Thursday, April 9, 2009

...And, Just for Completeness' Sake

The other half of Paul McAuley's "Essential Books" meme, this one dealing with Fantasy & Horror. Same rules as before. Again, thanks to SFSignal for the link.

  1. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus MARY SHELLEY 1818
  2. Tales of Mystery and Imagination EDGAR ALLAN POE 1838
  3. A Christmas Carol CHARLES DICKENS 1843
  4. Jane Eyre CHARLOTTE BRONTE 1847
  5. The Hunting of the Snark LEWIS CARROLL 1876
  6. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ROBERT LOUIS STEPHENSON 1886
  7. The Well At The World's End WILLIAM MORRIS 1896
  8. Dracula BRAM STOKER 1897
  9. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary MR JAMES 1904
  10. Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things LAFCADIO HEARN 1904
  11. The Wind in the Willows KENNETH GRAHAME 1908
  12. Jurgen JAMES BRANCH CABELL 1919
  13. A Voyage to Arcturus DAVID LINDSAY 1920
  14. The King of Elfland's Daughter LORD DUNSANY 1924
  15. The Trial FRANZ KAFKA 1925
  16. Lud-in-the-Mist HOPE MIRRLEES 1926
  17. Orlando VIRGINIA WOOLF 1928
  18. The Big Sleep RAYMOND CHANDLER 1939
  19. The Outsider and Others HP LOVECRAFT 1939
  20. Gormenghast MERVYN PEAKE 1946
  21. Night's Black Agents FRITZ LEIBER JR 1947
  22. The Sword of Rhiannon LEIGH BRACKETT 1953
  23. Conan the Barbarian ROBERT E HOWARD collected 1954
  24. The Lord of the Rings JRR TOLKEIN 1954-5
  25. The Once and Future King TH WHITE 1958
  26. The Haunting of Hill House SHIRLEY JACKSON 1959
  27. The Wierdstone of Brinsingamen ALAN GARNER 1960
  28. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase JOAN AIKEN 1962
  29. Something Wicked This Way Comes RAY BRADBURY 1963
  30. The Book of Imaginary Beings JORGE LUIS BORGES 1967
  31. Ice ANA CAVAN 1967
  32. One Hundred Years of Solitude GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ 1967
  33. Earthsea URSULA LE GUIN 1968-1972
  34. Jirel of Joiry CL MOORE collected 1969
  35. Grendel JOHN GARDNER 1971
  36. The Pastel City M JOHN HARRISON 1971
  37. Carrie STEPHEN KING 1974
  38. Peace GENE WOLFE 1975
  39. Gloriana, or the Unfulfill'd Queen MICHAEL MOORCOCK 1978
  40. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories ANGELA CARTER 1979
  41. Little, Big JOHN CROWLEY 1981
  42. The Anubis Gates TIM POWERS 1983
  43. The Colour of Magic TERRY PRATCHETT 1983
  44. Mythago Wood ROBERT HOLDSTOCK 1984
And here we see the *problem* with focusing on classics for the last couple of years: 7 books from before WWII, and only 4 books from after? Whoops. Well, time and a chronological reading plan will eventually solve that problem.

4 comments:

Jose said...

Is Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" fantasy or horror?
I mean, I enjoyed the novel, but putting it in any of those genres might be stretching it too far...

Karen Burnham said...

Andrew Wheeler had the same complaint, I think. I'd argue that while it may not be a genre work, it was *really* influential on a lot of genre stuff that came later. "Yiddish Policeman's Union" anyone?

And really, is anything written before 1920 really in any of our modern genres? Things used to be much more jumbled back then. (I know "Big Sleep" is from 1936, but just making the point that its odd non-genre placement shouldn't ipso facto rule it out.)

Jose said...

I agree that it was an influential novel. Both Chandler and Hammett have been a big influence, not only to writers of fantasy or horror, but to writers in general -even to writers writing in Spanish.
However, I tend to think of that as a rather formal influence, in the sense that the structure and style of the hard-boiled detective novel is often appropriated by writers in other genres because it's such an effective way of telling a story. Having said that, I'm sure some readers may be able to read "The Big Sleep" as a rather realistic horror novel.

Karen Burnham said...

I've noticed that the detective plot is a natural fit, especially for sf. I think it's because it comes with a built in plot that lets a sharp-eyed observer wander around the world that the author has created--lots of advantages to show off world-building.