Twelve Gothic Tales (Oxford Twelves)

A representative collection of twelve Gothic stories that are generally not seen elsewhere and are all to a reasonably high standard. Not a bad starting point if you want to get a 'feel' for the Gothic horror tale.

All have something to recommend them and there are no absolute duds but special praise for the last item - a genuinely disturbing story by Gerald Durrell, usually associated with benign memoires of animals.

The collection has some very worthwhile reads, though the old-fashioned writing of some of the pieces slowed me down a bit. In particular, I liked J. Sheridan Le Fanu's "Dickon the Devil," Sabine Baring-Gould's "Master Sacristan Eberhart" (which I found quite creepy), F. Marion Crawford's "The Dead Smile" (another creepy piece), Stephen Hall's "By One, By Two, and By Three," and Gerald Durrell's "The Entrance" (which made me want to avoid mirrors for a while).

Everything you’d expect and want. I loved Gerald Durrell’s "The Entrance", and not knowing who he was, looked for more by what I assumed to be a master horror writer. I was surprised to learn that he’s know for something else entirely and this story was an anomaly.

A real nice selection