Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of… the 1890's, pt.2 (1895-1899)

I kinda like the sound of this.

Horror critic R. S. Hadji placed The Sorrows of Satan at number one in his list of the worst horror novels ever written.[2]

Brian Stableford, discussing Corelli's "narcissistic" novels, described The Sorrows of Satan thus: "as delusions of grandeur and expressions of devout wish-fulfilment go, the fascination of the Devil was an unsurpassable masterstroke".[1]

I'm hamming it up tbh – your assessment is totally fair, and I'm especially thankful for the cross-media adaptations it has yielded, starting with Murnau's Nosferatu and Herzog's own subsequent rewriting. I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_L2654ai4o

Besides, Romania's own Tourism Authority has been banking on this crap for decades by stressing the apocryphal connection between Vlad Țepeș and Bran Castle in particular.

xp

as delusions of grandeur and expressions of devout wish-fulfilment go, the fascination of the Devil was an unsurpassable masterstroke

Intriguing indeed. I wonder if the title is a callback to Goethe.

Dracula is a slog.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Have read just a handful, Conrad's HoD easily. But I have seen a film version of Almayer's Folly by Chantal Akerman.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.