Books

Average customer rating:

A Super Selection!
The ultimate unhinged collection, the force before which the soul of man blackens and withers

The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time
Leslie Pockell
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Horror Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

jp-unknown1 | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

999: Twenty-nine Original Tales of Horror and Suspense
The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
Tales for the Midnight Hour: Stories of Horror
Three Vampire Tales: Dracula, Carmilla, and The Vampyre (New Riverside Editions)
Ghosts and Grisly Things

ASIN: 044667950X

Amazon.com

A title like The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time automatically beggars belief. Immediately, readers will notice the absence of modern masters like Stephen King and Peter Straub, and past masters like E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Beaumont. A more accurate title for this volume would be Thirteen of the Best Horror Stories Published in English Between 1843 and 1948. Its selections are sometimes uneven, but usually excellent, and are often of tremendous importance.

The anthology presents some masterpieces that have appeared in innumerable other collections: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," W.W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw," H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu," and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." However, The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time avoids some obvious choices (instead of "Carmilla," the selection from J. Sheridan Le Fanu is "Green Tea"), and it includes a genre-stretching work (H.G. Wells's "The Country of the Blind," which may also be viewed as sci-fi or fantasy), as well as a classic novella (Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan") that is often excluded from other anthologies because of limited space.

Prefaced with a brief, intelligent introduction by editor Leslie Pockell, The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time is a wonderful book for the budding horror fan. Readers more experienced in fantastic fiction will want to compare the table of contents with their libraries before making a purchase decision. --Cynthia Ward

Book Description

This collection of classic tales of the supernatural and the un-canny will satisfy anyone's desire for chills. These are the stories that surprise-even the second and third time around. They reflect readers' innermost fears and go to places where reality is blurred by imagination, where insanity and madness are shrouded in mystery, and where humanity is haunted by repressed passion and obsession. Even the most jaded will be delighted-and terrified-by this shivering collection, which includes Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," J. Sheridan Le Fanu's "Green Tea," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp," Bram Stoker's "Dracula's Guest," Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan," W. W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw," M. R. James' "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad," H. G. Wells' "The Country of the Blind," Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows," Oliver Onions' "The Beckoning Fair One," H. P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu," and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery."

Customer Reviews:

A Super Selection!.......2007-06-14

I loved the "Willows," by Algernon Blackwood. Just imagine camping on a willowy island in the Danube River. Here are the first lines:

"After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest, the Danube enters a region of singular loneliness and desolation, where its waters spread away on all sides regardless of a main channel, and the country becomes a swamp for miles upon miles, covered by a vast sea of low willow bushes."

A great collection of other stories, too.

When an author has a name like "Algernon Blackwood," you know the story has to be good.

The ultimate unhinged collection, the force before which the soul of man blackens and withers.......2006-07-14

You won't find a better line-up in any other book of short tales. Here are the Masters, the true "Old Ones", who paved the horror-ridden walkways that deranged souls love to walk upon. If someone says, "I don't like horror", or rejects the newer splatter horror, this book is the perfect gift to introduce them to what horror is really about.

It's not about blood; it's about dread. That sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, that feeling that forces your from your chair at night to turn on all the houselights and peek cautiously out into the night through curtains that flutter in unseen winds. You lock the door and you lock the windows, but the feeling will not leave.

Table Of Contents:
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
Green Tea by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker
The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
Oh, Whistle And I'll Come To You, My Lad by M.R. James
The Country Of The Blind by H.G. Wells
The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions
The Call Of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

From the languid, flowing prose from 'The Willows' by Algernon Blackwood, the terror of insanity in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, houses haunted by madness in 'The Beckoning Fair One' by Oliver Onions, and classic tales by Poe, Stevenson, Machen, Stoker, H.G. Wells, Lovecraft, and Jackson, this truly is the best of the best of horror. It's nice to have this classic pieces available in one book. Any horror fan of course has read and/or owns these works, but the convenience of perusing your midnight pleasures in a single collection is more than worth the price of the book. I would give it 10 stars if I could, this is a "must have" book for horror fans. Enjoy!

Books:

Books