The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
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LC Class | BF1407 .P46 1986 | |
The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural is a reference work on horror fiction in the arts, edited by Jack Sullivan. The book was published in 1986 by Viking Press.
Editor Sullivan’s stated purpose in compiling the volume, as noted in his
The book provides about 650 entries written by 65 contributors including
In order to provide as broad as possible a study of fear, terror, and horror throughout the centuries, the book features numerous entries on "mainstream" artists who Sullivan notes "have dabbled in or plunged into horror", such as
Hundreds of genre author entries are provided, including "
Theme essays include "
Film and television related entries include "The Abominable Dr. Phibes", "Tod Browning", "Brian De Palma", "Eraserhead", "Inferno", "Boris Karloff", "Night of the Living Dead", "Roman Polanski", "Suspiria", "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom", and "The Wolf Man".
The book was reprinted in 1989 by Random House.
Reception
In a comment to Hugh Lamb's review, Rosemary Pardoe noted, "I have to say that I think Hugh has been remarkably kind to a book which, for me, is a fine idea totally ruined by being put together by a packaging company who seem to know nothing about the subject. There are so many errors that no fact given in the book can be trusted without double-checking elsewhere."[1]
"The encyclopedia has been criticized for lack of editorial balance, but deficiencies are offset by excellent critical essays by
References
- ^ Pardoe, Rosemary. Ghosts and Scholars, #9, 1987
- ^ "The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural", Thompson Rare Books
External links
- Contributor index to The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural - complete list of entries from the encyclopedia, arranged by author