Firstly, let me say that, for me, Virginia Woolf is the Queen of Prose. I could pick up any of her novels, read a single line, and be in a state of ruination for the rest of my life the day. Ok, now that that’s out of the way / w no further ado:
I have a book out today! Moon Cursed is light urban fantasy with plenty of snark, lots of suspense, and a little bit of romance! And it’s only 99 cents for a limited time! I really love this book and hope you will, too. You can get it on Amazon.
Classic Bookshelf: This site has put classic novels online, from Charles Dickens to Charlotte Bronte.
The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database.
Project Gutenberg: This famous site has over 27,000 free books online.
Page by Page Books: Find books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells, as well as speeches from George W. Bush on this site.
Classic Book Library: Genres here include historical fiction, history, science fiction, mystery, romance and children’s literature, but they’re all classics.
Classic Reader: Here you can read Shakespeare, young adult fiction and more.
Read Print: From George Orwell to Alexandre Dumas to George Eliot to Charles Darwin, this online library is stocked with the best classics.
Planet eBook: Download free classic literature titles here, from Dostoevsky to D.H. Lawrence to Joseph Conrad.
The Spectator Project: Montclair State University’s project features full-text, online versions of The Spectator and The Tatler.
Bibliomania: This site has more than 2,000 classic texts, plus study guides and reference books.
Online Library of Literature: Find full and unabridged texts of classic literature, including the Bronte sisters, Mark Twain and more.
Bartleby: Bartleby has much more than just the classics, but its collection of anthologies and other important novels made it famous.
Fiction.us: Fiction.us has a huge selection of novels, including works by Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Flaubert, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.
Free Classic Literature: Find British authors like Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, plus other authors like Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and more.
TEXTBOOKS
Textbook Revolution: Find biology, business, engineering, mathematics and world history textbooks here.
Wikibooks: From cookbooks to the computing department, find instructional and educational materials here.
Italian Women Writers: This site provides information about Italian women authors and features full-text titles too.
Biblioteca Valenciana: Register to use this database of Catalan and Valencian books.
Ketab Farsi: Access literature and publications in Farsi from this site.
Afghanistan Digital Library: Powered by NYU, the Afghanistan Digital Library has works published between 1870 and 1930.
CELT: CELT stands for “the Corpus of Electronic Texts” features important historical literature and documents.
Projekt Gutenberg-DE: This easy-to-use database of German language texts lets you search by genres and author.
HISTORY AND CULTURE
LibriVox: LibriVox has a good selection of historical fiction.
The Perseus Project: Tufts’ Perseus Digital Library features titles from Ancient Rome and Greece, published in English and original languages.
Access Genealogy: Find literature about Native American history, the Scotch-Irish immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, and more.
Free History Books: This collection features U.S. history books, including works by Paul Jennings, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Josiah Quincy and others.
Most Popular History Books: Free titles include Seven Days and Seven Nights by Alexander Szegedy and Autobiography of a Female Slave by Martha G. Browne.
RARE BOOKS
Questia: Questia has 5,000 books available for free, including rare books and classics.
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Books-On-Line: This large collection includes movie scripts, newer works, cookbooks and more.
Chest of Books: This site has a wide range of free books, including gardening and cooking books, home improvement books, craft and hobby books, art books and more.
Free e-Books: Find titles related to beauty and fashion, games, health, drama and more.
2020ok: Categories here include art, graphic design, performing arts, ethnic and national, careers, business and a lot more.
Free Art Books: Find artist books and art books in PDF format here.
Free Web design books: OnlineComputerBooks.com directs you to free web design books.
Free Music Books: Find sheet music, lyrics and books about music here.
Free Fashion Books: Costume and fashion books are linked to the Google Books page.
MYSTERY
MysteryNet: Read free short mystery stories on this site.
TopMystery.com: Read books by Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton and other mystery writers here.
Mystery Books: Read books by Sue Grafton and others.
POETRY
The Literature Network: This site features forums, a copy of The King James Bible, and over 3,000 short stories and poems.
Poetry: This list includes “The Raven,” “O Captain! My Captain!” and “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.”
Poem Hunter: Find free poems, lyrics and quotations on this site.
Famous Poetry Online: Read limericks, love poetry, and poems by Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Lord Byron and others.
Google Poetry: Google Books has a large selection of poetry, fromThe Canterbury Tales to Beowulf to Walt Whitman.
QuotesandPoem.com: Read poems by Maya Angelou, William Blake, Sylvia Plath and more.
CompleteClassics.com: Rudyard Kipling, Allen Ginsberg and Alfred Lord Tennyson are all featured here.
PinkPoem.com: On this site, you can download free poetry ebooks.
MISC
Banned Books: Here you can follow links of banned books to their full text online.
World eBook Library: This monstrous collection includes classics, encyclopedias, children’s books and a lot more.
DailyLit: DailyLit has everything from Moby Dick to the recent phenomenon, Skinny Bitch.
The Gothic novel did not disappear with the turn of the previous
century, but instead evolved to reflect the increasing globalization, and to give new perspectives to the villains and supernatural beings that abound in the novels. As well, the Gothic tropes became very common in the new Young Adult genre, but that deserves its own post, Therefore, here are some of the best modern Gothic novels to date.
Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (1938)
One of the most famous examples of modern Gothic horror, Rebecca is a tale of obsession,
mistrust, and psychological torture. There are no ghosts or
supernatural horrors in this novel – the only spectre is that of the
eponymous Rebecca, haunting the protagonist through her servant Mrs.
Danvers. With the eerie trappings of Gothic horror and the additions of the modern world, such as automobiles and proper medical inquests, Rebecca
defined how the Gothic novel would evolve in the twentieth century.
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (1959)
Shirley Jackson has traumatized
the last three generations with her short story “The Lottery”,
a Gothic in its own right, but her novel The Haunting of
Hill House is a step past Rebecca, and takes the Gothic novel back into the realm of the supernatural, where it spent the turn of the century. The Haunting involves a scientist, two young women, and the owner of Hill House, trying to unravel the mystery involving the ghosts and the horrors of the house, and how they begin to torment one young woman.
Anne Rice’s novel is infamous among Goths of varying types for
its depiction of grotesquely decadent vampires, flouncing through their afterlife with lacy cravats, temper tantrums, and an excess of fire and blood. Rice took the supernatural Gothic novel and focused it on the Byronic characters, as opposed to focusing on the traditional heroine. Interview With a Vampire is one of the most well-known Gothic novels, though it is Miss A’s personal opinion that it isn’t very good.
Most similar to: Dracula,
the entire life of Lord Byron
Although most people know the movie starring Daniel Radcliffe, the original book came out in the 1980s. It centres around a spectre, the ‘Woman in Black’, who haunts an English village heralding the deaths of children. The protagonist is a young barrister who comes to handle the estate of a deceased woman, but begins to unravel the mystery surrounding the Woman in Black and the secret horrors of the village.
Taking place just after the Spanish Civil War, Shadow of the Wind follows the life of Daniel Sempere, who finds a book in the Cemetary of Forgotten Books, a secret library in the heart of Barcelona. This book launches him into a decades-old mystery that includes a mysterious, scarred stranger, a haunted mansion, and the tragic death of a beautiful woman.
Following in the trail of Shadow of the Wind
is The Thirteenth Tale,
which returns the Gothic novel to the moors. A favourite of Miss A’s, it center around Margaret Lea, a biographer with a gaping hole in her heart that she cannot fill, and the famous writer Vida Winter, who is dying, and finally ready to tell the truth of her past. Two stories, both with their own ghosts and trappings, play out in this novel. There is a movie of this book, starring Olivia Coleman, Vanessa Redgrave, and Sophie Turner. The movie leaves out a number of the plot-points, and changes the past of Margaret, but keeps the haunting aesthetic of the book.
Most similar to: Agnes Grey, Jane Eyre, Turn
of the Screw
A compilation of all the horror filled movies, t.v shows & documentaries I could find. It includes some of my own masterposts and other people’s masterposts.
Merci beaucoup, glad you like this thing! You want more?
You do, I see >:}
I’d agree w/ you about Jack Frost, he’s forced into his immortal status by accident, too, and he’s orphaned and has to figure out what to do w/ himself, too. Jack and Lestat are definitely both
cheeky undead optimists! And yes, OLLA and What We Do in the Shadows are fantastic, that’s for sure! Those movies were very much the VC movie we had been waiting for, with different facets of VC-adjacentness. OLLA more for the aesthetic and WWDITS more for the comedy.
I don’t think that any ONE movie or book (or book series) has all the ingredients that make up that unique VC flavor but there are many that are adjacent. I knew this was going to end up being a masterpost, that’s why it took so long. Also I restrained myself from any Tom Cruise movies. He should have his own masterpost ;D
*cracks knuckles* Okayyy… SO,
VC-Adjacent is more doable than Lestatuesque, bc everyone’s headcanon of Lestat varies and we all know how attached I am to Tom Cruise So I’ll give you one Lestatuesque rec and the rest are VC-Adjacent.
Lestatuesque:
Blade Runner (1982) – this movie is mentioned in canon (QOTD). AR had wanted to cast Rutger Hauer as Lestat. But he was too old when they finally got IWTV into production D: so watch this and see her vision for Lestat.
Over and over [Armand] watched Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, fascinated by Rutger Hauer, the powerfully built actor who, as the leader of the rebel androids, confronts his human maker, kisses him, and then crushes his skull. It would bring a slow and almost impish laugh from Armand, the bones cracking, the look in Hauer’s ice-cold blue eye.
“That’s your friend, Lestat, there,” Armand whispered once to Daniel. “Lestat would have the… how do you say?… guts?… to do that!”
In no particular order*
(and @annabellioncourt helped me out here, so wherever there’s an *, those are her recs that I agreed with)(and there are other movies I love obviously, but I tried to limit this list to VC-Adjacent only; and I couldn’t think of any of my fave books that come close enough to fit in here).
Vampire movies:
*Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) – Well this goes w/o saying, and it also shared movie!IWTV’s Michele Burke as head of the makeup dept ;D
The Lost Boys (1987) – @skeletalroses is kind of my authority on this one, and >>>this movie is cited as a major inspiration for WWDITS.<<<
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)- Including it on here bc of reasons, this is a very classy documentary of several vampires flatting together in New Zealand as a big coven ball approaches.
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) – Including it on here bc of reasons, this is a very classy film of several vampires visiting together in Detroit, Michigan, and Tangiers, Morocco, as the world is slowly taken over by the “zombies” (not actual ones, metaphoric ones). And there are alot of parallels between the married couple and Claudia Ava, who is thirsty all the time and above the law bc of course she is.
Shadow of the Vampire (2000) – It’s a behind-the-scenes fanfic of the filming of the legendary Nosferatu! Mostly horror w/ a dash of comedy. Bonus: Eddie Izzard.
Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) – Yeah I love Leslie Nielsen, fight me. It’s a Dracula parody. This will never not be funny.
Jennifer’s Body (2009) – well she’s not really a vampire but she eats ppl, so close enough. I love the dynamic between Jennifer and her best friend, how you’re not sure whether Jennifer wants to bring her into this, or just terrify her, but there is something kind of Akasha-esque about this creature.
Let the Right One In (2008) – the original is better than the US remake (Let Me In, 2010) but they’re both worth watching. Child vampire! Choosing a new BFF! She has to respect the Being Invited In Rule, tho.
The Little Vampire (2000) – a cuter child vampire, w/o much of the angst of being a child vampire, overall super cute and I had to include this bc of Jack Frost.
Other Horror movies/shows:
*Crimson Peak (2015) –@annabellioncourt says: “would be a fair addition because of the atmosphere of it as well as its campy factor”
The Walking Dead (2010-current) – my new drug, group dynamics, fighting for supremacy, survival, romance, killing!
Sweeney Todd (2007) – It’s pretty goth, it has some comedy, it has murder, it has ppl pining for each other. Also, a musical. My fave is the whole By the Sea song sequence bc Helena is trying so hard!
The Witches of Eastwick (1987) – Jack Nicholson is the devil and wants to make his own harem of 3 powerful witches what could possibly go wrong? There is a hilariously awful scene in a church. Jack approaches Lestatuesque levels of charm as he courts these women, and then there’s supernatural stuff going on.
The Addams Family (1991) – Gomez and Morticia have the kind of ship Lestat would kill for. He would probably dig their aesthetic to some extent, too. Also murderous kids, who are encouraged to be murderous. ONE HAPPY FAMILY.
Black Swan (2010) – something about this, maybe the aesthetic, feels very Theatre Des Vampires.
Beetlejuice (1988) – Alec Baldwin! Looked like this once upon a time! But mostly, ppl dealing with being dead and not having a very helpful ghost w/ the most trying to help them. When it works for him.
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – campy, musical, murdery, I still don’t really know what it all really means but it’s fun. Dr. F can be compared to Lestat, in that he’s lusty, charming, glamorous, materialistic, bossy as hell, has a real mean streak, tries to make the perfect lover for himself and fails at it over and over… an essay could be written comparing them. @laurasking is my authority on RHPS.
Other movies/shows:
Phenomenon (1996) – Telekinesis and someone dealing w/ acquiring it, and how his community treats him bc of it. THIS IS CUTE so like, yeah, much further away, I almost didn’t include it. Gonna lose my reputation over this rec OH WELL it’s your fault, Anon, bc Jack Frost.
Anime – recc’d by my best friend:
Vampire Princess Miyu – “similar atmosphere"
Witch Hunter Robin – “quite gothic”
Otogizoushi – “very atmospheric"
Annbellioncourt’s Recs bc she is classier than me:
Byzantium (2012) – Neil Jordan’s first vampire movie since IWTV
Wolfman (2010) – “its cheesey, but its atmospheric, spooky, and bloody”
The Hunger (1983) – “is one I always suggest to people wanting more”
The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories – Angela Carter
While I don’t roleplay as any Italian Renaissance characters, it is one of my areas of knowledge and I have many books that I think would be helpful or useful to the roleplayer who wishes to add historical, political, economic, and intellectual context to their work.
Lisa Jardine & Jerry Brotton, Global Interests: Renaissance Art Between East and West
Highly recommended for any Armand player. Explains how Ottoman Empire and Venice interacted through economic and cultural exchange. Lots of stuff to be learned here, and just a great and easy read. If you can’t get to anything else in the book, at least get the preface and the first chapter (I think; it’s been years since I’ve read it though I remember all the lecture slides), which give a great summary and taster about the topic and the authors’ approach. You probably would want to continue after that. This is one of my favorite books.
Gene Brucker, Florence: The Golden Age, 1138-1737
Tons of pictures, giant book, great survey of the feel of the time period.
Joanne M. Ferraro, Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice (2001)
Venetians be suing each other, guys, all the freakin’ time, over marriage contracts. First-person stuff, lots of records, it’s awesome and lively and oh my god how sassy must Armand have gotten?
Okay to be honest, it’s mostly legal gossip, actual depositions, legal records, etc. Give it a skip if you really don’t care about he-said-she-said.
Jerry Brotton, The Renaissance Bazaar: From The Silk Road to Michelangelo (2002)
Really lively read about how Armand probably shopped, told by a recently deceased scholar who was a giant of European Renaissance history. Really cool depiction of how East and West exchanged culture and also created some serious problems that we deal with today.
Ulinka Rublack, Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe (2010)
Because Bianca’s pearls in her hair and Armand’s hose and doublet meant something. Also, lots of fun pictures here, and you can imagine the various costumes Marius would have used to disguise, perform, and hint at a different identity.
Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods
Super awesome street-smart history (with pictures) about how multicultural the economics of Ottoman Empire-infused Italy was. Just super cool and wide-reaching.
Heather Gregory, Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi
Probably the best book for figuring out what Marius would have nagged Armand and Ricardo about. It’s this awesome Italian lady who just writes letters to her sons nagging them about stuff they forgot to do.
Francesco Petrarca (trans. David Marsh), Invectives
Stop giving Armand boring essays to read for homework, Marius.
Jon Thiem, Lorenzo de’ Medici: Selected Poems and Prose (1992)
Lorenzo really liked making dick jokes. Let Armand write some, too!
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists and Painters
Pretty much Vasari going around Italy throwing shade at everyone and gossiping.
Paolo Uccello really hated cheese and Michelangelo was a dick who snatched really nice pieces of wood from competitors by auctioning early.
Peter Robb, M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio
To be honest, this is a pretty controversial biography of Caravaggio, or as Robb claims, “Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio”.
It’s Caravaggio shittalking, dueling, and fucking his way across Italy until the fuzz finally comes after him. Oh, and he apologizes to his patrons a lot and then paints horse butts next to priest faces, so this book kind of made him my childhood hero.
Books I have NOT read but know of:
Guido Ruggerio, The Boundaries of Eros: Sex, Crime, and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice
Find out if Marius (and those gold-painted giggling guys testing Armand) were legit.
Judith Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy
I think this is just a fun title about an important topic that probably gets ignored a lot.
Michael Rocke, Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence
I have more sources I can recommend, but these are nice to get started and were sitting on my bookshelf.
Some have expressed interest in what sources I use for references to the Royal Maréchausée or Nicolas’ political views or assignat inflation debates or les Amis de la Verité. Much of it is an accumulation of a lifetime of interest, but here are some good sources to get started:
Maria Linton, Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution (2013)
How do a bunch of well-meaning dudes end up guillotining people who just look at them funny later?
Mark Darlow, Staging the French Revolution: Cultural Politics and the Paris Opéra, 1789-1794 (2012)
Really amazing archival research showing how cultural discourse via performances were key to forming public opinion, even though the state had a super-monopoly on what got to be performed.
Remember how Lestat talks about how Renaud’s isn’t really legit and the Comédie Française is where all the legit actors perform? It’s because of the government, y’all.
William Doyle, Aristocracy and its Enemies in the Age of Revolution (2009)
Traces the beginning of the decline of nobility and the effects of naming a particular group “the aristocracy”.
He also wrote a very short history called Old Regime France that’s worth a read if you care about 1648-1788 France, back when Lestat’s dad would have been important.
William Doyle’s actually kind of the ultimate first word in French Revolution survey work. He wrote the Oxford History of the French Revolution and he wastes no time with presenting really accessible detailed information that will give you a good feel for the era.
Jeremy Jennings, Revolution and the Republic: A History of Political Thought in France since the Eighteenth Century (2011)
Really huge survey of intellectual history, political theory, sociocultural history, and political economy.
Charles Walton, Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution: The Culture of Calumny and the Problem of Free Speech (2009)
Really impressive analysis of how censorship during the French Revolution really messes up ancien regime and new republic troubles.
If you don’t have a lot of time, the Very Short Introductions series has great brief reads on aristocracy and the French Revolution.
Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris
Super sassy and gossipy exploration of Paris from the very beginning. Great research but lots of in-jokes about Bourbons and Plantagenets and stuff and not enough teasing of the Carolingians but I’ll deal. Not great for a first-time history read, but good if you have some foundational knowledge of French history. Just a fun book.
Joan DeJean, How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City
I haven’t read this one! But it’s on my reading list.
Baroness Emma Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel
A novel! But very good for the feel of an era. Also known as the further adventures of Lestat. Very fast read, guilty pleasure, dashing about France, and it even has mistaken identity comedy!
Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche
Another novel! Basically Nicolas tries to avenge a friend’s murder and fucks up really badly.
Books I haven’t read but mean to:
R.R. Palmer, The Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution
Yes, that Robert Roswell Palmer, the guy who wrote the Palmer & Colton European history textbook everybody lugs around in high school. He’s a fantastic and engaging writer with just the right amount of information to make you feel like a native in that time period. I can’t wait to read this book.
I think he wrote a book called Catholics and Unbelievers about the same period.
Simon Schama, Citizens
Apparently really comprehensive from pre-Revolution all the way through Thermidor.
Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution
He wrote this huge 4-part history of the world and I hear it’s a great way to contextualize what was happening in France. So, probably use this for figuring out what Nicolas felt about Italy and England, and why Lestat sent Renaud’s troupe to good ‘ol Blighty.
those who dream only by night: the gothic short stories rec list
have you ever felt like you want to read more fiction in the gothic tradition, but you haven’t the money or the time, or you’re the sort of person who only reads a novel if you’re sure you like the writer? i can help with that! here is a list of short stories, novellas, and one poem, all of which are important in the gothic tradition, the gothic revival, or contemporary gothic fiction, and they are all on the internet! for free! (i enjoy making rec lists, but i particularly enjoy making rec lists where i know that everyone who reads the list can get all of it for free.) so, take a night, make some hot chocolate, and frighten the life out of yourself. you’ll thank me!
I-want-my-IWTV 