Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Theatre of Fear & Horror: The Grisly Spectacle of the Grand Guignol of Paris, 1897-1962” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Theatre of Fear & Horror: The Grisly Spectacle of the Grand Guignol of Paris, 1897-1962

Mel Gordon

4.02 · Rating details · 63 ratings · 10 reviews

"Bloodcurdling shrieks, fiendish schemes, deeds of darkness, mayhem and mutilation—we all have a rough idea of what Grand Guignol stands for. But until now it has been hard to find out much more about it than that. According to the American theater historian Mel Gordon, no major history of the theater so much as mentions it, although it is a form of entertainment that held ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 220 pages

Published August 9th 2016 by Feral House

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Theatre of Fear & Horror, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Theatre of Fear & Horror

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.02 ·

Rating details

· 63 ratings · 10 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Theatre of Fear & Horror: The Grisly Spectacle of the Grand Guignol of Paris, 1897-1962

Feb 28, 2019 Carla Remy rated it really liked it

Guignol is a puppet, a character in Punch and Judy type plays. The name, in France, apparently came to stand for puppet shows in general, so Grand Guignol literally means Big Puppetshow. I loved the history of horror, through early humanity. I was curious about the Grand Guignol's famous violent effects, but it is basically what you'd think, sleight of hand and fake blood. It does sound pretty amazing. A horror movie live on the stage. ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Nov 20, 2020 Perry rated it liked it

Shelves: physical-collection, art-theory-and-criticism, drama

I would give an arm and a leg to attend that 1925 Grand Guignol production of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 12, 2019 Greg rated it liked it

Shelves: 21st-century, grand-guignol, nf-art, reviewed

I have more questions than answers, after reading this book:
-Why were the French the first to embrace the novels (and make films of them) the very dark novels coming out of America in the late 1940s? They already had "Grand Guignol" theatre and wanted more perhaps?
-And why did Anne Rice's (fictional, natch) vampires use a "Grand Guignol" type theatre called "Theatres des Vampires"? So they could murder innocent victims on stage (for bloood) convincing the audience it was 'theatre'? But why not i ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 28, 2017 Daniel rated it really liked it

Shelves: entertainment, non-fiction, theatre

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 3.75 of 5

I've heard of the Grand Guignol of Paris and that it was horror or even depraved theatre, but I didn't really know too much about it. It's not the sort of theatre taught in the local colleges. The sub-title, I think, really gets it right when calling it a "grisly spectacle."

Author Mel Gordon has thoroughly researched this popular French form of drama and given us a look at the performers, the stories, and the audience th ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 12, 2018 Mckenzie Ragan rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018, checked-out-from-library, film, history, theatre, horror

A quick historical overview of a fascinating subject and time period. The late Mel Gordon’s interests as presented in his books, ranging from stage techniques to the ‘erotic world of Weimar Berlin,’ are generally noted for their deviation from orthodoxy within academic circles. I haven’t read enough to say if this is just in terms of content or something else (I would guess content). At least at the time of publication, the Grand Guignol would fit under that broad umbrella of fringe scholarship A quick historical overview of a fascinating subject and time period. The late Mel Gordon’s interests as presented in his books, ranging from stage techniques to the ‘erotic world of Weimar Berlin,’ are generally noted for their deviation from orthodoxy within academic circles. I haven’t read enough to say if this is just in terms of content or something else (I would guess content). At least at the time of publication, the Grand Guignol would fit under that broad umbrella of fringe scholarship of the extreme – Feral House’s (I guess originally Amok) imprint on the spine is a sign of as much.

At its early 20th century peak, the Grand Guignol was hailed by audiences as an orgy of violence and sex. Less shocking from a 21st century perspective, it’s still far from tame taken in its historical context. Gordon approaches the topic in a well-rounded way. First, he focuses on the theatre’s history, its rise and eventual fall in the aftermath of a war that rendered all depictions of the horrific and grotesque – however realistic the artistry – dull and even childish. He then explores the influence of the Grand Guignol, its most obvious descendent today being the grindhouse/exploitation film resurgence the last few decades have seen (I don’t remember if Gordon goes into this specifically). Other sections of the book include a description of macabre (and clever) stage techniques, an essay by Andre de Lord (one of the most prolific writers of plays for the Grand Guignol), ‘100 plots from the repertoire of the Grand Guignol’ divided up by subject, as well as three scripts translated and reproduced in full.

All of this is interesting on one level or another. Twenty-first century inflation of shock value, unsurprisingly, means the primary sources are somewhat dry, more interesting as artifacts than as fear-inducing plots in themselves. They at times wander into the territory of camp. The history, though, is fascinating. The photos are amazing. By far the part I enjoyed most, though, was the article written by Maxa, one of (maybe the) the main performers at the height of the Grand Guignol’s success. She writes about her haunted past, being sexually assaulted, beaten, and cut in a brutal encounter at 15 years old. As she begins describing her experiences with the Grand Guignol, night after night raped and murdered by one new horrifically ingenious means after another, it becomes clear that her stage and real life selves have merged in a grotesque and pitiful way. She uses the words ‘madness’ and ‘sin.’ She undeniably becomes a masochist, unable to find any joy without a reciprocal misery. She would make an incredible psychological case study, and I would love to read more about her. A true artist, she gave herself entirely to her roles, only to be doomed by them – although as she tells her story, she may have been doomed long before she took to the stage. Netflix released a movie about her in September – The Most Assassinated Woman in the World. I’m curious to see it.

For whatever reason, I don’t think the Grand Guignol has made its way into our cultural collective consciousness yet. I’m sure that will change with time, and probably already has dramatically since the publication of this book. It’s a good introduction – it would be cool to see one of the best of these plays done today, not through a contemporary lens, but as true to the originals as possible. There probably are some weirdo theatre companies somewhere that have experimented with it.
...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 05, 2016 Jack rated it liked it

Mel Gordon's Theatre of Fear and Horror: The Grisly Spectacle of the Grand Guignol of Paris 1897-1962 is many things under one set of covers; it's part history of the macabre Grand Guignol theatre, part analysis of the appeal of the theatre's horrific spectacle as popular entertainment, a catalog of the kind of plays that were performed at the theatre, and a reproduction of a few scripts and original documents from the theatre's history.

The historical section of the book is brief. It reads as a Mel Gordon's Theatre of Fear and Horror: The Grisly Spectacle of the Grand Guignol of Paris 1897-1962 is many things under one set of covers; it's part history of the macabre Grand Guignol theatre, part analysis of the appeal of the theatre's horrific spectacle as popular entertainment, a catalog of the kind of plays that were performed at the theatre, and a reproduction of a few scripts and original documents from the theatre's history.

The historical section of the book is brief. It reads as a survey, primer, or overview; it could be that much of the Grand Guignol's history has been lost and thus can't be related, or it could be that the ups and downs of the theatre's business isn't nearly as interesting as the violent and excessive productions that took place on its stage.

If Gordon has a fault as a writer on historical oddities, it's that he tends to lean toward the mythology of his subjects rather the historical record. Some areas of the history are so thin that their inclusion feels perfunctory; the section on the kind of special effects used during performances amounts to "They used a lot of fake blood and other things." It's a shame not to cut deeper when talking about the Grand Guignol.

Gordon's analysis of the Grand Guignol connects its drama to the turn of the century French fetish for naturalism, but that only seems like half the story. The Grand Guignol certainly began as an enterprise to bring naturalism to the stage, but its evolution as a theatre specializing in horror means that other unaccounted for influences became interwoven with that initial artistic premise; as de Lorde's essay makes clear, there is a heavy debt to the Gothic that just doesn't factor into Gordon's appraisal of the kind of art produced for the Grand Guignol's stage even though the lineage of Poe and his antecedents looms large in the theatre's melange of influences.

The capsule summaries of a selection of plays from the Grand Guignol's history--from sex farces to its infamous shockers--are interesting, as far as they go, but the cataloging of the plays just leaves you hungry for the real thing. The historical documents, such as Andre de Lorde's essay on fear in literature and Maxa's "autobiography," fare a bit better as historical curiosities. The book concludes with two scripts from plays performed at the Grand Guignol. Reading the plays is, of course, a pleasure secondary to seeing them performed, but even so the scripts give a sense of why people were attracted to the theatre and became habitual attendees.

Overall, the book feels slighter than it should--especially for a revised edition. Still, with so little published on the Grand Guignol, Theatre of Fear and Horror is an ideal starting point if you're interested in the topic. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 08, 2016 Bill Wallace rated it really liked it

The best book in English on the Grand Guignol is even better, though far from perfect, in an edition that adds color poster plates and more photographs of the stage productions. The subject of Paris' horror theater is best approached from several sides -- in the context of social realism that birthed the playhouse, as the most visible ancestor of a genre of fiction that includes EC comics, splatter fiction, and gore movies, and as dramatic entertainment that deliberately aspired to provoke unhea ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 09, 2018 Paul Creasy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Amazing!

For those who have heard of the Gran Guignol, opportunities for finding details are scarce. This book delivers such details. With amazing production stills, full plotlines and plays revealed and an incredibly detailed history, all curiosities have been answered. Give this tiny theatre's outsized influence on the culture of not only France, but all of Europe and the US, the history of the Gran Guignol should be better known. This book rectified that. I highly recommend! ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 01, 2017 Megan Hex rated it liked it · review of another edition

I'll be honest; I probably would have rated this higher had I not read it on an e-ink Kindle, because I imagine the illustrations are glorious in color. That said, I wish there had been more history or more actual scripts rather than all the plot summaries. Otherwise good and informative. Now off to find more scripts in English! ...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 06, 2020 Luke rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020

The Grand Guignol was Paris's smallest theatre, was named for a horrifying puppet, and was also a place where you could see various comedies interspersed with incredibly vivid, naturalistic horror.

Couple of laughs and some throat-slitting? Sure, mon ami, sounds swell.

The theatre - which ran from 1897 to 1962 - was where the hoi polloi could get up close with bloody action, spread over a course of several small plays in each performance. It's an important place, and the thing of legend, influenc ...more

flag Like · see review