Cover of Nightmare Alley
HorrorCircus & Carnival

Nightmare Alley

by

  • 1946 first published
  • 275 pages
  • 11 editions
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Published in 1946, Nightmare Alley is a horror and circus fiction novel by William Lindsay Gresham. It features Stanton Carlisle, Clem Moatley and Bruno Hertz. It deals with circus performers, mediums, swindlers and swindling and crime.

36 Open Library readers have it on their want-to-read list. It has been published in 11 editions.

It runs to roughly 275 pages — 5–6 hours of reading at an average pace.

About Nightmare Alley

Stanton Carlisle, employed as a carny at a travelling circus watches their freak-show geek - an abject alcoholic, the object of the voyeuristic crowd's gleeful disgust and derision - and wonders how a man could fall so low. There's no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him. Unlike the tragic figure he sees before him, Stan is young, clever and ambitious and quick to learn from the other carnival acts. Initially teaming up with a beautiful but vulnerable woman as part of a double act in which he mesmerises her, Stan soon leaves his circus days behind him, becoming a successful spiritualist who exploits the weak and the wealthy. But even the very best con-men can meet their match...
Description from Open Library

Themes, setting & tropes

Genres

Characters

  • Stanton Carlisle
  • Clem Moatley
  • Bruno Hertz
  • Molly Cahill
  • Zeena
  • Pete
  • Sailor Martin
  • Major Mosquito
  • Joe Plasky
  • Lilith Ritter

Subjects

  • Circus performers
  • Mediums
  • Swindlers and swindling
  • Mystery & detective
  • Crime
  • Noir
  • Mystery
  • Classics
  • Horror
  • Thriller

Quick answers

Who wrote Nightmare Alley?

Nightmare Alley was written by William Lindsay Gresham and first published in 1946.

What genre is Nightmare Alley?

It is usually shelved as Horror and Circus & Carnival.

How long is Nightmare Alley?

The median edition has 275 pages, about 5–6 hours of reading at 250 words per minute.

What books are similar to Nightmare Alley?

Readers who like it often enjoy The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales [15 stories], The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in Five Volumes and Az ellenállás melankóliája.

Books like Nightmare Alley