Masterpieces of horror and the supernatural: a treasure trove of fascinating stories old and new
I get goose bumps thinking about some of the stories in this collection. It’s a feast for any horror fanatic: forty-seven short stories and six poems selected by Marvin Kaye with Saralee Kaye. The selections focus on psychological terror rather than gore and gore. As Kaye says in her introduction “Any story that sent chills down my jaded spine seemed to present the proper credentials for club membership.” These are not the best-known horror tales that appear over and over in anthologies, some are not available anywhere else.
I have several favorites among them. “The Bottle Imp,” an intriguing twist on how to make a deal with the devil, was written in 1891 by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Keawe, a native of Hawaii, buys a strange bottle from an old man who tells him that the imp in the bottle is responsible for his wealth. The imp will also grant Keawe whatever he wants. Of course, there is a catch. If he dies with the bottle in his possession, his soul will burn in hell. It must be sold for less than its purchase price, and you cannot dispose of it or give it away. Stevenson takes a few turns and it becomes history and Keawe faces some horrible decisions.
“Dracula’s Guest” was published posthumously after Bram Stoker’s death and was probably intended to be the first chapter of his novel “Dracula.” The narrator is Jonathan Harker on his way to Transylvania on Walpurgis Night, the first of May, when there are witches and demons. He ignores the coachman’s superstitious warnings and leaves the security of his hotel to wander alone in the woods, where he has the strange feeling that he is being watched. When he comes across an ancient grave in an old cemetery, he realizes how silly he has been.
Isaac Asimov’s “Flies” was first published in June 1953. It is a short science fiction story about a group of former college students who meet in a reunion twenty years after graduation. They discuss his accomplishments and Casey tells them that he does research on insecticides. Ironically, the flies seem to bother him and no one else.
British novelist Tanith Lee offers a different take on the Cinderella story. “When the clock strikes” his heroine turns into a witch who swears allegiance to Lord Satan.
Leonid Andreyev’s “Lazarus” is an account of the miraculous return to life described in scripture. Lazarus returns home after being dead for three days and family and friends celebrate his resurrection. He is dressed grandly, but his days in the grave left him with a bluish tint to his face and reddish cracks in his skin. His temperament has also changed. He is no longer cheerful or carefree and unwilling to talk about the horrors he has seen.
“The Skinned Hand” was written by Guy de Maupassant. A young student acquires a wrinkled hand, severed at the wrist of a deceased sorcerer. He intends to use it as a doorbell handle to scare off his creditors, but the owner wants him back.
The strength of this collection is in its diversity. It is divided into five sections, each with unique and chilling stories. Some of the stories are written in an old-fashioned style that may not appeal to readers who like more contemporary literature. But the prose sets the mood and creates an atmosphere that invokes a sense of dread that is so perfect for this kind of story, the kind that gives you goosebumps. This is a book to read and read over and over again.
Publisher: Doubleday & Company Inc. (May 1985)
ISBN: 978-0385185493
Pages: 623
Table of Contents
Introduction by Marvin Kaye
Demons and creatures
Bram Stoker’s Dracula Guest
Theodore Sturgeon’s Professor’s Teddy Bear
Bubnoff and the Devil by Ivan Turgenev, English adaptation by Marvin Kaye
The Search for Blank Calveringi by Patricia Highsmith
The Erl-King by Johann Wolfgang Von Goëthe, English adaptation by Marvin Kaye
The Imp in the Bottle by Robert Louis Stevenson
A disease of magic by Craig Shaw Gardner
Lan Lung by M. Lucie Chin
The Dragon Over Hackensack by Richard L. Wexelblat
The transformation of Mary W. Shelley
The Faceless Thing by Edward D. Hoch
Lovers and other monsters
Jack Snow’s anchor
When Tanith Lee’s clock rings
Oshidori by Lafcadio Hearn
Carmilla by Sheriden LeFanu
Eumenides in the Flat Bathroom by Orson Scott Card
Lenore by Gottfried August Bürger, English adaptation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Black Wedding by Isaac Bashevis Singer, translated by Martha Glicklich
Hop-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe
Ray Russell’s sardonicus
Cemetery Change by Richard Matheson
Don’t Awaken the Dead by Johann Ludwig Tieck
Night and Silence by Maurice Level
Acts of God and other horrors
Flies by Isaac Asimov
HF Arnold’s night cable
Last regards from Dick Baldwin
The Pool of the Stone God by A. Merritt
A Thirteenth Floor Story of Ogden Nash
The Dylan Thomas Tree
Parke Godwin’s Strike of Mercy
Lazarus by Leonid Andreyev
The beast within
The Waxwork by AM Burrage
The Silent Couple by Pierre Courtois, translated and adapted by Faith Lancereau and Marvin Kaye
Moon-Face by Jack London
Death in the Walt Whitman school classroom
The upturned face of Stephen Crane
A Midsummer Night by Ambrose Bierce
HH Munro’s Easter Egg (“Saki”)
John Dickson Carr’s House in Goblin Wood
The Revenge of Nitocris by Tennessee Williams
The Informal Execution of Soupbone Pew by Damon Runyon
Your Unconquerable Enemy by WC Morrow
Rizpah by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Stanley Ellin’s question
Various ghosts and nightmares
Guy de Maupassant’s skinned hand
Robert Aickman’s Hospice
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Christmas Banquet
Robert Bloch’s Starving House
The Demon on the Gallows by Fitz-James O’Brien
The Owl by Anatole Le Braz, translated by Faith lancereau
No. 252 Rue M. Le Prince by Ralph Adams Cram
The Music of Erich Zann by HP Lovecraft
Riddles in the Dark (Original Version, 1938) by JRR Tolkien
Epilogue
Miscellaneous notes
Selected bibliography