As an avid reader-writer, picking a No. 1 was not easy. But
I gotta go with the master here, and, as you can see, I really don't care when a
novel was published.
This is one of the best suspense (more than horror) novels ever
written, period. I read this book when I was quite young, 9 or 10, and it
scared the sh** out of me. Reading this book as a much older man, I am amazed
at its fluidity and mastery. Stephen King pales in comparison.
It's an absolute masterpiece of breathless anticipation,
dread, and doom. Subtract the Victorian etiquette of friendship and courtly
behavior, especially betwixt men and women, and it reads incredibly well, barely dated.
The word "vampire" does not appear until at least the last 1/4 of the
novel; all the foregoing is couched in the language of dread and speculation.
Stoker is also spot on in describing the miserable conditions of the poor in
London, working-class life, Central and East European life - the language, the
customs, the booze (slivovitz), etc.
Those Irish! Abraham Stoker was from Dublin and graduated from
Trinity College and all. They do dread and, in this case, research incredibly
well.
28
authors picked
Dracula
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
17.
What is this book about?
'The very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years' Arthur Conan Doyle
A masterpiece of the horror genre, Dracula also probes identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. It begins when Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, and makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England - an unmanned ship is wrecked; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; a lunatic asylum inmate raves about the imminent arrival of his 'Master' - and a determined group of adversaries…
Another masterpiece, this one out of print,
apparently, but available free online (God bless the internet). Machen leads you
into another tale of doom and dread with a sympathetic heroine, establishes a
mystery treading lightly, pulling back the curtain little by little, and not revealing
the full horror until the end.
It is quite masterful. It is almost Lovecraftian in its depiction
of hidden, ancient races with terrible powers. The mystery of the bust, in
particular, is quite well handled.
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
Peter the Great is a fascinating look at an entire vanished world. The court intrigues, the military campaigns, and the foibles of royalty are all very fine and good, but it’s the author’s evocation of daily life among serfs, royals, Muscovites, Poles, and Swedes that makes this so readable.
Massey also takes the time to explain the shifting geopolitical outlooks, the Ottoman Empire in decline, the Swedish Empire in ascent, and the Polish Empire in chaos, which are at once so distant and so close to today’s geopolitics.
Russia hasn’t changed much in 300+ years. So, can we learn from the past? A more apt question would be, do we want to? It would seem not. We believe the past doesn’t apply to us, which is why we fail to predict and react to the predictable. Russia was a great empire, even a glorious one, which we may have forgotten, but the Russians sure haven’t.
I love history; it underlines and infuses my thriller series. I knew nothing of this period in Russian history, preceding this work with one on the vast Swedish empire and its kings. Yes, you read that right. Sweden controlled a huge chunk of northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, brought down by Russia. All this has nothing to do with the current geopolitical situation, right? Wrong.
This work won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for biography/autobiography, and it is easy to see why.
The Pulitzer prizewinning biography of Peter the Great, the ruler who brought Russia from darkness into light.
Against the monumental canvas of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia, Robert K. Massie unfolds the extraordinary story of Peter the Great. A volatile feudal tsar with a taste for barbaric torture; a progressive and enlightened reformer of government and science; Peter the Great embodied the greatest strengths and weaknesses of Russia while being at the very forefront of her development.
Robert K. Massie delves deep into Peter's life and character, chronicling the pivotal events that transformed the boy star into a national…
Strange days in St. Baarlam, Illinois: Routine Dept. of Transportation excavation has uncovered a city of stone built by an unknown race, and in it, a flaming sword of crystal, golden tablets in an unknown alphabet, mass graves of decapitated skeletons with stakes jammed in their mouths. What does it all mean?
The Mormons' Avenging Angel, Chief Fear of the Chaddhu Nation, Aunt Mary the town mystic, crooked archeologists, a funny little DOT man who reeks of sulphur and leaves unexplained fires in his wake don't care what it means. They just want that priceless ancient loot.
And it's up to the intrepid homeless vet and detective Peter Pike and his on-again, off-again squeeze Tina, the salon owner, to sort out the truth. And make it out alive.
