The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories (original 2011; edition 2011)

have ebook version

About 1/3 of the way through ( )

Brilliant

Collection of really cool, really weird stories

From Lovecraft to Borges to Gaiman, a century of intrepid literary experimentation has created a corpus of dark and strange stories that transcend all known genre boundaries. Together these stories form The Weird, and its practitioners include some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature.

Since The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories is almost 1200 pages long and just chock full of stories a review of the entire book will probably not do it justice (although I will attempt to summarise) This is supposedly the definitive collection of weird stories (although they admit to not being able to get a few in there due to publishing issues which they list in the introduction) and there’s an immense amount here in chronological order over 100 years of the best English and non-English (some new translations were commissioned for the book too) short weird fiction. Ann and Jeff Vandemeer have excelled themselves with this sumptuous collection of very cool weird stories. As well as acknowledged masters of the genre, with an obligatory Lovecraft tale for example, there are some lesser known writers. The vast majority of these stories I gave a Very Good or Brilliant rating with only a few being Average and only a couple being Poor which in itself is a great accomplishment from the editors.

Mini Reviews
the other side extract
I'd give this a "Poor" rating due to the reason set out below.

The first "story" in the collection is actually half a book. I'm not a big fan of extracts and this is the second half of the book which if you hadn't read it may be a little confusing. Characters that have been introduced in the first half are mentioned, as if you know them, in the second half. The impact of the ending I feel was mostly lost due to not having the build up. Luckily I have read the book fairly recently (sometime in the last 5 years) but if you haven't I would skip this and get the full book. Seems a strange decision - I guess the editors really really wanted it but couldn't justify the length.
the screaming skull F. Marion Crawford in The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories - Brilliant

The second story in the collection is a masterpiece of gothic storytelling. Told in an almost stream of consciousness monologue of a retired sea captain to a guest in his house about the skull of the title. Although the basics of the story are a little hokey in this day and age the writing is so good at creating the fevered brooding atmosphere that you simply dont care. I've never read any Crawford and if this story is anything to go by that's something I need to remedy.
the willows Algernon Blackwood - Very Good - two men canoeing the Danube attempt to wait out a flood in the delta on a small island covered by small Willow bushes, weirdness ensues. H. P. Lovecraft called this Blackwood's best and was a big fan but it lacked a certain something for me although very enjoyable

Sredni Vashtar Saki - Very Good - a young boy has but two friends a hen and a polecat-ferret hidden in a disused tool shed. When the boy starts to worship the ferret who he names Sredni Vashtar As a god the tale turns creepy

Casting the runes M.R. James - Very Good - When an expert on the history of Alchemy delivers a bad book review of a certain Mr. Karswell's book on Alchemy he discovers that a previous book reviewer of a book by Karswell on witchcraft came to a mysterious and gruesome end. Fearing for his own safety he decides to investigate.
How Nuth would have practised his arts upon the Gnoles - lord Dunsany - Very Good - I've been meaning to read some Dunsany and this story may bump him up the list a bit. Nuth is a thief who sets off to steal giant emeralds from the Gnoles. In this very short story Dunsany manages to create a very peculiar atmosphere

The man in the bottle - Gustav Meyhrink – Average - At a masquerade ball there is a play where a man is put inside a giant bottle, a short twisted tale.

The dissection - Georg Hym – Average - Very creepy short about a man being cut open

the spider - Hans Heinz Ewers - Very Good - flawed story where you know what’s coming but then again so does the narrator as he notes in his diary - 3 men hang themselves in a boarding house room and our narrator sets out to work out why

The hungry stones - Rabindranath Tagore – Average - Haunted house story with a difference with quite flowery writing.

The vegetable man - Luigi Ugolini – Average - A botanist discovers a new plant in the Amazon and brings it back to civilization where strange things happen
the people of the pit - A. Merritt - Average - the most Lovecraftian of the tales so far, explorers in the far North of the American continent come across a man who has escaped from "the people of the pit"

The Hell screen - Ryunosuke Akutagawa -Very Good - using he trope of an artist painting a picture of something horrific, very chilling denouement

Unseen-Unfeared - Francis Stevens -Very Good- victorian feeling short mystery tale about weird photography

in the penal colony - Franz Kafka -Very Good - A traveller visits a penal colony and is present as justice is carried out on "a remarkable apparatus"

The white Wyrak by Stefan Grabinski - A monster tale, quite good but dated as the protagonists are chimney sweeps

The night wire H F Arnold - Creepy tale which although using obsolete technology for us manages to convey a nice sense of horror -recommended

The Dunwich horror H.P. Lovecraft -One of Lovecrafts longer and better tales, a good place to start if you've never read him, considered a key text in the Chthulu mythos

The book Margaret Irwin – Very Good - supernatural chiller about an evil book

The Mainz Psalter Jean Ray – Very Good - Lovecraftian type tale about a ship's voyage into another world
The shadowy street by Jean Ray - appearing streets and disappearing people told in found manuscripts - Very Good atmospheric story

Genius Loci by Clark Ashton Smith - A haunted pond and descent into madness by an artist are the focus of this creepy story - Very Good

The town of cats by Hagiwara Sakutaro - a poet who is easily lost experiences hallucinations or discovers the illusory nature of reality (it's ambiguous) - Very Good
The tarn by Hugh Walpole -Very Good. Interesting short story about two rival authors and a deep dark pool.

Sanatorium under the sign of the hourglass by Bruno Schultz -Very Good. Dreamlike tale by a Polish writer with surreal and grotesque undercurrents

Far below by Robert Barbour Johnston-Very Good. What horrors lurk in a cities underground train systems?

Smoke Ghost by Fritz Lieber - Very Good. Sideways view of what the ghosts of our time (being the early 20th C in this case) would be like

White rabbits by Leonora Carrington-Very Good. Odd and very short tale of a woman who discovers some strange things when visiting her neighbours

Mimic by Donald A Wollheim -Very Good.Famous SF style short which inspired a film of the same name, got to say the story was better than the film!

The Crowd by Ray Bradbury-Brilliant. Dark and disturbing capturing a real atmosphere of anxiety

The long sheet by William Sansom -Brilliant. Allegorical and very definitely weird tale of a penal experiment

The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges must confess I skipped this one as I read it very recently, it is good though

A child in the bush of ghosts by Olympe Bhely-Quenum -Average. Fairly standard ghost tale set in the African bush.
The summer people by Shirley Jackson - Brilliant - retirees the Allison's spend the summer in a vacation home and the winter in New York. One year they decide to stay longer than usual in their summer home and see a different side to the year long residents. You cant beat Jackson for a brooding and creeping sense of unease.

The man who sold rope to the gnoles by Margaret St Clair - Very Good - using the Dunsany story (also in the collection) as inspiration St Clair has written a very tight short story

The hungry house by Robert Bloch - Very Good - haunted house tale with a generous dollop of weirdness and possible inspiration for a Mieville short that appears in looking for jake

The complete gentleman by Amos Tutola - Average - African tale about a woman kidnapped by skulls. The writing style let the story down a little here

It's a Good life by Jerome Bixby - Brilliant - Anthony is born special with god-like powers and his family and neighbours must walk on eggshells around him. The story was adapted to be an episode of the twilight zone

Mister Taylor by Augusto Monteroso - Very Good - An American starts feeding a fashion craze for Amazonian shrunken heads

Axolotl by Julio Cortazar - Very Good - A man becomes obsessed with the Axolotl in a Paris aquarium

A woman seldom found by William Sansom - Very Good - A young man visits Rome and chances to meet a beautiful young women with whom he falls in love. He then discovers all is not what it appears to be...

The howling man by Charles Beaumont - Very Good - another story adapted for the Twilight Zone set in a remote monastery where a madman howls the nights away

Same time, same place by Mervyn Peake - Very Good - A man falls in love but is puzzled that the woman he loves will only ever meet him at the same time in the same place...

The colomber by Dino Buzzati - Very Good - tale of a curse of the sea as one man is persued relentlessly by a massive and terrifying fish
The Other Side of the Mountain - Michael Bernanos - Very Good - surreal and weird journey as shipwrecked travellers get very very lost

The Salamander - Merce Rodoreda - Average - forgettable transformation story

The Ghoulbird - Claude Seignolle - Very Good - the bird of the title is like the Banshee of Scottish legend, those who hear its cry receive an omen of doom

The sea was as wet as wet could be - Gahan Wilson - Average - using the Walrus and the carpenter from Lewis Carroll as partial inspiration a group of friends have a party on the beach and weirdness ensues

Don't look now - Daphne Du Maurier - Brilliant - novella length story later made into a film with Donald Sutherland with a couple on vacation in Venice after their daughter's death. They meet a couple of sisters one of whom is supposedly psychic their holiday then takes a strange turn (further convinces me to read more Du Maurier!)

The Hospice - Robert Aickman - Very good - A traveller lost, running out of petrol takes shelter at the hospice of the title, needless to say its not a standard accommodation he finds

It only comes out at night - Dennis Etchison - Very Good - weird horror as a couple on a road trip make a stop in a rest area which leads to unexpected consequences

The psychologist who wouldn't do awful things to rats - James Tiptree Jr - Brilliant - An animal researcher with a conscience conducts experiments with rats

The Beak Doctor - Eric Basso - Very Good - A nameless city is plagued by a strange sleeping sickness and stalked by the beak doctor of the title, creepy and atmospheric tale

My mother - Jamaica Kincaid - Average - transformation story told in simplistic faux mythology style

Sandkings - George R.R. Martin - Brilliant - SF weirdness as a collector of rare animals purchases very odd creatures from a new purveyor of the weird

Window - Bob Leman - Very good - scientists conducting an experiement in telekinesis accidently open a "window" to what they believe is the past when they can view a small house inhabited by a wholesome family
The Brood - Ramsey Campbell - Very Good - a Liverpool apartment dweller lives in a decaying area and spends time watching his neighbours, when one of them, an old woman, doesn't appear for a while he feels that he must go investigate

The Autopsy - Michael Shea - Very Good - weird science fiction version of demonic possession

The Belonging kind - William Gibson/John Shirley - Very Good - the only collaborative effort in the Compendium, a man becomes obsessed with a woman he meets in a bar and follows her

Egnaro - M. John Harrison - Brilliant - Borges-like story about a secret country

The little dirty girl - Joanna Russ - Very Good - a story in the form of a letter about a spooky experience which leads the narrator to attemp a reconcilliation with an estranged mother

The new rays - M. John Harrison - Very Good - A man travels to a spa to receive a new treatment for his disease and discovers that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease

The discovery of Telenapota - Premendra Mitra - Average - written in the second person, which I think is very difficult to get right, you are drawn into a story about death and memory

Soft - F. Paul Wilson - Very Good - surreal and disturbing post-apocalyptic tale where the apocalypse is very inventive and refers to the title of the story

Bloodchild - Octavia E. Butler - Brilliant - Weird science fiction where an alien species exists in symbiosis with humans with a bit of body shock thrown in

In the Hills, the cities - Clive Barker -Very Good - two towns take part in a weird ritual competiton

Tainaron - Leena Krohn - this is a epistolary novella told in letters from an insect city, having read this before fairly recently I've skipped it but I would recommend it

Hogfoot right and bird-hands - Garry Kilworth - Very Good - SF body modification story with a nice twist

Shades - Lucius Shepard - Very Good - Interesting weird ghost story which also manages to act as a commentary on war

The function of dream sleep - Harlan Ellison -Very Good - A man awakes half way through a dream and catches a glimpse of hidden reality which changes his life

Worlds that flourish - Ben Okri - Average - A man tries to escape a dictatorship and weird things happen

The boy in the tree - Elizabeth Hand - Very Good - weird science where autistics are used as psychiatric investigators through human engineering

Family - Joyce Carol Oates - Very Good - Very odd tale of a family living through an environmental/civilization collapse

His mouth will taste of Wormwood - Poppy Z. Brite - Very Good, darkly gothic tale about friends who try to push the boundaries and start to rob graves, a good example of Brite's work

The end of the garden - Michal Ajvaz - Average - Surreal tale that starts when a man hears a cry for help and discovers a woman fighting with a lizard, it gets weirder from that point on

The dark - Karen Joy Fowler - Very Good - A medic in the Vietnam war sees that the reality of the plague is different to what we believe

Angels in love - Kathe Koja - Very Good, a woman listens to her neighbours having sex and becomes obsessed with meeting the man of the couple who she's never seen

The Ice man - Haruki Murakami - Very Good - a woman marries an Ice man and weirdness ensues
The Replacements by Lisa Tuttle - women start bringing home strange oddly needy animals as pets and his changes heir relationships with the men in their life - Very Good

The Diane Arbus suicide portfolio by Marc Laidlaw - a police photographer becomes obsessed with a photographer that commits suicide that he is called to photograph - Very Good

The country doctor by Steven Utley - a man from a small town that is due to be drowned by a dam discovers its bizarre history when the local graveyard is examined by archaeologists - Very Good

Last rites and resurrections by Martin Simpson - a man discovers that he can hear the thoughts of dead animals (roadkill mostly) and feels compelled to bury them in his garden - Brilliant

The ocean and all its devices by William Browning Spencer - a couple and their daughter visit the same hotel year after year, there is something strange about them and one year the hotel owners investigate what's going on - Very Good

The delicate by Jeffrey Ford - a short yet grotesque story about a fantastical killer - Very Good

The man in the black suit by Stephen King - the devil toys with a small boy, not one of King's best - Average

The snow pavillion by Angela Carter - a woman breaks down in the snow and takes shelter in an odd mansion which gets weirder and weirder - Very Good

The meat garden by Craig Padawer - weird war story vegans firing rounds that germinate inside you and mechanized units fire rockets made out of clocks- Brilliant (very Vandermeer!! think shriek)

the stiff and the stile by Stepan Chapman - strange and short possibly modelled on the old woman that swallowed a fly - Average

Yellow and Red by Tanith Lee - weird ghost tale wih nods to M.R. James - Average

The specialist's hat by Kelly Link - as this is in stranger things happen which I didn't read too long ago I skipped it, it is a good story though

A redress for andromeda by Cailin R Kirenan - A woman discovers that a party she's been invited to is much weirder than she imagined - Very Good

The god of dark laughter by Michael Chabon - nods to Lovecraft and Poe in this weird crime story that also involves circuses - Very Good

Details by China Mieville - in looking for Jake good story but another I skipped over

The genius of assassins:three dreams of murder in the first person by Michael Cisco - Cisco has a very dreamy style which suits this story which is as per the title 3 murderers telling their stories - Very Good

Feeders and Eaters by Neil Gaiman - this story has been printed a few times, a darkly weird story about a dysfunctional relationship - Very Good

The Cage by Jeff Vandermeer - Having read this a few times I did skip it but it is a very good story

The beautiful Gelreesh by Jeffrey Ford - metamorphosis and murder in this odd and cruel story - Very Good
The Town manager by Thmas Ligotti - weird allegorical tale that felt like it was set in Eastern Europe but is in an un-named town in an un-named country, a succession of town mangers make changes to the town - Very good

The Brotherhood of mutilation by Brian Evenson - Brilliant tale, I have read the book before though but definitely rewarded a re-read, a detective tale with a man who has lost a hand

The White hands by Mark Samuels - a writer of the weird affects writers of the weird after her detah - Very Good

Flat Diane by Daniel Abraham - a man sends a life size picture of his daughter ot into the world to his relatives, weirdness happens - Very Good

Singing my sister down by Margo Lanagan - having read this before I skipped it, can confirm its a very good story though!

The people on the island by T.M.Wright - a man and a woman live on an island where there are many un-alive (dead just doesn't cover it and undead conjures the wrong images) - Very Good

The forest by Laird Barron - A man on a hunting trip comes across some weird science - Average

The hide by Liz Williams - a group of friends come across a bird hide in the marshes and share an intense experience, later they fail to find the hide again - Average

Duest enforcer by Reza Negarestani - as this was a chapter from the cyclonopedia I skipped it, I can confirm that it is very very weird however

The familiars by Micaela Morrissette - interesting take on childhood's invisible friends - Very Good

The Lion's den by Steve Duffy - a man enters a lion's den in a zoo and disappears, weirdness happens - Brilliant definitely going to track down some more by this author

Little lambs by Stephen Graham Jones - a weird building is guarded by soldiers, very atmospheric tale showing a lot of imagination, would adapt well to film I think - Brilliant

Saving the gleeful horse by K.J.Bishop - weird fantasy story about a giant that tries to save a horse - Brilliant

Afterweird by China Mieville both manages to sum up the tone of the book and add new insights

Overall – An amazing collection, highly recommended although you need strong wrists to read this book ;-)

I plan to review each story in this book in order as I read them over the coming weeks, months, or years. This is one HUGE book. Over 1100 pages of small double columned print, with 110 stories published from 1908 to 2010. What an amazing achievement to get something like this published in 2012! It is tempting to buy the eBook as well just to avoid the bulk. At first glance, a few of the stories are familiar, and still memorable though I may have first read them 40 years ago as a pre-teenager. I trust that some of the others will also leave their mark on my older, perhaps harder to penetrate, imagination. Stay tuned.

The Other Side by Alfred Kubin ****
This excerpt from a novel would benefit from a little more context, since we don't understand the origin or full significance of some of the characters, such as the American who plays a sinister role. But, that aside, it is a haunting, memorable story of a city overcome by sleeping sickness, then succumbing to a plague of animals and a rapid decay of everything within it. There is a fatalistic humor that runs through it all as most people somehow cope. In keeping with the editor's definition of a weird tale, the story is long on sensation and short on explanation.

The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford ** 1/2
This story of a sea captain living in the house with a skull that may belong to the wife of a colleague who may have murdered her is much more conventional and obvious. The first person, slightly unhinged narrative is engaging, but goes on too long.

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood ** 1/2
Two men following the Danube from its source to the Black Sea alight on an island between Pressburg (present day Bratislava) and Budapest, where strange things begin to happen. Like most of Blackwood’s work, this is strong on atmosphere and has some memorable, mysterious scenes. But it is also full of overwritten passages that blunt rather than heighten the sense of mystery that pervades the story. This would have been much better at half the length.

Sredni Vashtar by Saki *****
In contrast to Blackwood, Saki was a master of the very short story, and this one is pure perfection. Though memorable for its climax, upon re-reading, the plight of the lonely boy who lives mostly in his imagination because his guardian/cousin makes the rest of his existence so barren, resonates strongly with this reader.

Casting the Runes by M.R. James *** 1/2
James writes in a much more normal, less dense, more urbane style than his contemporary Blackwood. This story of a man who comes under the threat of an alchemist who may have killed another man who also criticized his work is quite engaging and enjoyable, though it isn't going to leave you with nightmares.

How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles by Lord Dunsany ***
Dunsany's stories are always fun to read. His style is that of the master storyteller. Here we find that even a master thief must take certain precautions when attempting his most difficult crime yet.

The Man in the Bottle by Gustav Meyrink *** 1/2
This one definitely earns the right to call itself weird. A Persian Prince puts on an unusual entertainment--but the real interest of the story is its descriptions of the participants in a masked ball with few rivals--perhaps Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death"?

The Dissection by Georg Heym ****
Gruesome, poetic, and very short, this tale of a corpse on a dissection table just needs to be read, not described.

The Spider by Hanns Heinz Ewers ****
Strange goings on as a medical student moves into a room where three people have hung themselves on three successive Fridays. Has a few gaps in logic, but makes up for it in atmosphere. Nice twist at the end.

The Hungry Stones by Rabindranath Tagore ***
Interesting story of a haunting series of dreams, marred by an abrupt ending, perhaps because the author didn't know where to take it from there--or maybe this kind of story achieves a more lasting effect if left unfinished....

The Vegetable Man by Luigi Ugolini *** 1/2
This is right out of an old episode of Night Gallery, but none the less enjoyable. It will teach you to stay away from strange plants.

The People of the Pit by A. Merritt ***
Solid lost civilization story, set in the far North of Canada. At such a short length, Merritt can't really develop things as he does in a novel such as THE MOON POOL, but this is still quite atmospheric and enjoyable. This man got away with using language in a way that should end up seeming totally ridiculous, but somehow doesn't.

The Hell Screen by Ryunosuke Akutagawa *** 1/2
Very dark story of a Lord, a painter, and the painter's daughter--wait, I left out the monkey! This is old fashioned and you'll know where it is leading, but nevertheless it has a certain fascination and contributes to the globe-spanning nature of this anthology.

Unseen - Unfeared by Francis Stevens ** 1/2
A man discovers horrors unseen. A good idea and it is nicely atmospheric, but it is also a bit overwritten in that early 20th century manner, and the tale is somewhat spoiled in the telling. A little subtlety would have gone a long way here.

In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka