Classic Tales to Read for Halloween
Best Scary Stories from Poe, Shelley, and Shakespeare
Aug 22, 2009
While there are plenty of predictable, blood-and-guts horror films and pop culture ghost stories out there, nothing chills the blood quite like a time-tested classic by one of the greats. Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, and William Shakespeare provide eerie classic tales for lovers of dark and creepy Halloween reading.
Edgar Allan Poe: Stories and Poems
Poe believed that if a writer couldn’t capture the desired effect he or she was looking for with the first sentence of a story, the story had failed. It’s a good thing, then, that Poe could create a dark, intense mood from the get-go. With his obsessive, disturbed narrators to his grim and eerie settings, Poe’s short stories and poetry can draw a reader in like no one else.
To get in the Halloween state-of-mind, check out classic Poe stories like “The Tell-Tale Heart” or “The Cask of Amontillado.” Poe’s poetry can be just as effective as his stories for gothic darkness, especially “The Raven” or even “Annabel Lee,” which is a love poem with a morbid twist.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Even the story surrounding Frankenstein’s origin is perfectly suited for Halloween. It is an established fact that Mary Shelley saw the creation of the monster in a nightmare that came to her after participating in a ghost story competition with friends, including Lord Byron and her husband Percy Shelley. While it took Mary a while to come up with an idea for her ghost story, it is needless to say that she eventually thought of something.
The result of that nightmare was the basis of Frankenstein, which has since become a classic story of our culture. The obsession, fear, revenge, and science fiction that dominate the book make this an excellent choice for late October reading. The harsh and threatening setting of the mountains and glaciers intensifies the suspense throughout the novel, as well.
Two Ghostly Tragedies from Shakespeare: Macbeth and Hamlet
While ghosts aren’t always the first thing to come to mind when hearing the name ‘Shakespeare,’ they are certainly a big part of his work. Both Macbeth and Hamlet have plenty of darkness, death, and elements of the supernatural to be great selections for Halloween reading. Whether it’s the witches brewing up a premonition or the ghost of the dead king beckoning, both tragedies deliver ghostly characters and settings.
Another benefit of an established literary classic is that there is more than likely at least one film or video adaptation of the story available, as is the case for some of Poe’s works, Frankenstein, Macbeth, and Hamlet. If reading the stories isn’t enough, these are good options for Halloween viewing, as well.
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