Mad Scientist stories

Post date: 2021-01-18 02:59:29

Recommend me Mad Scientist stories you have read. More details inside:

One outstanding example is William Sloane's The Edge of Running Water.
These stories may fall into different genres: Mystery, Detective, Strange Tales, (Cosmic) Horror but here is what I am looking for:

1) The narrator is an old friend of the scientist, or a detective/researcher or perhaps a young doctor or other first person who explores and uncovers all this or ends up playing a central role.
2) The "scientist" has de-camped to a house which sits on the edge of some remote village or perhaps even the center of the village but somehow sits apart.
3) The villagers are either frightened or distrustful of what is going on in the house.
4) The plot may go in different ways but it all somehow comes undone. The "scientist" most likely dies.

This may also sound a bit like Frankenstein but certainly the novel itself does not fit these tropes. So in that sense, I'd appreciate a name for this trope. It is certainly there in "The Island of Dr. Moreau" as well as referenced in more classic horror/gothic (e.g. Mexican Gothic) but those tales tend to lack the scientist/lone-genius pursuing something unnatural or powerful.

i do mean "scientist" in a broader sense though. Perhaps investigator is better but there is a usually lone individual in pursuit of some knowledge which could be also in texts/archaeology/physics/etc too.

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