Weird Fiction: What Is It?

Weird Fiction had its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. While it is linked to horror, it oftentimes incorporates fantastical themes that are decidedly face the boundaries of what most people would understand as horror. It can sometimes horrify, but the stories are typically crafted to elicit a sense of wonder in the reader and, quite often, it has some of the themes of science fiction and Gothic fiction woven into it.

Weird Fiction: What Is It?

Weird Fiction: What Is It?

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Weird Fiction: What Is It?

Weird Fiction: What Is It?

The Big Names

Hp Lovecraft is the most familiar author of Weird Fiction. Lovecraft's stories are noteworthy for the author's eloquent language and for the fact that, unlike many nightmare stories, his tales practically never had a moral angle to them. In most cases, his proTAGonists were being pursued by or deliberately seeking out something that was far beyond their ability-or any human's ability-to fully comprehend, and that provided the nightmare eleMent of the story. While horror, as a genre, is normally about eliciting feelings of terror, Weird Fiction seeks to cause a sense of wonder in the reader, oftentimes mixed with a good deal of dread.

While Lovecraft and his sinister Necronomicon-a fictional grimoire that appeared again and again in his stories-are household names, the world of Weird Fiction is rich with talented and imaginative authors. Some of the names that helped to define this genre include:
Algernon Blackwood Robert W. Chambers Lord Dunsany William Hope Hodgson Arthur Machen Walter de la Mare Mr James Clark Ashton Smith

Despite the fact that Weird Fiction is mostly linked with the late 1800s and early 1900s, there are still some writers working in this genre today. Some of the most familiar nightmare movies and novels in the world were heavily influenced by these authors. For example, the Chambers book "The King in Yellow" contains four stories that town on a fictional play that drives anything who sees or reads it mad. This plot device has been used in a amount of flourishing nightmare films, with the play being supplanted by a cursed book or movie that drives people mad.

Exploring Weird Fiction

A great deal of Weird Fiction appeared in the form of short stories. Lovecraft was a frequent contributor to Weird Tales magazine, and there are some reprints of those issues available. The originals can fetch a very high price. Short story collections from these authors, and many more, are still widely available. Many of these stories are in the public domain, which means they can be downloaded legally, at no charge, from numerous separate sites.

Weird Fiction: What Is It?

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