Horror: The 100 Best Books

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

"Horror: The 100 Best Books" Book by Stephen Jones (Editor) and Kim Newman (Editor), 100 Books

First published in 1988, Horror: The 100 Best Books has remained the only book of its kind: a solid (and entertaining) annotated reading list spanning the range of horror fiction from the 16th to the 20th century. The device of asking 100 horror, fantasy,and science fiction writers to write about their favorite horror books might seem at first to capture an idiosyncratic sample, but through diplomacy and diligence, editors Stephen Jones and Kim Newman succeeded in obtaining short essays on most (if not all) of the well-known classics, as well as many more lesser-knowns that are well worth discovering. Readers who follow up on these recommendations will find tips about books by writers mostly known for other genres--such as Iain Banks, Robert Holdstock, Lisa Tuttle, and David Morrell.

This list was originally published in 1988 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
627 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe 1604 British English
155 Macbeth William Shakespeare 1606 British English
1249 The White Devil John Webster 1612 British English
757 The Adventures of Caleb Williams William Godwin 1794 British English
476 The Monk Matthew Lewis 1796 British English
2373 The Tales Of Hoffmann E. T. A. Hoffmann 1814 German German
590 Northanger Abbey Jane Austen 1817 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
378 Melmoth the Wanderer Charles Robert Maturin 1820 British English
258 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
1157 Twice-Told Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
866 The Black Spider Jeremias Gotthelf 1842 Swiss German
1430 The Wandering Jew Eugène Sue 1844 French French
1527 The Confidence Man Herman Melville 1857 American English
542 Uncle Silas Sheridan Le Fanu 1864 Irish English
218 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
896 She H. Rider Haggard 1887 British English
1361 The King In Yellow Robert W. Chambers 1895 American English
459 The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells 1896 British English
53 Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 British English
189 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
1948 The Jewel Of Seven Stars Bram Stoker 1903 British English
615 Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary M. R. James 1904 British English
1370 The House Of Souls Arthur Machen 1906 British English
1880 The Complete John Silence Stories Algernon Blackwood 1908 British English
444 The Man Who Was Thursday G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
662 The House On The Borderland And Other Novels William Hope Hodgson 1908 British English
6846 The Complete Short Stories Of Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Bierce 1970 American English
1306 Widdershins G. Oliver Onions 1911 British English
1372 The Horror Horn And Other Stories E. F. Benson 1931 British English
769 A Voyage To Arcturus David Lindsay 1920 Scottish English
21 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
1414 Something About Eve James Branch Cabell 1927 American English
1945 Medusa E. H. Visiak 1929 British English
1148 The Werewolf Of Paris Guy Endore 1933 American English
1404 The Last Bouquet Marjorie Bowen 1933 British English
1948 The Cadaver Of Gideon Wyck Alexander Laing 1934 American English
1948 The Second Century Of Creepy Stories Hugh Walpole 1937 British English
7945 The Dark Tower And Other Stories C. S. Lewis 1977 British English
635 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English
579 The Outsider And Others H. P. Lovecraft 1939 American English
1423 Out Of Space And Time Clark Ashton Smith 1942 American English
1196 Conjure Wife Fritz Leiber 1943 American English
2072 Night Has A Thousand Eyes George Hopley 1945 American English
2077 The Lurker At The Threshold August Derleth, H. P. Lovecraft 1945 American English
6539 Deliver Me From Eva Paul Bailey 2007 British Unknown
1425 And The Darkness Falls Boris Karloff 1943 British English
1496 The Sleeping And The Dead August Derleth 1947 American English
2153 The Track Of The Cat Walter Van Tilburg Clark 1949 American English
1535 The Sound Of His Horn Sarban 1952 British English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
777 I Am Legend Richard Matheson 1954 American English
1420 The October Country Ray Bradbury 1955 American English
2436 Nine Horrors And A Dream Joseph Payne Brennan 1958 American English
1279 Psycho Robert Bloch 1959 American English
2477 Quatermass And The Pit Nigel Kneale 1959 British English
4309 The Lurking Fear And Other Stories H. P. Lovecraft 1923 American English
215 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
1625 The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch Philip K. Dick 1965 American English
1181 The Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski 1965 Polish English
2262 The Crystal World J. G. Ballard 1966 British English
2209 Sub Rosa Robert Aickman 1968 British English
2156 The Green Man Kingsley Amis 1969 British English
2933 The Compleat Werewolf And Other Stories Of Fantasy And Science Fiction Anthony Boucher 1969 American English
1836 Grendel John Gardner 1971 American English
1398 The Exorcist William Peter Blatty 1971 American English
2085 The Sheep Look Up John Brunner 1972 British English
2451 Worse Things Waiting Manly Wade Wellman 1973 American English
1562 Burnt Offerings Robert Marasco 1973 American English
1293 Salem's Lot Stephen King 1975 American English
2514 Deathbird Stories Harlan Ellison 1975 American English
3465 Murgunstrumm And Others Hugh B. Cave 1977 American English
3465 Sweetheart, Sweetheart Bernard Taylor 1977 British English
3407 All Heads Turn When The Hunt Goes By John Farris 1977 American English
400 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
3448 Falling Angel William Hjortsberg 1978 American English
3548 The Wolfen Whitley Strieber 1978 American English
3634 The Totem David Morrell 1979 American English
2060 Ghost Story Peter Straub 1979 American English
2028 The Land Of Laughs Jonathan Carroll 1980 American English
3883 The Cellar Richard Laymon 1980 American English
1001 Red Dragon Thomas Harris 1981 American English
3137 The Keep F. Paul Wilson 1981 American English
2955 The Dark Country Dennis Etchison 1981 American English
3407 In A Lonely Place Karl Edward Wagner 1977 American English
2228 The Anubis Gates Tim Powers 1983 American English
4204 The Arabian Nightmare Robert Irwin 1983 British English
1210 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
2689 The Ceremonies T. E. D. Klein 1984 American English
2141 Mythago Wood Robert Holdstock 1984 British English
3160 Who Made Stevie Crye? Michael Bishop 1984 American English
3509 Song Of Kali Dan Simmons 1985 American English
2822 The Damnation Game Clive Barker 1985 British English
1551 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
4998 A Nest Of Nightmares Lisa Tuttle 1986 American English
4998 The Pet Charles L. Grant 1986 American English
1813 Swan Song Robert R. McCammon 1987 American English
5232 Dark Feasts Ramsey Campbell 1987 British English