|
Occult Detective Fiction
Occult detective fiction is a subgenre of detective fiction that combines the trope (literature), tropes of the main genre with those of supernatural fiction, supernatural, fantasy fiction, fantasy and/or horror fiction. Unlike the traditional detective who investigates murder and other common crimes, the occult detective is employed in cases involving ghosts, demons, curses, Magic in fiction, magic, vampires, undead, monsters and other supernatural elements. Some occult detectives are portrayed as being psychic or in possession of other paranormal or magical powers. History Literature Fitz James O'Brien, Fitz James O’Brien’s character Harry Escott is a contender for first occult detective in fiction. A specialist in supernatural phenomena, Escott investigates a ghost in "The Pot of Tulips" (1855) and an invisible entity in "What Was It? A Mystery" (1859). The narrator of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novella "The Haunted and the Haunters; or, The House and the Brain" (1859) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnacki Searcher
Thomas Carnacki is a fictional occult detective created by English fantasy writer William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki was the protagonist of a series of six short stories published between 1910 and 1912 in '' The Idler'' magazine and ''The New Magazine''. These stories were printed together as '' Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder'' in 1913. A 1947 Mycroft & Moran (an imprint of Arkham House) edition of ''Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder'' edited by August Derleth added three stories: " The Haunted ''Jarvee''", published posthumously in ''The Premier Magazine'' in 1929; " The Hog", published in ''Weird Tales'' in 1947; and " The Find", a previously unpublished story. Notes on the series The stories are inspired by the tradition of fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes. Carnacki lives in a bachelor flat in No 427 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea; the stories are told from a first-person perspective by Dodgson, a member of Carnacki's "strictly limited circle of friends", much as Holmes' adventures ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (; 25 May 1803 – 18 January 1873) was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secretary of State for the Colonies from June 1858 to June 1859, choosing Richard Clement Moody as founder of British Columbia. He was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866. Bulwer-Lytton's works were well known in his time. He coined famous phrases like "pursuit of the almighty dollar", " the pen is mightier than the sword", " dweller on the threshold", "the great unwashed", and the opening phrase (incipit) " It was a dark and stormy night." The sardonic Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, held annually since 1982, claims to seek the "opening sentence of the worst of all possible novels". Life Bulwer was born on 25 May 1803 to General William Earle Bulwer of Heydon Hall and Wood Dalling, Norfolk, and Elizabeth Barbara Lytton, daughter o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnacki
Thomas Carnacki is a fictional occult detective created by English fantasy writer William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki was the protagonist of a series of six short stories published between 1910 and 1912 in '' The Idler'' magazine and ''The New Magazine''. These stories were printed together as '' Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder'' in 1913. A 1947 Mycroft & Moran (an imprint of Arkham House) edition of ''Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder'' edited by August Derleth added three stories: " The Haunted ''Jarvee''", published posthumously in ''The Premier Magazine'' in 1929; " The Hog", published in ''Weird Tales'' in 1947; and " The Find", a previously unpublished story. Notes on the series The stories are inspired by the tradition of fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes. Carnacki lives in a bachelor flat in No 427 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea; the stories are told from a first-person perspective by Dodgson, a member of Carnacki's "strictly limited circle of friends", much as Holmes' adventure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson (15 November 1877 – 19 April 1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror fiction, horror, fantasy, fantastic fiction, and science fiction.Alder, Emily. "Passing the Barrier or Life: Spiritualism, Psychical Research and Boundaries in William Hope Hodgson's "The Night Land"". in Ramone, Jenni and Twitchen, Gemma, eds. ''Boundaries''. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. (pp. 120-139).Brian Stableford, Stableford, Brian, "Hodgson, William Hope", in David Pringle, Pringle, David ed., ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers''. London: St. James Press, 1998. (pp. 273-275). Hodgson used his experiences at sea to lend authentic detail to his short horror stories, many of which are set on the ocean, including his series of linked tales forming the "Sargasso Sea Stories". His novels, such as ''The House on the Borderland'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algernon Blackwood
Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection '' Incredible Adventures'' (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century". Life and work Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (now part of southeast London, then part of northwest Kent). Between 1871 and 1880, he lived at Crayford Manor House, Crayford and he was educated at Wellington College. His father, Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood, was a Post Office administrator; his mother, Harriet Dobbs, was the widow of the 6th Duke of Manchester. According to Peter Penzoldt, his father, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flaxman Low
Flaxman Low is a fictional character created by British authors Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard and his mother, Kate O'Brien Ryall Prichard, published under the pseudonyms "H. Heron" and "E. Heron". Low is credited with being the first psychic detective of fiction, and appears in a series of short stories. Description Flaxman Low is a pseudonym for "one of the leading scientists of the" Victorian era, whose real name is not disclosed in the stories. He was an accomplished athlete in his youth and has turned his interests to a scientific study of the occult. Stories From 1898-1899 press baron Cyril Arthur Pearson published six Flaxman Low stories in his monthly ''Pearson's Magazine'', though the authors were disconcerted to find the tales promoted by Pearson as "real". The collected work was published as ''Ghosts: Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low'' in 1899. The stories are as follows: * "The Story of the Spaniards, Hammersmith" (1898) * "The Story of Medhans Lea" (1898) * "The Story ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard
Hesketh Vernon Prichard, later Hesketh-Prichard, (17 November 1876 — 14 June 1922) was an English cricketer, explorer, adventurer, writer, big-game hunter, and marksman who contributed to sniping practice within the British Army during the First World War. Concerned not only with improving the quality of marksmanship, the measures he introduced to counter the threat of German snipers were credited by a contemporary with saving the lives of over 3,500 Allied soldiers. He also explored territory never seen before by a European, played cricket at first-class level (taking nearly 340 wickets from 86 appearances), including on overseas tours, wrote short stories and novels in the adventure, mystery, and occult detective genres (one of which was turned into a Douglas Fairbanks film), and was a successful newspaper correspondent and travel writer. His many activities brought him into the highest social and professional circles. Like other turn-of-the-century hunters such as The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dracula
''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker flees after learning that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, hunts and kills him. The novel was mostly written in the 1890s, and Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes, drawing extensively from Folklore of Romania, folklore and History of Romania, history. Scholars have suggested various figures as the inspiration for Dracula, including the Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler and the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, but recent scholarship suggests otherwise. He probably found the name Dracula in Whitby's public l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of the most famous classics of English literature. The primary antagonist of the novel, Count Dracula, is often ranked among the most iconic and best-known fictional figures of the entire Victorian era, and the character's popularity has led to over 700 adaptations for films, movies, plays, comics, video games, cartoons, stage performances, and other forms of media. Although he was the author of 12 mystery novels and novellas, Stoker's reputation as one of the most influential writers of Gothic horror fiction lies solely with ''Dracula''. During his life, he was better known as the personal assistant of the actor Sir Henry Irving and business manager of the West End's Lyceum Theatre, which Irving owned. Stoker was also a distant relative o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Van Helsing
Professor Abraham Van Helsing () is a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula'' written by Bram Stoker. Van Helsing is a Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: " MD, D.Ph., D.Litt., etc.", indicating a wealth of experience, education and expertise. He is a doctor, professor, lawyer, philosopher, scientist, and metaphysician. The character is best known through many adaptations of the story as a vampire slayer, monster hunter and the arch-nemesis of Count Dracula, and the prototypical and the archetypal parapsychologist in subsequent works of paranormal fiction. Some later works tell new stories about Van Helsing, while others, such as ''Dracula'' (2020) and '' I Woke Up a Vampire'' (2023) have characters that are his descendants. ''Dracula'' In the novel, Professor Van Helsing is called in by his former student, John Seward, to assist with the mys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard. The character Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print in 1887's ''A Study in Scarlet''. His popularity became widespread with the first series of short stories in ''The Strand Magazine'', beginning with "A Scandal in Bohemia" in 1891; additional tales appeared from then until 1927, eventually totalling Canon of Sherlock Holmes, four novels and 56 short stories. All but one are set in the Victorian era, Victorian or Edwardian era, Edwardian eras between 1880 and 1914. Most are narrated by the character of Holmes's friend and biographer, Dr. Watson, Dr. John ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
