Dear Lazy Literary Web
Ok, I had an idea last night for something between a play and an evenings vaguely theatrical entertainment. Because I am far more interested in the style than the actual "plot" as it were, I'm looking to steal the plot (or rather plots) from public domain (PD) literature. The story I was going to use, is in the public domain, but thanks to some legal loopholes the characters are not, which means I'm not sure I could legally do the story because i was planning on taking some fairly big liberties.
I either am looking for one very episodic story, or several connected (either thematically or by author) short stories/poems
I'm looking for an author (or movement or artist type people) who wrote vaguely horror/suspense/mystery type short stories. (Horror/Suspense is probably better than mystery)
I had a few other ideas of where to get stories from, but they seemed to fall into the "so well known" that they actually aren't (in other words everyone thinks they know them but no one has actually read them).
My first thought was Hound of the Baskervilles (book PD, characters not)
Next thought was Poe stories and poems (but everyone knows them but most people haven't read them)
SO I turn to my extremely literate friends for suggestions.
I had a bunch of other thoughts, and they aren't in PD. Foreign language is fine as I suspect I'll rewrite all the dialogue so I don't need to worry about non-PD translations
So, any suggestions?......
EDIT:
By the way, with current law anything originally published after 1920 is probably not in public domain (if the estates are good at finding the loop holes)
I either am looking for one very episodic story, or several connected (either thematically or by author) short stories/poems
I'm looking for an author (or movement or artist type people) who wrote vaguely horror/suspense/mystery type short stories. (Horror/Suspense is probably better than mystery)
I had a few other ideas of where to get stories from, but they seemed to fall into the "so well known" that they actually aren't (in other words everyone thinks they know them but no one has actually read them).
My first thought was Hound of the Baskervilles (book PD, characters not)
Next thought was Poe stories and poems (but everyone knows them but most people haven't read them)
SO I turn to my extremely literate friends for suggestions.
I had a bunch of other thoughts, and they aren't in PD. Foreign language is fine as I suspect I'll rewrite all the dialogue so I don't need to worry about non-PD translations
So, any suggestions?......
EDIT:
By the way, with current law anything originally published after 1920 is probably not in public domain (if the estates are good at finding the loop holes)