| OOTW Home | Genre Variations |
| OOTW Home | Genre Variations |
Dark fantasy is fiction about ghosts, Satan, vampires and other frightening supernatural creatures. High fantasy builds a world from our dreams; dark fantasy creates one from our nightmares.
Tales of the supernatural have a long history in Québécois legends -- such as those about the loup-garou or werewolf. In English Canada, the interest in vampires and other "creatures of the night" has been a more recent phenomenon.
Some ghost stories, like those of Robertson Davies have a satiric edge, while others are meant merely to scare the reader. The most important anthologies of dark fantasy are the Northern Frights series edited by Don Hutchison.
Prolific authors of dark fantasy in English include Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Tanya Huff. John Buell's The Pyx was made into a film in the 1970s.
CBC radio drama has been a regular source of dark fantasy programming, ranging from adaptations of classic works such as Dracula to anthology series such as Nightfall, Nightrap and Dark Waters.
A subset of dark fantasy is the Gothic. It features the lone heroine in peril, dark, mysterious strangers and their equally dark and mysterious mansions or castles -- with hints of the supernatural. In Gothic novels, the situations are extreme if not melodramatic, evil is real but strangely attractive, and the emotions (usually fear and lust) are passionate.
The Gothic has become especially prominent in French Canada, with both male and female nationalist authors seeking to reach beyond realistic storytelling into a heightened realm. The most prolific writer of Gothics in English Canada -- indeed, of any fiction in Canada -- is Dan Ross, who wrote a series of novels based on the ABC Gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows".
Not to be Taken at Night: Thirteen Classic Canadian Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural
Colombo, John Robert and Michael Richardson (compilers)
Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1981.
It is probably no coincidence that there are 13 stories in this collection of unearthly, macabre and spooky tales saluting the allure of fear in fiction.
High Spirits
Davies, Robertson
Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin; Markham, Ont.: Penguin Books of Canada, 1982.
This collection of ghost stories is the result of a tradition begun when Robertson Davies read his first ghost story at University of Toronto's Massey College in 1963. As long as he remained Master of the College, he contributed an annual spooky, and often satirical, tale, presented in this collection as he read them.
High Spirits by Robertson Davies. Copyright © Robertson Davies, 1982. Used by permission of Penguin Books Canada Limited. Cover design and illustration by Bascove.
Blood Price
Huff, Tanya
New York: DAW Books, 1991.
In an attempt to stop a series of horrible murders, an ex-policewoman turned private-investigator, and a vampire join forces to stop the evil menace that is devasting Toronto.
Courtesy of DAW Books, Inc.
Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light
Huff, Tanya
New York: DAW Books, 1989.
When an Adept of Darkness breaks into the everyday world, who is there to fight against the evil except a few innocents who still believe in the power of magic?
Courtesy of DAW Books, Inc.
Northern Frights
Hutchison, Don (editor)
Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1992.
Theorizing that vicarious fear can be fun, editor Don Hutchison has collected a group of dark fantasies and supernatural tales to make the nerves tingle in the first volume of a series intended to "run the gamut from outright horror and pulp-style thrills to atmospheric fantasy and a whiff of the Gothic spirit".
Mosaic Press © 1992
1252 Speers Rd., 1 & 2
Oakville ON L6L 5N9
Inspecting the Vaults
McCormack, Eric
Markham, Ont.: Penguin Books Canada, 1987.
This collection of 20 horror stories and The Maradise Motel novella carry the reader to strange and ghoulish places where cruelty and terror are everyday occurrences.
Inspecting the Vaults. Eric McCormack.
Cover illustration: Sandra Dionisi. Markham, Ont.: Penguin
Books Canada, 1987.
Bloodshift
Reeves-Stevens, Garfield
New York: Warner Books, 1981.
This horror story features a hit man who never misses -- except when his target isn't really human -- and a vampire who tries to save humankind from annihilation.
The Running Man
Ruddy, Jon
Don Mills, Ont.: General Publishing, 1976.
His first sighting of a ghostly figure in the cellar of his rented farmhouse is the beginning of a threatened existence for Jake. From here on, he is stalked by the obsessed and the insane as he tries to uncover the truth about The Running Man.
| Top of page |
|---|
Copyright. The National Library of Canada. (Revised: 1995-06-17)