What's the essential horror reading?

What's the essential horror reading?

Lovecraft and Poe's short stories.
King in Yellow.
Jekyll and Hyde is gr8 though I'm not sure if it's horror.

my diary desu

Carmilla. Lesbian 19th Century Vampires: The Story.

What's the nonessential stuff? I've read already.
What are some unknown/underrated horror writers/stories?

Algernoon Blackwood. Lord Dunsany. Arthur Machen

>King in Yellow.

The Turn of the Screw
Lovecraft is a hack, read one of his stories and you've read them all

>Lovecraft is a hack
True, but that doesn't mean he wasn't hugely influential to modern horror

Frankenstein is so good. Just read it for the first time.

What is a horror that mentions the veil, dying forever, scopophobia, spiriting away, dying of fright, fear of sleeping, ideas as independent entities, prolonged dread, looming things?

>lovecraft

please no...

Are you looking for older works or more contemporary horror?

See Lovecraft's essay about Supernatural Horror in literature. There's almost everything of note until 1920

false and a meme

Check out Mark Samuels. His two books 'The White Hands' and 'The Man Who Collected Machen' cover most of what you mention.

Also Thomas Ligotti who is pretty much a must-read for anyone interested in horror, even though he can be a hard sell. Like recommending Bela Tarr to people who want good movies, or Thomas Benhard to people who want good novels.

Contemporary

Brendan Connell - Unpleasant Tales
James Champagne - Grimoire
DP Watt - Almost Insentient, Almost Divine
Richard Gavin - At Fear's Altar
Reggie Oliver - Flowers of the Sea
Nathan Ballingrud - North American Lake Monsters
Livia Llewellyn - Furnace
John Langan - The Wide, Carnivorous Sky
Brian Evenson - A Collapse of Horses

All short story collections, rather varied in scope and style

cool

>Lovecraft is a hack
>This is what Veeky Forums contrarians genuinely believe

he is a hack why is his prose so sloppy?

Charles Brockden Brown

>he fell for the prose meme

In the non-supernatural realm, Jack Ketchum is easily the best horror writer currently working in the field. Check out Offseason, the Girl Next Door, and his collection Peaceable Kingdom.
For more traditional horror, Peter Straub and Ramsey Campbell are probably the most gifted writers. Ghost Story, the Blue Rose trilogy, and Shadowland are the best of the former, while The Doll Who Ate His Mother, the Parasite, and the collection Alone With the Horrors are Campbell's best.
Misc. great modern horror books: The Fisherman by John Langan (best book of 2016 so far imo), The Terror by Dan Simmons, the Troop by Nick Cutter, Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes, and The Shapes of Midnight by Joseph Payne Brennan.
King and Ligotti are obvious omissions since they're discussed here so much. Hope you get something from this

>Dracula isn't mentioned

Melmoth

The Turn of the Screw is great. I fucking hated the film though. The kids were weird as hell.

You don't understand how liter

...

...

Is there any particular order that Lovecraft should be read? I was thinking about starting with Shadow over Innsmouth since I played that game so I'm sort of familiar with it.

Frankenstein isn't horror.
Poe is the most famous horror author, so I'd say Fall of the house of usher or tell-tale heart, since those the most well-known of his.

ROBERT MOTHERFUCKING AICKMAN

man, I've used to fucking love meshuggah

this

I've also had a recent interest in this genre lately, and would have to recommend this for an overview of supernatural fiction. Joshi is one of the leading authorities on Lovecraft atm and has put together a great edition of some of his stories for penguin.

If you just want to dip your feet in can't go wrong with Lovecraft or Poe. As for contemporary authors I'm glad Ligotti is getting some attention here lately, really enjoyable stuff.

>inb4 shill

The Haunting of Hill House and The Vampyre. Also find Mr James' stuff.

>Algernon Blackwood

The single greatest name to be attributed to an author ever

Ambrose Bierce.
Underrated for 19th C. Horror and totally overshadowed by Poe (why?).

LeFanu? Nice pick.

yeah, read fall of the house of usher. that opening line is so fucking good.

lefanu is shit.

Chronological if you're picky about order. Otherwise it doesn't matter.

MR James because he pretty much mastered the art of the ghost story and his stories are comfy as all hell. Ligotti because his voice is very unique even if it gets super dense at times.