Better Than Friday - 116 (Patreon)

Happy Halloween ya’ll

Just shot a review of Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado, and something else for Halloween…

Hope you’re well. Thank you so much for your support.

1. Book in the Pipeline - E.T.A Hoffmann

Recently I was very impressed with the work of Gabrielle Wittkop. 

Her first book was a book on this author, someone I’ve never read, so, onto the list he goes.

———

A lawyer by day and a creator of a world of fantasy by night, Hoffman (1776-1822) lived a Jekyll and Hyde existence. Many of the characters in his stories are subject to a similar split personality.

The duality of his nature is frequently reflected in some of his characters—Cardillac the goldsmith in Mademoiselle de Scudéry and Nathaniel in The Sandman, for example. Cardillac is a virtuous, industrious man by day but a violent criminal at night, while Nathaniel, obsessed by a childhood fantasy, is driven to madness and cruelty.

These tales can be read on several levels: as an expression of the concerns of the Romantic era, as impressive examples of German Romantic literature and as exciting works of fiction made all the more extraordinary by their concern with the supernatural and the bizarre.

- Amazon

2. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 

With Bing Crosby narrating and singing? Legendary indeed. Loved this since I was very young.

3. Chuck Palahniuk on Rogan 

Great as usual. 

2:00:50 "Maybe it's a lockdown thing."

I am fucking dying. 

4. Vincent Price doing Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado' 

Does it get better?

5. A Scary Jamaican Folk-Tale my Mother used to read to me as a kid 

I never quite forgot the story of Mr. Hedley and the Teeth. It's still excellent. 

Then an idea jumps into Old Man Hedley’s head. “Run”, says the idea. “Run for your life Old Man Hedley. Run as if the Devil himself was on your trail. And maybe he is, Old Man Hedley, maybe he is.”