Great gothic horror novels that transcend the genre

Melmoth the Wanderer and Werewolf of Paris have elements of social criticism that elevate them of above most horror novels. Melmoth is a muckraking novel that explores religious persecution in the name of "God". Werewolf of Paris shows that horror is an STD!

Hmmm. Certainly, as well, the novel—a chapter of which—this very group was founded by a user formerly known as "Ben Waugh"—Chateau d'Argol by Julien Gracq.

>2 absurdeist: "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad". Yes and it was Himself, Mr. Tros, who brought Gracq and his novel to my attention - Jaysus, nearly 20 years ago... So he is under the cornerstone of the group name. Still a great favorite which I need to re-read, again.

>1 tros: I need to get around to the Endore novel (buried in boxes with much of all else these days). Another, sitting on the shelf in front of me, The House of the Vampire. A psychological horror novel by one of our earlier (albeit imported) fascists who wrote popular books.

>4 Randy_Hierodule: Endore is worth the effort, definitely an under-rated classic! Viereck is a familiar name but haven't read anything. gracias! not sure I want to be "under the cornerstone", is that a Poe story? :-0 just kidding, amigo, gracias!

I seem to recall a description of the windows of the chapel suggesting a one-way quality, designed for someone outside to be looking in - as on an impenetrable hermetic phenomenon (And the abyss? The interior? An interzone of static distress, or minatory abyssal depths, beyond the reach of light?). Like the book the author wanted to write. Will dig it out again this Fall. I am still hopeful someone will publish a translation of Gracq's Le Roi Pecheur.

>5 tros: Ha! I don't blame you. The edifice stands on the site of the blood-sown sacrifice. I was thinking, when I tapped that out, of Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor and his church - speaking of gothic, and worth a read.

Here is a a discussion of the architect N. Hawksmoor, imbedding a review (?) of Ackroyd's novel:

https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/reputations/nicholas-hawksmoor-c1661...

Shawn Garrett has announced a new translation: Albert Ehrenstein, The Death Knight: Expressionist Stories: 1900-1919.

>1 tros: Incarnation is the ne plus ultra of STDs (that # 2 of the Big 3 should bleed sweat gob disseminate fart and shit... the horror! Self-loathing is the beginning of religion if not wisdom, mebbe): The pedagogy of Beckett's Malone Dies(?), and the Christian/philosophical tradition of the west: "I turned his mind towards that most fruitful of dispositions, horror of the body and its functions." And speaking of the godlings and persecution: Villier's cruel tale, A Torture by Hope is an exquisite gothic treat.

>10 Randy_Hierodule: A Torture by Hope looks very interesting, thanks

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Strand_Magazine/Volume_1/Issue_6/A_Torture_of...

>11 tros:

There's an old discussion of "A Torture by Hope" here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/147687

I also enjoyed Isis by the same author.

>12 paradoxosalpha: Thank you, sir. I need to dig that out as well. I also recommend as many might have elsewhere herein and otherwhere's: his Axel.

>12 paradoxosalpha: oh no, two more titles to track down! thanks

And right in the old Nick o' time, courtesy of Shawn Garrett, our pal, Brother Theodore:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9IgHi3b4zA&t=7s

>15 Randy_Hierodule: life is a fatal disease! amen!

I used to enjoy Brother Theodore's appearances on Letterman in the 80s. He always had a tongue-in-cheek riff of some Nietzsche aphorism (I recall something on the order of, "he who would dance must first lose both his legs"). I still have an anthology or two bearing his name (and, I believe, his prefaces).