which would fit, from older/more traditional stuff such as the stories collected and translated by Lafcadio Hearn (or other collections like Tales of Moonlight and Rain), to modern tales like Strangers by Taichi Yamada. My research has also discovered that there is a whole subgenre of supernatural manga (eg Pet Shop Of Horrors).

Other possibilities I've found are:
Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio, a collection of old Chinese ghost stories
The Square Moon, modern Arabic supernatural tales
The Secret History of Moscow and other books by Ekaterina Sedia, and The Night Watch and other books by Sergei Lukyanenko (Russian, modern fantasy)

But I am sure there must be lots more out there - whether that's traditional/folk stories or more modern chillers.

Any recommendations?

There are certainly golem stories from eastern Europe. I will try to research these a little when I get a chance.

See the Wikipedia entry and scroll down to the section on "The classic narrative."

Message edited by its author, Aug 19, 2009, 10:32am.

I need to go through my bookshelves. There's a lot of interesting material out there - particularly in the realm of folktales.

From Malaysia, there is Tunku Halim and his novels such as Dark Demon Rising and short story collections like 44 Cemetery Road.

Damn, LT ate my post. I’ll try to recreate part of it.

Non US or English
Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo (Finland). One of my favorites.
Ghosts by César Aira (Argentina). Only for the seriously committed reader of the postmodern style
The Legendof Rendta Tiria by Salvatore Niffoi (Sardinia, Italy).
A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia by Viktor Pelevin
The Goose Girl and Other Stories by Eric Linklater (Scotland). Creepy fairy tales.
The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb (Hungary). A gothic tale.
Uncle Silas Carmilla a vampire tale by Sheridan Le Fanu (Ireland). Creepy. You really can’t go wrong anything by Le Fanu if you want to be frightened.
One Hundred Stories of Demons and Spirits by Kitagawa Utamaro (Japan).

Random Short Stories from Around the World courtesy of George William Curtis. Includes the following:
"The Horla" (also known as Jettatura by Guy De Maupassant (France)
"Siesta" by Alexander L. Kielland (Norway)
The Tall Woman by Pedro Antonio De Alarcón (Spain)
On The River by Guy Dr Maupassant (France)
Maese Pérez, the Organist by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer (Spain)
Fioraccio by Giovanni Magherini-Graziani (Italy)
The Silent Woman by Leopold Kompert (Bohemia – now Czech Republic? Died in Vienna, wrote in German).




And not really global, but I can’t resist adding
Be My Guest by Rachel Ingalls (England). A young woman “encounters a young boy who claims he is an adult magically imprisoned by his son in a child’s body.” Ingalls is an underrated writer.
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner (England). Witches and the Devil!
Any of the ghost story collectionsof M.R. James (England). A brilliant writer andacademic.
Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle (USA). Young adult ghost story but extremely well-written. His A Fine and Private Place is a beautiful ghost story
Sunshine by Robin McKinley (US now living in Great Britain). A really well-crafted vampire novel for YA.

Other additions,

The Demons Daughter by Pingali Suranna (India). Sixteenth-century novel writer in Telgu.

I think I might consider this theme the "reason" I need to buy Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I've been eyeing it off in the bookshop for far too long, and it keeps on getting good recommendations!

I've also got the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko to read...

I didn't realise there was a book of that - the film had excellent reviews, though. Have you seen it?

#8> Unfortunately I missed the movie, but I did hear the good reviews too.

Among the Shadows by LM Montgomery, a collection of dark and spooky short stories. (well, spooky for Montgomery)

The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan
Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Turn of the Screw by Henry James

If we're not really going global, but sticking with the purview of Anglo-American literature, the I suggest The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton (USA).

The Ghost-seer (Geisterseher) by Friedrich Schiller (On Project Gutenberg) - (German)

Works by Théophile Gautier - (French)

The Green Face by Gustav Meyrink - (Austrian)

The Vampyre by Polidori - (British)

The Monk by Matthew Lewis - (British)

The Others by Javier Garcia Sanchez - (Spanish)

Possessed: the secret of Myslotch by Witold Gombrowicz - (Polish)

The Lamplighter by Anthony O'Neill - (Australian)

The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle - (Irish)

If we want ghouls – might I suggest some of the Scandinavian sagas dealing with troll women and others. Herewith follow a few titles.

Icelandic Histories and Romances by Ralph O’Connor
“The Icelandic sagas, composed between the 12th and the 19th centuries, are one of the world's great literary treasures. After an extended and lively introduction to the genre, Ralph O'Connor provides new translations for 5 of the greatest of these sagas. We encounter a humble Icelandic scholar dreaming of a Viking past, a royal adventurer evading the horrible lusts of troll-women, a demon popping out of a lavatory, the death spasms of the old Northern gods, and unnatural acts in Muslim Germany.”

I found some interesting literature on the site about the Yugur People:

WESTERN YUGUR FOLKTALES. If you scroll down to the links you will find the site divided into different types of folktales. Here are some example that might interest this group. Although not a book, there appear to be enough tales to constitute a book.

Themes
The Ogress Grandmother and the Children
Vampires and Evil Sisters-In-Law
The Vampire Wife

Message edited by its author, Aug 20, 2009, 5:57pm.

>17 Mary, did you first type the address in a Word document? The " don't transfer correctly over here--just erase them and retype them in your a href link above.

“ and " are actually different. :)

One more to be added from japan -

Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edogawa Rampo. Published in 1956 in the US, very popular in Japan, considered to be the first modern mystery writer in Japan. The stories are more than mystery however, they're creepy. The author's real name is Hirai Taro but he took his pen name from the Japanese pronunciation of Edgar Allen Poe.

Here is a link to John Polidori’s The Vampyre at at Project Gutenberg. According to Wikipedia, “Polidori's work had an immense impact on contemporary sensibilities and ran through numerous editions and translations. An adaptation appeared in 1820 with Cyprien Bérard’s novel, Lord Ruthwen ou les Vampires, falsely attributed to Charles Nodier, who himself then wrote his own version, Le Vampire, a play which had enormous success and sparked a "vampire craze" across Europe. This includes operatic adaptations by Heinrich Marschner and Peter Josef von Lindpaintner, both published in the same year and called "The Vampire." Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, Alexandre Dumas, and Alexis Tolstoy all produced vampire tales, and themes in Polidori's tale would continue to influence Bram Stoker's Dracula and eventually the whole vampire genre.

And more Vikram and the Vampire; Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance, stories collected by Richard Burton

Message edited by its author, Aug 22, 2009, 1:47pm.

And . . . George Sylvester Viereck's The House of the Vampire, one of the first gay vampire novels. This about Vierek from Wikipedia:

Viereck's father, Louis, born out of wedlock to German actress Edwina Viereck, was reputed to be a son of Kaiser Wilhelm I, although another relative of the Hohenzollern family assumed legal paternity. Louis in the 1870s joined the Marxist socialist movement, and in 1896 emigrated to the United States, followed by his American born wife Laura and 12-year-old George Sylvester in 1897.

Viereck is considered German-American.

Hanns Heinz Ewers (German): (description from Wikipedia)

Ewers's first novel, Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorcerer's Apprentice), was published in 1910, with an English translation appearing in America in 1927. It introduces the character of Frank Braun, who, like Ewers, is a writer, historian, philosopher, and world traveller with a decidedly Nietzschean morality. The story concerns Braun's attempts to manipulate a small cult of evangelical Christians in a small Italian mountain village for his own financial gain, and the horrific results which ensue.

This was followed in 1911 by Alraune, a reworking of the Frankenstein myth, in which Braun collaborates in creating a female homunculus or android by impregnating a prostitute with the semen from a hanged murderer. The result is a young woman with no moral center, who commits numerous monstrous acts. The novel was filmed several times, most recently by Erich von Stroheim in 1952.

The third novel in the sequence, Vampyr, written in 1921, concerns Braun's own eventual transformation into one of these blood-drinking creatures.

Paul Féval (French - 19 century)
Knightshade: "Educated men say that they are the tombs of two French noblemen who came with many others to help the voivode John Hunyadi defend Christendom against the Turks four hundred years ago. Men who are not educated affirm that for four centuries there has lain beneath these marble slabs an oupire and a vampire: one an eater of human flesh, the other a drinker of human blood. On many occasions, during the four hundred years, those graves have opened, to the terror and the horror of the surrounding country. Sometimes, two corpses were found beneath the stones, one tall and one short, which gave every indication of recent death: eyes open and shining, blood liquid in the veins, tongues moist and lips red. At other times, the open graves displayed nothing but their emptiness: two black cavities from which the odour of death emerged. It is certain, moreover, that many attempts have been made to destroy these graves: the marble slabs have been broken, the rubble dispersed, the ground levelled-and invariably, when some time has passed, the two black stones resurface beneath the grass or the corn, intact once again, bearing the same funerary inscriptions." (description from Amazon)

The Vampire City: Were there vampire novels before Dracula? Yes, and French author Paul Féval wrote some of the eeriest. In this 1867 novel Féval sends a band of intrepid vampire hunters, led by the real-life author Ann Radcliff, into central Europe in search of the legendary vampire city called Selene. The vampire they encounter will be strange creatures in the eyes of modern readers. The stereotypical strengths and weaknesses are nowhere to be found. But these vampires are no less terrifying for all their strangeness and their city is a thing of wonder. Fans of horror and vampires alike should find much to enjoy in this surreal and darkly humorous odyssey. (description courtesy of M. Baugh on Amazon)

The Vampire Countess: The particular gift of Countess Addhema was to be reborn as beautiful and young as love itself every time she could apply to the hideous bareness of her skull a living head of hair. I mean a scalp, torn from the head of a living victim. This was why her tomb was full of the skulls of young women and adolescent girls. (Amazon description)

Message edited by its author, Aug 24, 2009, 11:37am.

I'll read The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, a ghost story which I was planning to read anyway, as it is on the Booker Prize longlist.

A personal recommendation (albeit an English one) Sleep Pale Sister by Joanne Harris - a creepy ghost story.

I've never read The Hound of the Baskervilles and was thinking that might work for this month. Would that be considered a ghost story?

#25> Thanks for the reminder! I've got The Little Stranger on Mt TBR, and was hoping to read it soon, so this is a nice excuse.

#27> I'd recommend The Hound of the Baskervilles, and I think it would suit quite well here!

I do have my copy of Let the Right One In so shall definitely be reading that next month.

I just finished The Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy, an anthology of short stories from famous to not-so-famous Austrian writers, some of which include ghosties and monsters but almost all of which are on the dark, creepy side of fantasy. I reckon it would be a perfect October read and it was a really interesting introduction to some more contemporary Austrian writers as well as some of the classics.

Ah, unfortunately, telling you all it's a ghosty story is really a bit of a spoiler, because you might not catch it until fairly near on the end otherwise, but Halldor Laxness wrote a doozy in Under the Glacier.

If any of you like a good audiobook, Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood is absolutely stellar since it was written as a play for voices, so it's one of the few audiobooks that is being presented exactly as it was intended. The ghosts aren't particularly frightening, but, then, ghosts aren't always fightening in real life, are they?

Message edited by its author, Sep 21, 2009, 11:30am.

Oh! Oh! I just thought of another great one. Naguib Mahfouz's Arabian Nights and Days is a great ghost story! It will haunt you.

Of course, there's always Edgar Allen Poe and Washington Irving. And can we throw in Faust?

Message edited by its author, Sep 21, 2009, 11:44am.

Ghosts by Cesar Aira looks really interesting! Thanks for suggesting that urania1. Though my local and county libraries didn't have it, I found it at my university. I've requested it. Cheers!

I am reading Vampires: Stories of the Supernatural by Alexis Tolstoy, cousin to the late, belated Leo Tolstoy. Not global unless you live outside US/Canada/Great Britain/ . . . all those holding pens for people whose primary language is English, but . . . if you want to read a really well-written and horribly scary book, then take a look at White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. She is a Nigerian Brit, so she ay pass the global reading test anyway.

>31 A_musing,

Damnation! Just when you think you've finally gotten rid him, Faust pops up again.

I'd like to also put in a vote for late 19th-/early 20th-century English author William Hope Hodgson (touchstone not working despite ample LT entries). His series of stories about a character known simply as Carnacki (e.g., The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder) are great fun -- a Victorian X-Files, of sorts. :)

>34, look I was just gone while fulfilling my part of the bargain with a certain someones.

How about Dante as ghost story, too? Or Pilgrim's Progress? Sir Gawain? There's some scary stuff in there.

>34,

You bear watching. I don't like bargains with certain someones. They call to mind other someones, most of whom do not fare well.

I am planning on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein . Hopefully I'll be able to purchase an annotated copy .

I am reading the Count, Dracula, as of course is everyone. I am throwing in some Poe and I am going to read The Virago Book of Ghost Stories. That ought to see me through the "ghost season".
Happy ghouling everyone.
belva

Message edited by its author, Sep 23, 2009, 8:54pm.

>39 and avaland,

Where are you ghouling? Where have you been?

A few other suggestions:

Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Hundred Secret Senses and Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich
The Between and My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

OK -- They're all American, but African-American, Asian-American and Native American.

Message edited by its author, Sep 24, 2009, 5:38pm.

I think we can keep the discussion on this thread as it's still relatively short. For those who like to have a few questions in mind when talking about your book, I suggest the following:

- What was the supernatural creature? Was it a genre which you were familiar with before?

- If not, were you inspired to find out more about the genre? What did you find out?

- Was the story meant to be scary? If so, did it manage to be? If not, what was the intention?

Any more questions or discussion points very welcome!

Message edited by its author, Oct 11, 2009, 5:33am.

I've had some trouble getting into a ghostly mood, but now my interest has been caught by a book by Taiwanese writer Li Ang:Kan de jian de gui (Visible Ghosts), which I intend to squeeze to fit into October's theme. (Hey, it does have ghosts in the title and it's global, right?) It's a collection of five short-stories, each about a different woman who lived some time during the past three or four centuries and who now returns as a Janus-headed spirit to the land of the living to tell the story of her life. According to the author every woman who trespasses the boundaries that have been drawn out for her will turn into such a ghost.

There is only one problem. The Chinese language original only seems to have been translated into German (Sichtbare Geister.) Well, of course I'm glad it's been translated at all since my Chinese is non-existent, and I did study German in school a quarter of a century ago, but if someone knows of other translations (available or in the future) I'd be relieved. Preferably into a Scandinavian language, English, or Esperanto. Google fails me.

Message edited by its author, Sep 30, 2009, 8:16am.

>43 Annix Visible Ghosts sounds fascinating. I'll ask tomcatMurr. He lives in Taiwan.

>44 Great! Thanks a lot Mary! (Meanwhile – not to be a pessimist, but ... – I'm still trying to get mentally prepared to read it in German.)

I picked up Naguib Mahfouz's The Dreams and think that may be my read.

I haven't decided yet but I do own 50 Great Ghost Stories and also 50 Great Horror Stories plus some other Anthologies I could chose from too. And I still own my copies of Alfred Hitchcock's Stories for late at Night, Alfred Hitchcock's Stories to be read with the door locked, plus a bunch of other Alfred Hitchcock books.

Beatles1964

Message edited by its author, Sep 30, 2009, 12:00pm.

I've got three on my physical tbr mountain that I hope to read.

I've started reading The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte--since the centerpiece book is about conjuring the devil I thought it would fit.

Next up will be Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell.

And last but probably least since it's both nonfiction (?) and American is Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans by Malachi Martin.

I've also thought about reading The Shining by Stephen King. Yeah, another American, but it's on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die which I'm also working on.

I'm already reading Twilight (which is unutterably ghastly, but like a train crash, I can't look away), and The Little Stranger, which isn't very spooky as yet, but I feel it might be heading that way.

I'm hoping to get to Let the Right One In later in the month as it seems more suited to a "global" read than the others, which I just happened to be reading as October started.

>Annix, how did you hear about Visible Ghosts?

According to this list of translated Chinese authors, her translated work is:

The Butcher's Wife. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1986.

"Curvaceous Dolls." Tr. Howard Goldblatt. Renditions 27-28 (1987): 49-60. Also in Eva Hung, ed., Contemporary Women Writers: Hong Kong and Taiwan. HK: Renditions, 1990, 63-84. Also in Kwok-kan Tam, Terry Siu-Han Yip, Wimal Dissanayake, eds., A Place of One's Own: Stories of Self in China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. NY: Oxford UP, 1999, 249-64. And in: Joseph Lau and Howard Goldblatt, eds., The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature. NY: Columbia UP, 1995, 360-72.

Li, Ang. "The Devil in a Chastity Belt." Tr. Laura Jane Way. The Chinese Pen (Spring 2000): 75-111.

La Femme de boucher. Paris: Seuil, 1994.

"Flower Season." Tr. Howard Goldblatt. The Chinese Pen (Summer 1980): 55-67. Also in Ann C. Carver and Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, eds., Bamboo Shoots After the Rain: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of Taiwan. NY: The Feminist Press, 1990, 125-33.

Le jardin des egarements (Mi yuan). Paris: P. Picquier, 2003.

"A Love Letter Never Sent." Tr. Howard Goldblatt. In Michael S. Duke, ed., Worlds of Modern Chinese Fiction. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1991, 145-62.

Nuit obscure (An ye). Tr. Marie Laureillard. Paris: Actes Sud, 2004.

"Protest of a Woman Author Against Reckless Accusations: Another Self-Interview, This Time from Taibei." Tr. Pu-mei Leng. In Helmut Martin, ed., Modern Chinese Writers: Self-portrayals. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1992, 254-60.

Tuer son mari. Paris: Denoel, 2004.

>50 Wandering star,
Thank you for the link. I just stumbled upon a brief note about the book on a swedish home page (http://www.interbib.se/default.asp?id=12...) about women authors from around the world. (I'm not going to translate it all. Google Translate does a mostly reasonable job at making it comprehensible, apart from some glitches, most notably writing "respects" instead of "disrespects" in the last sentence about this book.)

The author is mostly referred to by her pen name Li Ang, but occasionally it is reversed to Ang Li. E.g. Worldcat lists the German translation under the name Ang Li. Her given name is Shih Shu-tuan according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Ang_%28w...).

The German translation "Sichtbare Geister" by Martina Hasse is published by Horlemann Verlag (http://www.horlemann.info/index.php/vmch...).

Edit: I don't know why my "a href" links didn't work, so I wrote them out explicitly instead.

Message edited by its author, Oct 1, 2009, 2:09pm.

>33, urania, I love that you are a devote of Baron von Kindle too! I can always count on you to note the most fascinating books on Kindle that I probably would never have found on my own. White is for Witching is totally on the virtual stack now!

Got my book in the mail yesterday! I'll be reading The Ghost in Love by
Austrian (American ex-pat) author Jonathan Carroll.

Message edited by its author, Oct 3, 2009, 10:18pm.

>52 Miss Price, you will not regret reading White is for Witching. It is absolutely mesmerizing and scary.

I have begun Naguib Mahfouz's Dreams, which is a collection of one page vignettes that range from mildly disconcerting to somewhat creepy to deeply disturbing. One includes the scariest clown ever depicted in a single page - the author turns down a family street that happily turns into a circus, and enjoys his stroll in the circus until he realizes he can't get out, begins franticly trying to turn corners and find a way out of the circus, finally gets back to his own street and own buildng, gets to the door of his apartment, opens it - and stares into the eyes of a clown. Mahfouz does it very well. This isn't the very best Mahfouz, and I think his Arabian Nights and Days actually draws the dream sequences out into a deeper narrative, but it's pretty good, and deeply reminiscent of Rimbaud in a lot of ways. I find myself wondering if it's Rimbaud-inspired, and may have to pull Illuminations or Season in Hell off the shelfs this month. If I recall properly, Rimbaud was in turn a big Edgar Allan Poe fan, so there may be an interesting literary line of descent here.

Message edited by its author, Oct 4, 2009, 11:37am.

This may be a little late now, but I just spotted this interesting-looking review of A Robe Of Feathers by Thersa Matsuura which would fit very nicely.

>56 A Robe of Feathers is available on Kindle. I ordered a free sample.

I have now ordered a copy of Sichtbare Geister and also put in a request for an inter-library loan of The Phantom Heroine to be read as a non-fictional companion. Hopefully they'll both arrive within a week or so.

I picked up a novel called Strangers by Taichi Yamada on the weekend, which looks suitably spooky and Japanese, so I shall hopefully be reading that this month, unless it turns out too much like "The Ring" (etc) in which case, I shall be huddled under my doona, quaking in fear, and reading cozy crime to recuperate from the horror.

I finished Twilight on the weekend, and have nothing to say in its favour. Avoid like the plague. (Okay, there was some plot towards the end there. But in retrospect, it was the most stupid excuse for a plot ever.)

And I finished The Little Stranger this morning, and while it's not my favourite Sarah Waters, it was suitably spooky at times, I've got some puzzled queries about the ending going through my head, and overall I did enjoy it.

As urania pointed out above, this isn't really global, and I didn't really read it for "ghosts and ghoulies" reasons, but I did just finish the delightful Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner.

The supernatural, in the form of witches and the devil, doesn't really creep into this novel until the last part of the book, but it is a wonderful leavening for the terrific mix of a paean to the English countryside with a light but wickedly piercing look at the stultifying and hypocritical "proper" English society of the 1920s.

I don't usually read supernatural books, and I may try to find one a little more, well, scary before the month is over, but this was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. In fact, it made me think how lovely it would be to be a witch of the kind found in this book and to sell my soul to the kind of devil found in it as well.

>60,

Lolly Willowes is one of my favorite books - so delightful wicked in a sly sort of way.

>42 wandering star, perhaps you might want to put that post in bold? Or in bold and into post #1? I think it's getting lost in all the book chatter.

>62 good idea, I totally forgot about that post

Well, I’m back in classes again and so I’m unlikely to actually be reading this month, despite having eagerly awaited this one all year :o( In any case, I enjoy the vicarious pleasure of following along with the discussions!

If I was reading it might be…

Two collections from American writers with a twist are
Poe’s Children : the new horror: an anthology, edited by Peter Straub largely by American writers, but described as “New Wave” horror or Poe’s Lighthouse: all new collaborations with Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Christopher Conlon, in which a variety of authors finish a story fragment written by Poe shortly before his death.

Or, from Australia, Dreaming again (thirty-five new stories celebrating the wild side of Australian fiction), edited by Jack Dann.

But the one I had my heart set on for this month is World War Z: an oral history of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. I'm with you in "spirit" >_

Message edited by its author, Oct 9, 2009, 8:01pm.

Now bolded - thanks for the advice.

I have been reading Smearing The Ghost's Face With Ink, an anthology of Chinese short supernatural tales, the majority of which are from Liaozhai zhi yi (聊齋志異), generally translated as Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio. However, I think I'm going to be giving up. The stories are told just as a sequence of events, with no attempt to develop any sort of atmosphere. In fact, I get the sense that they are meant to be no more than strange stories - the seventeenth-century Chinese equivalent of the urban myth.

In terms of genre, most of the stories I have read so far involve encounters with people who turn out to be ghosts or immortals. Others have involved strange dreams. The seventeenth-century Chinese supernatural tale is a genre I'm familiar with - I read a number of them when I was studying Chinese. I guess at that point I was more worried about understanding them than about the atmosphere or literary value...

Well, I've been moving along in Naguib Mahfouz's Dreams and have to say this is a real treat. And the questions above on "genre" are particularly fascinating where this books is concerned (and, sorry, touchstones can't seem to find either the book or Mahfouz).

I've also now read the Translator's Afterword, which gives some context for the book. It is actually Mahfouz's second "dream book"; his first, "I Saw as the Sleeper Sees", I cannot find translated into English. This book writes up dreams that he dictated for publication following the assassination attempt on him, and the dreams include any number of both actual "ghosts", spectral inexplicable creatures who do not behave by ordinary rules, and "ghosts" from Mahfouz' past, including old loves, political friends and rivals, Egyptian characters, and even characters from Mahfouz' writings. The genres that seem to influence him include the medieval Arabic Maqamat, traditional dream interpretations, and the ghost stories of al-Muwaylihi written at the prior turn of the century, so it's not doesn't seem to be Poe and Rimbaud at play here.

This book may end up as a bridge to some whole new genres of particularly Arabic writing for me; I'm looking around on Abebooks for a few translations now.

So let me treat you to a short summary of Dream 76. First, a friend who "was martyred for love of country" decades before appears, and Mahfouz rushes to him in joy. But the friend stops him, and berates him for the state of the neighborhood rubbish heap, throws down his walking stick, and departs. Mahfouz attacks the rubbish heap with the discarded walking stick and cuts gaps in it, from which elegant and respectable men and women emerge.

I am finding Mahfouz's later work more stimulating than the great novels that made his reputation and won him the Nobel, and that is not to disparage those novels at all, which I truly love. But Mahfouz always seemed a bit uncomfortable in the imported form of the novel, and his work seems more natural in The Dreams and a book like Arabian Nights and Days , where he seems to ignore received forms and create his own approach to prose. In all its simplicity, this book is packed with allegories, whether found or created, riddles, ambiguities, and other fun stuff. It is naturally complex and rife with possibilities and references. And, of course, all sorts of ghosts. Which are sometimes scary.

Message edited by its author, Oct 12, 2009, 12:19pm.

Instead of reading The Little Stranger, I'll look for The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson instead. Has anyone read this?

>67, No but I can heartily recommend her We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which could possibly be considered a ghost story. It certainly fits into the creepy category and is a wonderful read.

>67 Excellent choice! I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

I first read The Haunting of Hill House when I was in high school (lo, these many years ago) and have re-read it a number of times since. It was then, and continues to be, one of the most frightening books I've ever read. As far as I recall, it's not gruesome, nor even macabre, just plain and simple scary.

>67 Excellent choice! I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

I first read The Haunting of Hill House when I was in high school (lo, these many years ago) and have re-read it a number of times since. It was then, and continues to be, one of the most frightening books I've ever read. As far as I recall, it's not gruesome, nor even macabre, just plain and simple scary.

>67 Excellent choice! I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

I first read The Haunting of Hill House when I was in high school (lo, these many years ago) and have re-read it a number of times since. It was then, and continues to be, one of the most frightening books I've ever read. As far as I recall, it's not gruesome, nor even macabre, just plain and simple scary.

Well, this is disappointing: I had requested a copy of Ghosts by Cesar Aira on Sept 21 from my University library, since they have a copy. Unfortunately, it still has not arrived to me and its status is 'In process', so I finally got around to calling them up, and it turns out another patron has it until Oct 27.

Oh well. I'll get to it when I get to it. It does look interesting though!

Message edited by its author, Oct 15, 2009, 4:27pm.

I read The Club Dumas by Spanish author, Arturo Perez-Reverte. The action revolves around scenes in Spain, Portugal and France.

A book scout named Corso is commissioned to determine if there are any true copies among the three copies extant of a rare and ancient book that, if used properly, can be used to summon Satan. Presumably, Corso's client knows his copy is a forgery because he has solved its riddles but was not successful in summoning Satan.

At the same time, another client of Corso's gives him a copy of a chapter of a handwritten manuscript of The Three Musketeers and asks him to authenticate it.

The two mysteries revolve around each other and leave trails of death, destruction, a mysterious girl who helps and protects Corso and an equally mysterious man with a scar who is bent on taking the objects Corso carries.

The Three Musketeers mystery is solved. The mystery of the summoning of Satan leaves questions unanswered. Who is the mysterious girl and why does Corso find he no longer casts a shadow? What happens when one goes looking for Satan?

I enjoy books about bookscouting, manuscript authentification and mysteries. I learned a lot about Alexandre Dumas. I had previously read only The Count of Monte Cristo--this book has definitely made me want to read at least the first book of the Three Musketeers cycle. I thought the mystery was good and it left a thought provoking end. I would rate it four stars.

- What was the supernatural creature? Was it a genre which you were familiar with before?

I've been reading a lot of spiritually based books but have not read any about Satanism.

- If not, were you inspired to find out more about the genre?

I have several more books about Satan on MT TBR, including another I might read for this challenge.

- Was the story meant to be scary? If so, did it manage to be? If not, what was the intention?

This book definitely had all the twists,turns and murders of the stereotypical mystery. I think for many people, -the ideas of Satan/demonic worship is very scary--sort of the ultimate opposite of light. Mostly, I found the Satanism mildly interesting rather than scary. As I said above, the foremost result of reading this book is that I want to read some Dumas, rather than craving more Satanism.

Message edited by its author, Oct 20, 2009, 10:48am.

I seem to have stuck to the Brits and Yanks for this theme. First I read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, then I read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, and now I'm into Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe.

I really loved both The Graveyard Book and The Woman in White, as they were not what I expected and were both lots of fun to read. I'm enjoying (but less so) Frankenstein. Poe is an old favorite and I'm loving getting to immerse myself in his world.

The Ghost in Love - Jonathan Carroll

What was the supernatural creature?

There were quite a few supernatural characters in this story. One was a ghost named Ling. She was the ghost of a man named Ben. For the life of me, I can't figure out why he'd have a female ghost unless it was meant to show that the author was not sexist.

Then there were the many characters at the end of the book who were supernatural, but to tell you who they were would be to offer you a spoiler, so...no dice!

Last there was a creature, more than one actually, called a verz. It was like a white dog with no ears and had writing on it. Where did the author come up with that word? A "verz"?!

Oh, yeah. And the Angel of Death was there, too!

Was it a genre which you were familiar with before?

I love the writing of Jonathan Carroll, although I liked this book a bit less than others of his I've read. He writes urban fantasy with a sprinkling of dogs in it. This book was no different from others of the same genre, so, yes, I was familiar with this genre.

Was the story meant to be scary?

The story was not meant to be scary. Carroll's books are usually about life lessons. Again, if I told you the life lesson in this book, it would give away the story. If you're not familiar with Jonathan Carroll's writing, by all means start with his book called The Land of Laughs. It's marvelous!!

I don't have any more comments about this book, but I will field any questions. I'd also like to hear comments of others who may have already read this book or any other book by this author. Jonathan Carroll is an American ex-patriot who lives and writes in Vienna, Austria.

Message edited by its author, Oct 21, 2009, 8:29am.

I shall listen to The Turn of the Screw by Henry James this month.

Sorry, but I put the "screws" to Henry James this month and absolutely gave up on him. (read one and tried two) Just not my cup of tea but I so admire you Valerie, that you have read so much of him. Have you actually enjoyed him?
belva

Belva, I have just been listening to The Turn of the Screw, a very dramatic ghost story, and enjoyed it. After reading The Golden Bowl which was his last novel and very dense and difficult I too would have given up on him. On the other hand his earlier work, IMO, is a pleasure to read.

I've just started The Original Frankenstein edited by Charles Robinson .

I've been reading and viewing and teaching Toni Morrison's Beloved -- America's ghost story of slavery that haunts us all.

I read The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

- What was the supernatural creature? The Hound was the supernatural creature, and a curse on many generations of the Baskerville family.

- Was it a genre which you were familiar with before? I have read mysteries before, but never a Sherlock Holmes story. I would read another.

- Was the story meant to be scary? I think it was meant to be more suspenseful and mysterious than scary. But the idea of a hell hound is scary to me.

- Any more questions or discussion points very welcome! I love Watson. His character is much more approachable than Sherlock's.

Also I learned recently that the robotic killing dog in Fahrenheit 451 was inspired by The Hound in this story.

This is a bit late, but has anyone read any books by Natsuhiko Kyogoku? I've just read this review of his latest book, and it looks fascinating. "Kyogoku is a self-avowed yokai researcher—the word yokai is a sort of catchall term for Japanese demons and spirits—and with each novel in his series fixates on a mythical creature, from which he fashions an unabashedly modern thriller."

sorry for multiple posts - LT playing up...

Message edited by its author, Nov 4, 2009, 8:34am.

I finally got my copy of Ghosts, and read the whole darn thing on a plane out west. It was good, but actually something I think would be worth while reading in tandem for discussion sake. The crucial turning point and hinge of the story is a dream one of the characters has, which is fairly postmodern and confusing. That and the author frequently makes statements about life or whatever that he phrases as commonplace, to the tune of 'everyone knows x' - but often, these tidbits are not really that well known, and may even be incorrect. Anycase, on the whole, the book was enjoyable and even funny at times. Thanks for mentioning it urania, I definitely never would have heard about it or picked it up, or found it otherwise.

- What was the supernatural creature? Was it a genre which you were familiar with before?
A condo building under construction is visited by the new owners (living) to see how the workers and planners (also living) are finishing up the job. Several naked men (dead) caked in white construction dust also appear to inhabit this building and are planning a party. The postmodern style was definitely new to me.

- If not, were you inspired to find out more about the genre?
Sure

- Was the story meant to be scary? If so, did it manage to be? If not, what was the intention?
Not really scary, but intriguing - there is a sense of curiosity and newness that many of the characters bring. The building is new, the main daughter of interest is curious about the ghosts and the party they are having, and there is a sense of living on an edge and wondering what the other side would be like. I don't think scary was the intention, but more of an exploration of the interconnections between life and death.

Message edited by its author, Nov 10, 2009, 5:50pm.