More things than are dreamt of

by James Ursini

For centuries, perhaps from the beginning of time, people young and old have been drawn to the genre of supernatural horror, first on the printed page and then on the screen. From fairy tales to Freddy Krueger, the appeal of the genre rests on the all too human search for something above nature, something unknown and unnameable. This search has produced works as memorable as they are terrifying, and we feel their power once again in More Things Than Are Dreamt Of. The sweep of the book encompasses almost two centuries as it reconsiders in detail such classics of literature as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, right up to such contemporary novels of horror as Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist and Stephen King's The Dead Zone. But what sets th