Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
by Herbert A. Wise (Editor), Phyllis Fraser (Editor)
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Gathers stories by Balzac, Poe, Collins, Bierce, Wells, Saki, Aiken, Hawthorne, and Lovecraft.Tags
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Member Reviews
My 2011 'review' of this read, in its entirety "This is the single finest collection of tales of the supernatural I have ever encountered. Wall to wall classics of their kind."
I don't violently disagree with this ten years later; however, because I just completed my first complete read of the book, I would like to say a little more.
First: I think it was silly of me to declare this as the 'finest' of its kind when I haven't read that many of its kind. Ahem. It's a wide-ranging anthology that contains stuff from roughly the early 19th (Balzac, et al) to the early 20th centuries. It ends with a pair of Lovecraft stories, & he died in 1937.
The editors' split of the material into tales of 'terror' (alarming but explicable, even if you have show more to stretch) and 'the supernatural' (inexplicable without allowing the existence of realms or powers beyond the known) is *somewhat* artificial. Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" for example, fits better for me under "supernatural." Plus this means if you are a completist reader like me, and you are really far more interested in the "supernatural," you have to wade through the tales of "terror" that come first. This isn't that big a burden, however, since many of them are excellent and exciting.
What else to say? of the major "supernatural" writers, their choices are for the most part solid. The slight exception, I'd say, is Algernon Blackwood. His "Ancient Sorceries," included here, is far better than I remember it being on first reading, but "Confession," while not bad, should have made way for either "The Willows" or "The Wendigo," in my opinion. The editors say neither of these were included because of how often they're anthologized, but that didn't stop them from including "Green Tea" for Le Fanu.
But these are quibbles. This is a great anthology, full of old chestnuts AND neat surprises, and is still a fine introduction to the genre. NB: all the writers are male. I just called this to mind. Hmm. show less
I don't violently disagree with this ten years later; however, because I just completed my first complete read of the book, I would like to say a little more.
First: I think it was silly of me to declare this as the 'finest' of its kind when I haven't read that many of its kind. Ahem. It's a wide-ranging anthology that contains stuff from roughly the early 19th (Balzac, et al) to the early 20th centuries. It ends with a pair of Lovecraft stories, & he died in 1937.
The editors' split of the material into tales of 'terror' (alarming but explicable, even if you have show more to stretch) and 'the supernatural' (inexplicable without allowing the existence of realms or powers beyond the known) is *somewhat* artificial. Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" for example, fits better for me under "supernatural." Plus this means if you are a completist reader like me, and you are really far more interested in the "supernatural," you have to wade through the tales of "terror" that come first. This isn't that big a burden, however, since many of them are excellent and exciting.
What else to say? of the major "supernatural" writers, their choices are for the most part solid. The slight exception, I'd say, is Algernon Blackwood. His "Ancient Sorceries," included here, is far better than I remember it being on first reading, but "Confession," while not bad, should have made way for either "The Willows" or "The Wendigo," in my opinion. The editors say neither of these were included because of how often they're anthologized, but that didn't stop them from including "Green Tea" for Le Fanu.
But these are quibbles. This is a great anthology, full of old chestnuts AND neat surprises, and is still a fine introduction to the genre. NB: all the writers are male. I just called this to mind. Hmm. show less
This anthology was my favorite book of all time from the age of 10 until the age of 12. I spent the weekend re-reading it. There are many favorite stories here that almost everyone has heard of and read: The Most Dangerous Game, Leiningen Versus the Ants, Shredni Vashtar, The Open Window, The Monkey's Paw.. Many here are still widely read because they were anthologized here first.
For the most part the stories still thrilled me. Even so I could not get over how many of them used the framing device of a bunch of white Englishmen at the club who are just lighting their cigars and settling down to hear one man's hair-raising yarn...or something very close to it. A few are culturally offensive, relying on witch-doctor tropes and colonial show more points of view that jar, but mostly their frame of reference is stiff-upper-lippish, rather than unreadably inappropriate. I still love them all albeit nostalgically at times rather than for their currency. show less
For the most part the stories still thrilled me. Even so I could not get over how many of them used the framing device of a bunch of white Englishmen at the club who are just lighting their cigars and settling down to hear one man's hair-raising yarn...or something very close to it. A few are culturally offensive, relying on witch-doctor tropes and colonial show more points of view that jar, but mostly their frame of reference is stiff-upper-lippish, rather than unreadably inappropriate. I still love them all albeit nostalgically at times rather than for their currency. show less
One hardly expects to be transfixed by an innocent looking Modern Library horror collection--one expects a rather dry "representative historical collection." This one though has an atmosphere about it, though . . . the lines of influence run fairly strongly through the stories of this collection. While the authors, styles and approaches to creating a sense of the uncanny are distinct, there is also something mutually reinforcing in these stories. A really great collection.
If you never read another horror anthology, if you even hate horror, you should read this one anthology just to make sure you round out your literary background. The one essential classic anthology that has NEVER been bettered since it was first published. Cannot really be compared to anything else.
If you are a horror buff, then you owe it to yourself to read this to find out where it all came from and what the best can be.
If you are a horror buff, then you owe it to yourself to read this to find out where it all came from and what the best can be.
From a world long before Stephen King, this is the best compilation of classic horror writing I've ever read. My father had an older (identical) version when I was a child, and it was the first place I discovered H.P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood, and Arthur Machen. You'll find all the greats here: M.R. James (oft called the world's best ghost story writer), Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and H.G. Wells; as well as some shadowy works by such rare and extremely influential writers as Le Fanu, Maupassant, and W.W. Jacobs (The Monkey's Paw). These tales are drawn from great literature, so don't be surprised to find Faulkner, Dickens, and Hemmingway here as well. Essential.
My favorite collection of stories ever. I've read this to many times to count. This is the book that sits on my night stand. I reach for it after I've read a handful of crappy horror stories. Or after I've written a handful of crappy horror stories.
Excellent, excellent, excellent! Some of the early stories had me reading the sentences aloud. Words perfectly chosen to give mood, beautiful old little used words that fit perfectly. An English major horror freak's dream book.
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Awards and Honors
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Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Modern Library Giant (G72)
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
- Original title
- Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
- Original publication date
- 1944
- Epigraph
- From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-legged beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord deliver us!
--Old Scotch Invocation - First words
- Introduction: There exists for most of us a deep fascination in tales of sheer terror and the supernatural--tales dealing with beings and events that transcend the ordinary course of nature.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"It was his twin brother, but it looked more like the father than he did."
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Contents:
- Introduction
- Introduction to the Notes
- Tales of Terror
- La Grande Bretéche by Honoré de Balzac
- The Black Cat / Edgar Allan Poe
- The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar / ... (show all)Edgar Allan Poe
- A Terribly Strange Bed / Wilkie Collıns
- The Boarded Window / Ambrose Bierce
- The Three Strangers / Thomas Hardy
- The Interruption / W. W. Jacobs
- Pollock and the Porroh Man / H. G. Wells
- The Sea Raiders / H. G. Wells
- Sredni Vashtar / Saki
- Moonlight Sonata / Alexander Woollcott
- Silent Snow, Secret Snow / Conrad Aiken
- Suspicion / Dorothy L. Sayers
- The Most Dangerous Game / Richard Connell
- Leiningen Versus the Ants / Carl Stephenson
- The Gentleman from America / Michael Arlen
- Rose for Emily / William Faulkner
- The Killers / Ernst Hemingway
- Back for Christmas / John Collier
- Taboo / Geoffrey Household
- Tales of the Supernatural
- The Haunters and the Haunted; or, The House and the Brain
- Rappacgini's Daughter / Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Trial for Murder / Charles Collins and Charles Dickens
- Green Tea / J. Sheridan Le Fanu
- What Was It? / Fitz-James O'Brien
- Sir Edmund Orme / Henry James
- The Horla / Guy de Maupasant
- Was It a Dream? / Guy de Maupassant
- The Screaming Skull / F. Marion Crawford
- The Furnished Room / O. Henry
- Casting the Runes / M. R. James
- Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad / M. R. James
- Afterward / Edith Wharton
- The Monkey's Paw / W. W. Jacobs
- The Great God Pan / Arthur Machen
- How Love Came to Professor Guildea / Robert Hichens
- The Return of Imray / Rudyard Kipling
- “They” / Rudyard Kıpling
- Lukundoo / Edward Lucas White
- Caterpillars / E. F. Benson
- Mrs. Amworth / E. F. Benson
- Ancient Sorceries / Algernon Blackwood
- Confession / Algernon Blackwood
- The Open Window / Saki
- The Beckoning Fair One / Oliver Onions
- Out of the Deep / Walter de la Mare
- Adam and Eve and Pinch Me / A.E. Coppard
- The Celestial Omnibus / E. M. Forster
- The Ghost Ship / Richard Middleton
- The Sailor-Boy's Tale / Isak Dinesen
- The Rats in the Walls / H.P. Lovecraft
- The Dunwich Horror / H.P. Lovecraft
- Acknowledgments
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Horror, Fantasy
- DDC/MDS
- 808.83872 — Literature & rhetoric Literature, rhetoric & criticism Rhetoric and collections of literary texts from more than two literatures Collections of literary texts from more than two literatures Collections of fiction Genre fiction Adventure fiction Mystery and suspense
- LCC
- PZ1 .W6795 .G — Language and Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction in English
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 734
- Popularity
- 38,255
- Reviews
- 12
- Rating
- (4.26)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 23
