MEMORIA
A provocative updating of the mad scientist subgenre of yore (see DONOVAN’S BRAIN, PROFESSOR DOWELL’S HEAD, etc.), the independently published MEMORIA encapsulates both the pros and cons of “underground” horror.
THE MAZE
The most famous work by France’s late Maurice Sandoz, a short novel of vaguely Lovecraftian mystery that still holds up–mostly.
MALPERTUIS (Book)
Although it wasn’t published in English until 1998 (in an edition now sadly out of print), Jean Ray’s MALPERTUIS is one of the great novels of supernatural horror.
THE LOST TRAVELLER
For those of you who like your horror tinged with undiluted surrealism, this hallucinatory account of a lost man is the book for you–or at least, it’s a book for you.
JEANNE’S JOURNAL
Those lucky few who’ve read Arlette Ryvers’ translation of JEANNE’S JOURNAL all seem to exhibit similarly awe-struck reactions, and having finally gotten around to experiencing this pervy masterwork myself, I fully understand the adulation.
THE ISLAND (T. M. Wright)
This was the book that turned me onto the work of T.M. Wright.
INFERNO
INFERNO is something else entirely: a sprightly, surreal and totally captivating fantasy with a daring take on the inferno as imagined by Dante Alighieri.
IN THE KINGDOM OF MESCAL
Formatted like a traditional kids’ story book, complete with imposing full-page illustrations, it’s a traditional mythology-based tale in many respects.
ICE
This bizarre novel is widely acclaimed as the masterpiece of England’s Anna Kavan (1905-1968).
THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND
One of the true classics of the supernatural, this bizarre novel can almost be viewed as avant-garde sci-fi.