Saturday, October 27, 2007

An October Staff Recommendation - The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural

To see all October 2007 Staff Recommendations, visit the Staff Recommendations page on BookGuide.

The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
edited by Jack Sullivan [809.387 qSul]

Although somewhat dated (published in 1986), this 480-page oversized volume does a nice job of presenting entries about people, places and things of a supernatural or horrific nature in a compact encyclopedic form. Special emphasis is placed on biographical entries about prominent horror writers, novels and noteworthy horror films. Large entries are also available for all of the standard horror tropes -- vampires, ghosts, werewolves, golems, etc. The book is liberally illustrated with a variety of black and white images -- woodcuts, line-drawings, photographs, etc. Also of note -- there are over 50 lengthy essays on themes that are native to horror and the supernatural. Although this is a somewhat "dry" text, due to its encyclopedic nature, it is still filled with detailed entries on obscure topics that may surprise even long-time horror fans!

[ Wikipedia page for this book ]

Have you read this one? What did you think?

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