You Gotta Know These Works of Horror Fiction

“The Fall of the House of Usher”

This novel is written in the style of Gothic literature, which centers on atmospheres of dread and haunting. In the story, the unnamed narrator visits the main character—a sick old friend—at his crumbling lakeside mansion, which he thinks may be alive. Madeline is also ill and eventually succumbs and is interred in the family crypt. In the coming days, the homeowner and the narrator hear strange noises. During a storm, the homeowner screams that the lake outside is glowing, and the two hear more noises before being attacked by Madeline, who had been mistakenly buried alive. Roderick dies of fright, and Madeline drops dead; the narrator flees the house as it cracks in two and sinks into the waters.

“The Yellow Wallpaper”

Inspired by the author's own bouts with depression, the novel chronicles a young wife undergoing a controversial, real-life therapy called a “rest cure” for her mental illness. This requires her to be kept in her bed in a room in an isolated house where all mental stimuli are forbidden. She becomes fixated on the intricate yellow wallpaper in her room; as her husband continues confining her, she begins to believe there is a shadowy woman inside the wallpaper who must be freed, and she starts compulsively peeling it.

"Dracula"

In this novel, the main character is based on the family name of Vlad the Impaler, a historical Romanian ruler noted for his extreme cruelty toward his enemies. The story is epistolary (told via characters’ journals and letters) and begins with Jonathan Harker being sent to Transylvania to help a count by property in London.

"The Turn of the Screw"

Commissioned explicitly as a ghost story for Collier’s Weekly, the novella follows a governess hired to raise Miles and Flora, two children who live in a mansion in rural England. The governess learns that her predecessor Miss Jessel died, as did another servant, Peter Quint, whom Jessel loved. Two unfamiliar figures keep appearing around the estate; the governess worries that they are talking to Miles and Flora and may actually be Jessel and Quint’s ghosts. Miles tells the governess that he cannot recall why he was expelled from school, hinting that he may already have come under Quint’s control. In a climactic scene, the governess sees Quint’s ghost at a window and shields Miles from the phantom, but when it vanishes, Miles has died.

“The Monkey’s Paw”

The White family is on vacation when Morris, a friend and soldier, shows them an object hat he says grants wishes at a great price. The Whites take the paw and wish for money, which manifests as them being compensated when their son dies in a work accident. Their hasty second wish, to restore the son to life, is quickly followed by a sudden banging at the front door. Mrs. White, fearing that their son is now the living dead, makes a third wish; when Mr. White opens the door, no one is there.

“The Call of Cthulhu”

This novel, about the ancient god-level alien Cthulhu is told in three parts. In the first, a young artist dreams of a weird city and sculpts an image of an octopus-dragon-man; in the second, a New Orleans police raid on a cult devoted to the “Great Old Ones” yields a similar statuette; in the third account, a ship stumbles upon an uncharted island city with non-Euclidean geometry where sailors mistakenly awaken and release Cthulhu, a titanic monster

"The Haunting of Hill House"

In this novel, Dr. John Montague recruits three companions for a planned paranormal study at a supposedly haunted mansion. The team of four experiences many supernatural events, but the protagonist, Eleanor Vance, is the target of the most by far—including ghostly chalk writing that identifies Eleanor by name. Other events, such as touches in the dark, apparitions, and entities trying to open locked doors, are never depicted with total clarity, and Jackson presents many explanations for them, including real ghosts, Eleanor being insane, or even the notion that Eleanor has unknown telekinesis; this ambiguity is universally praised, and has led the novel to be esteemed by horror authors and literary critics alike since its release.

"Something Wicked This Way Comes"

In this novel, Jim and Will are two teenagers whose town is visited by a carnival run by Mr. Dark, who has an uncanny ability to fulfill people’s desires. The boys learn that the carnival’s carousel can age or de-age whoever rides it, and Mr. Dark and his workers—including the “Dust Witch”—are evil entities who feed on people’s lifeforce. Jim, Will, and Will’s father Charles discover that laughter and smiles weaken the carnival; they use a bullet engraved with a smile to kill the Dust Witch and use the carousel to make Mr. Dark age into a tiny boy who is killed by joyful laughing.

"Interview with the Vampire"

This novel tells the story of 200 years in the life of Louis de Pointe du Lac, an American planter. He lives with Lestat de Lioncourt and they have a contentious friendship that is further complicated when Lestat turns the little girl Claudia into a vampire, which keeps her perpetually young as time passes. Their resentment prompts them to try to burn Lestat alive and flee to Europe, where Claudia is killed by a coven of theatre-loving vampires after Lestat (who survived) pursues them to Paris.

"It"

This novel is about an interdimensional creature that terrorizes the small town of Derry, Maine. The creature is a shapeshifter who manifests in many terrifying forms, but most often as the sinister Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The novel is told in two parallel timelines.

Stephen King

Author of the novel, "It".

Anne Rice

Author of the novel "Interview with the Vampire."

Ray Bradbury

Author of "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

Shirley Jackson

Author of "The Haunting of Hill House."

H.P. Lovecraft

Author of “The Call of Cthulhu.”

W. W. Jacobs

Author of “The Monkey’s Paw.”

Henry James

Author of "The Turn of the Screw."

Bram Stoker

Author of "Dracula."

Edgar Allan Poe

Author of “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Author of “The Yellow Wallpaper”