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What’s new to Penguin Classics in October (Part 1: Halloween Horror)
Is this the best Halloween ever in Penguin Classics? Can we top Penguin Horror? Check out what we’ve got planned and you just might wonder…
Charles Beaumont, Perchance to Dream (Foreword by Ray Bradbury, Afterword by William Shatner)
You already know Charles Beaumont, even if you don’t realize it. Beaumont wrote an amazing twenty-two episodes for The Twilight Zone, five of which were based on stories included here. If you’re a fan of genre-hoppers like Neil Gaiman, Karen Russell, and David Mitchell, you’re going to fall in love with this one. Beaumont jumps from sci-fi to fantasy to horror to noir (sometimes all in a single story), and makes it look absurdly easy. Above all, he’s a storyteller of the first rank, and you won’t soon forget any of these stories.
Thomas Ligotti, Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe (Foreword by Jeff VanderMeer)
Thomas Ligotti’s been in the news quite a bit for his works of philosophy, but where he truly shines is in his fiction. This book gather together his first two story collections for the first time in one volume. Here you’ll find masks, puppets, demonic clowns, abandoned cities, serial killers, and so much more to keep you awake for the foreseeable future. These are decadent tales of existential horror by a modern master.
Ray Russell, The Case Against Satan (Foreword by Laird Barron)
You’ve seen The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, but maybe you haven’t read the book that started it all. Ray Russell’s 1962 novel kicked off the exorcism craze, leading to a frenzy of exorcisms in fiction, movies, and even in real life. We first introduced Russell in Penguin Horror with his trio of Gothic novels, Haunted Castles, and this one is every bit as devilishly delightful.
