Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth : Studies in the Horror Film by Fernando (AFT) Ivana (FRW); Tielve Guillermo del (INT); Baquero Danel (EDT); Toro Olson

$59.92 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction

Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Supernatural Worlds by Leo Braudy

$44.95 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction

In the Mountains of Madness The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of H.P. Lovecraft by W. Scott Poole

$42.50 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction

In the Mountains of Madness interweaves the biography of the legendary writer with an exploration of Lovecraft as a phenomenon. It aims to explain this reclusive figure while also challenging some of the general views held by Lovecraft devotees, focusing specifically on the large cross-section of horror In the Mountains of Madness interweaves the biography of the legendary writer with an exploration of Lovecraft as a phenomenon. It aims to explain this reclusive figure while also challenging some of the general views held by Lovecraft devotees, focusing specifically on the large cross-section of horror and science fiction fans who know Lovecraft through films, Role Playing Games, and video games directly influenced by his work but know little or nothing about him.More than a traditional biography, In The Mountains of Madness will place Lovecraft and his work in a cultural context, as an artist more in tune with our time than his own. Much of the literary work on Lovecraft tries to place him in relation to Poe or M.R. James or Arthur Machen; these ideas have little meaning for most contemporary readers. In his provocative new book, Poole reclaims the true essence of Lovecraft in relation to the comics of Joe Lansdale, the novels of Stephen King, and some of the biggest blockbuster films in contemporary America, proving the undying influence of this rare and significant figure. ...Show more

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

$57.99 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography Winner of the Edgar Award in Critical/Biographical Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction A New York Times Notable Book of 2016 A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Pick of 2016 An Entertainment Weekly Best Bo Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography Winner of the Edgar Award in Critical/Biographical Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction A New York Times Notable Book of 2016 A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Pick of 2016 An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of 2016 A Time Magazine Top Nonfiction of 2016 A Seattle Times Best Book of 2016 A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2016 An NPR 2016's Great Read A Boston Globe Best Book of 2016 A Nylon Best Book of 2016 A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2016 A Booklist 2016 Editors' Choice In this "thoughtful and persuasive" biography, award-winning biographer Ruth Franklin establishes Shirley Jackson as a "serious and accomplished literary artist" (Charles McGrath, New York Times Book Review).   Instantly heralded for its "masterful" and "thrilling" portrayal (Boston Globe), Shirley Jackson reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the literary genius behind such classics as "The Lottery" and The Haunting of Hill House. In this "remarkable act of reclamation" (Neil Gaiman), Ruth Franklin envisions Jackson as "belonging to the great tradition of Hawthorne, Poe and James" (New York Times Book Review) and demonstrates how her unique contribution to the canon "so uncannily channeled women's nightmares and contradictions that it is 'nothing less than the secret history of American women of her era' " (Washington Post). Franklin investigates the "interplay between the life, the work, and the times with real skill and insight, making this fine book a real contribution not only to biography, but to mid-20th-century women's history" (Chicago Tribune). "Wisely rescu ing] Shirley Jackson from any semblance of obscurity" (Lena Dunham), Franklin's invigorating portrait stands as the definitive biography of a generational avatar and an American literary genius. ...Show more

Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula by David J. Skal

$57.99 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction

Bram Stoker, despite having a name nearly as famous as Count Dracula, has remained an enigma. David J. Skal, in a psychological and cultural portrait, exhumes the inner world and strange genius of the writer who conjured an undying cultural icon. Stoker was inexplicably paralysed as a boy and his story Bram Stoker, despite having a name nearly as famous as Count Dracula, has remained an enigma. David J. Skal, in a psychological and cultural portrait, exhumes the inner world and strange genius of the writer who conjured an undying cultural icon. Stoker was inexplicably paralysed as a boy and his story unfolds against a backdrop of Victorian medical mysteries and horrors: fever, opium abuse, bloodletting, quack cures and the obsession with "bad blood" that inform every page of Dracula. Stoker's ambiguous sexuality is explored through his acquaintance with Oscar Wilde, who emerges as Stoker's repressed shadow self-a doppelganger worthy of a Gothic novel. The psychosexual dimensions of Stoker's correspondence with Walt Whitman, his punishing work ethic and his adoration of the actor Henry Irving are examined in scholarly detail. ...Show more

The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub by John C. Tibbetts

$60.00 NZD

Category: Non-Fiction

"Straub brings a poet's sensibility to the field, creating a synthesis of horror and beauty. He writes a beautiful prose line that features narrative clarity, sterling characterization, and surprising bursts of humor."--Stephen King  "With The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub, John Tibbetts makes a major "Straub brings a poet's sensibility to the field, creating a synthesis of horror and beauty. He writes a beautiful prose line that features narrative clarity, sterling characterization, and surprising bursts of humor."--Stephen King  "With The Gothic Worlds of Peter Straub, John Tibbetts makes a major contribution to the study of one of America’s finest, most underrated novelists. Approaching Straub’s complex body of work from a variety of thematic and literary perspectives, Tibbetts has written an intelligent, highly readable volume that no future Straub scholar can afford to ignore. This is an important--and very necessary--book.”--Bill Sheehan, At the Foot of the Story Tree  "Peter Straub has created a literary form all of his own, mating the macabre with the magical, interweaving the psychological with the uncanny, illuminating the dark side of humanity with the light of the fantastic. His vision is profoundly personal, his prose enviably elegant. Constantly surprising, his work invigorates and enriches the imagination, and it deserves to be savoured like the finest vintage."--Ramsey Campbell, Ancient Images, Incarnate  "It is difficult to speak of Peter Straub except in superlatives. Gifted with a prose style of impeccable fluency and elegance, he is also able to create scenes of clutching terror, heartrending pathos, and baffling mystery that set him several cuts above his contemporaries. To refer to him merely as a writer of horror tales is absurdly limiting. When we read him, we experience far more than merely a shudder up our spinewe gain profound insights into ourselves and others."--S. T. Joshi, Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction  "Peter Straub has demonstrated the strength of American lit in modern horror by reclaiming the pioneering themes of Nathaniel Hawthorne, segueing through Shirly Jackson, and elegantly matching both with Stephen King’s rock star vigor."--Greg Bear, Darwin’s Radio and Blood Music "John Tibbetts' study is a detailed and long overdue look at an author whose dark psychological insights and brilliantly crafted sentences have placed him in the front rank of American authors for nearly four decades."--Gary Wolfe, Roosevelt University    "Peter’s gift of language is so great that he uses it to tear apart, break down and open up the ways that we see, perceive speak of and understand everyday life and experience. And in doing so, he reveals to us and draws us into the Gothic dimension, which is always with us, like a shadow."--Thomas Tessier, Finishing Touches and Rapture   "A major work of biography and criticism...a must-read"--The Washington Post Horror novelist Peter Straub creates highly personalized fiction with an allusiveness and ambiguity that deny the genre's explicit nature. For him, the Gothic style is to be created and recreated in a changing world--Faustian pacts, buried secrets, haunted places, ghosts, vampires and succubi take on strange new shapes and effects. Stephen King describes Straub's style as "a synthesis of horror and beauty." Drawing on interviews with Straub and featuring an exclusive interview with King, this study explores the work of the author who has been called "a writer of rare wit and intelligence in a field beset with cynical potboilers"--(Douglas E. Winter, Washington Post, October 14, 1984). ...Show more