The

CLASSIC HORROR BLOG

Literary Essays on Classic Horror, Ghost Stories, & Weird Fiction

— from Mary Shelley to M. R. James —

by M. Grant Kellermeyer

Oct 11, 20215 min read

Top Film Adaptations of Frankenstein: from the Early Icons to Dark Re-imaginings

Like his peers Dracula and Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein's Creature has been featured extensively in film – both adaptations of the...

Sep 29, 202112 min read

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Inspirations, Interpretations, and a Literary Analysis

Ever since its explosive publication in 1890, Oscar Wilde's Gothic treatise on decadence, sin, and corruption has been subject to scandal...

Nov 13, 201918 min read

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Inspirations, Interpretations, and a Literary Analysis

As we all know, Arthur Conan Doyle was the most significant contributor to the detective story genre – what Verne and Wells were to...

Aug 22, 201916 min read

The Invisible Man: Inspirations, Interpretations, and a Literary Analysis

When H. G. Wells first published “The Invisible Man” in 1897, the title alone ensured its success. Invisibility fascinates, attracts, and...

Jun 9, 201928 min read

The Phantom of the Opera: Inspirations, Interpretations, and a Literary Analysis

“The Opera Ghost really existed…” Such are the opening lines of Gaston Leroux’s Edwardian homage to the Belle Epoque. Pregnant with...

Feb 18, 201937 min read

The Turn of the Screw: Inspirations, Interpretations, and a Deep Literary Analysis

Like the other exemplars of the five respective genres of literary horror (Frankenstein, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Haunting of Hill...

Mar 30, 201816 min read

The Repercussions of "Super-Natural" Physics on Profane Creativity in "Frankenstein"

As a student of the Eighteenth Century Enlightenment, it stands to reason that the eponymous protagonist of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein...

Mar 30, 201811 min read

The Background, History, and Symbolism of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

The Year Without a Summer was the grim conclusion to nearly twenty years of constant global warfare, economic depression, and the...