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Post by dem bones on Oct 19, 2009 7:57:00 GMT
David G Hartwell (ed.) - The Dark Descent: The Evolution of Horror (TOR, Oct. 1987) Photo: Doug Fornuff. Design: Joe Curcio David G Hartwell - Introduction1. The Colour Of Evil Stephen King - The Reach John Collier - Evening Primrose M R James - The Ash-Tree Lucy Clifford - The New Mother Russell Kirk - There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding H P Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu Shirley Jackson - The Summer People Harlan Ellison - The Whimper of Whipped Dogs Nathaniel Hawthorne - Young Goodman Brown J S. Le Fanu - Mr Justice Harbottle Ray Bradbury - The Crowd Michael Shea - The Autopsy E Nesbit - John Charrington’s Wedding Karl Edward Wagner - Sticks Robert Aickman - Larger Than Oneself Fritz Leiber - Belsen Express Robert Bloch - Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper Charles L Grant - If Damon Comes Manly Wade Wellman - Vandy, Vandy2. The Medusa In The Shield Robert Aickman - The Swords Thomas M. Disch - The Roaches Theodore Sturgeon - Bright Segment Clive Barker - Dread Edgar Allan Poe - The Fall of the House of Usher Stephen King - The Monkey Michael Bishop - Within the Walls of Tyre H. P. Lovecraft - The Rats in the Walls J S. Le Fanu - Schalken the Painter Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wallpaper William Faulkner - A Rose for Emily Robert S. Hichens - How Love Came to Professor Guildea Richard Matheson - Born of Man and Woman Joanna Russ - My Dear Emily Dennis Etchison - You Can Go Now D. H. Lawrence - The Rocking-Horse Winner Tanith Lee - Three Days Flannery O’Connor - Good Country People Ramsey Campbell - Mackintosh Willy Henry James - The Jolly Corner 3. A Fabulous Formless Darkness Fritz Leiber - Smoke Ghost Gene Wolfe - Seven American Nights Charles Dickens - The Signal-Man Stephen King - Crouch End Joyce Carol Oates - Night Side Walter De La Mare - Seaton's Aunt Ivan Turganev - Clara Militch Robert W. Chambers - The Repairer Of Reputations Oliver Onions - The Beckoning Fair One Fitz-James O'Brien - What Was It? Shirley Jackson - The Beautiful Stranger Ambrose Bierce - The Damned Thing Edith Wharton - Afterward Algernon Blackwood - The Willows Thomas M. Disch - The Asian Shore Robert Aickman - The Hospice Philip K. Dick - A Little Something For Us TempunautsRecently back in the news on here as Kirby McCauley selected it as one of his top ten horror anthologies (Locus go one better and rate it as the best of all time). Friend Stavner once mentioned that "the TOR edition is used as a textbook in my old college's horror course", and you can see the sense in that. In the original TOR hardback, a ten page introduction on the evolution of the craft and then a thousand pages of top notch horror and supernatural fiction, each prefaced with an author biog. Reissued by Grafton in the UK over a more manageable three volumes The Color Of Evil, A Fabulous Formless Darkness and The Medusa In The Shield. Calenture, who clearly enjoyed Mr. Hartwell's selection, gave brilliant blow by blow accounts of both The Colour Of Evil and A Fabulous, Formless Darkness on Vault MK I.
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Post by Dr Strange on Oct 19, 2009 10:49:33 GMT
I've got parts one and three of this, but not the middle one.
You said somewhere else, Dem, that despite rating nearly all the stories highly, you are not a big fan. I feel a bit the same - I think my problem though is that I can't get my head around the way he has categorized the stories. Part 1 (Color of Evil) is supposed to be "moral-allegorical", which is vague enough, but... MR James' The Ash Tree? If anyone isn't "moral-allegorical" it's MRJ (in my opinion). Part 2 is supposed to be "psychological" horror and Part 3 "fantastic"... but Seaton's Aunt is in Part 3, and I think that is as good an example of pure "psychological" horror as you can get (there's certainly nothing overtly supernatural in it).
It's actually a pretty minor quibble, and categories are always fuzzy... but having gone to the bother of making them this explicit, it's a bit annoying (to me) to see them used in such an apparently sloppy fashion.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 19, 2009 11:58:29 GMT
Now that's what i'd call fair criticism wheras mine - very confused and contrary. In it's original format i thought Dark Descent was too big, yet i'm quite happy to get stuck into Mary Danby's 65 Great ... doorstoppers, Medley Macabre, Not At Night Omnibus even the Century books. i won't embarrass myself further by pointing out that the cover is absolute crap, but, honest for a project of this magnitude, you'd have thought some imagination would have gone into the design? But maybe the main reason i never took to Dark Descent as a book is because there's no light and shade: every story is a "classic" whereas i quite look forward to the also rans-with-something-about-them, even the total stiffs (the Pan Horror series is a good example). But nothing can take away from Hartwell's achievement. It IS a great book, just not a personal favourite.
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Post by josecruz on Feb 12, 2010 22:56:51 GMT
“THE REACH” by STEPHEN KING Stella Flanders has lived on Goat Island all her life, never once crossing the body of water, known to the residents as “the Reach”, to the mainland. As Stella ages and her arthritis and the cancer inside her begin to take their physical toll, she begins to hear a secret sound in the cold winter wind that blows past her house and finds herself thinking of all the loved ones lost over the years. More and more of her friends begin to pass on into the next life and Stella’s family seems to sense her time is approaching. Soon the ghost of her husband Bill begins appearing to her, asking his beloved wife to cross the icebound Reach. Haunted by the singing voices of the dead, Stella prepares one day to finally cross the frozen Reach into a land that has been waiting for her all along…
“EVENING PRIMROSE” by JOHN COLLIER Charles Snell, a modern day poet, decides one day to abandon the bourgeois life of humanity for more daring and artistic pursuits. His journey leads him to the Bracey’s department store where he ekes out a living taking clothes and food from the store and writing in his journal in a little niche behind some carpets. But Charles soon discovers that there is a whole clan of other people living in the department store; dark, secretive people who stick to strict rules in order to survive. Charles meets the young and beautiful Ella, a misfit who serves as a maid to the queen of the colony. When Charles finds himself falling in love with the girl, he becomes entangled in a dangerous web that involves a sinister group called the Dark Men whom the clan calls in to deal with troublemakers…
A bit of an oddball tale that is not for all tastes. I personally enjoyed it, but I'm not quite sure why. People who have a fear of department stores or mannequins should steer clear.
“THE ASH-TREE” by M. R. JAMES During the late 1600’s, Sir Matthew Fell observes strange goings-on concerning the ash tree just outside of his stately English home. He claims to see a respected woman named Mrs. Mothersole climbing about the branches and collecting twigs for apparent sorcery. Fueled by the witch-hunt mania of the time, Fell prosecutes Mothersole who is hanged at the gallows upon a grassy hill. The wild-eyed wench only warns that there shall be “guests” at the Hall, an eerie prophecy she repeatedly utters before her death. Circumstances turn bizarre when Sir Matthew is discovered dead in his bed chamber one morning, his corpse completely black and twisted as if poisoned in a most horrible fashion. Two generations later, Sir Richard has claimed the hall and plans some renovations to fit his Italian tastes. The new workings inevitably cause the discovery of Mothersole’s missing cadaver from her grave and Sir Richard purports to have heard bothersome scratches on his window pane. Soon the villagers find out the true nature of the crawling terror that is lurking within the depths of the ash tree…
Creepy crawlies give you the goosebumps? Stay away! This tale will probably give you nightmares for weeks. The master of the antiquarian ghost story at his finest. This is most certainly a "pleasing terror."
“THE NEW MOTHER” by LUCY CLIFFORD Blue-Eyes and the Turkey are two lovely little girls who live in a cottage deep in the forest with their mother and her new born babe. The children delight in having tea with their loving matriarch and listening to the little baby crow. One day on their way to the village post office to receive a letter from their father away at sea, the two children come upon a wild looking and shabby girl who possesses a unique instrument called a peardrum. The ruffian tells the children that a small man and woman come out of the box attached to the instrument when she plays and dance to the music. The girls are ecstatic about this and request to see the figurines dance, but the wild girl informs them that only naughty children can witness the little spectacle. Blue-Eyes and the Turkey go home distraught and tell their mother they wish to be naughty. The mother tells them that if they are naughty she will be forced to get a new mother for the girls, one with glass eyes and wooden tail. Not heeding the mother’s words, the girls proceed to cause mischief in order to hear the peardrum’s music, never realizing how true their mother’s words were…
A story you would expect to see in a collection of fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm. The perfect remedy for any naughty child who won't go to bed. Be sure to thump a wooden stick across the floor outside their bedroom for added effect.
“THERE’S A LONG, LONG TRAIL A-WINDING” by RUSSELL KIRK Frank Sarsfield, a large and somewhat unintelligent hobo, is walking down a desolate, snow-covered highway desperately seeking shelter from the freezing weather. Spotting a barely visible house in the distance, he rushes towards his new found shelter. Frank revels in the intact antiquity of the lovely abode, named Tamarack House, and is charmed by the little memories left behind by the previous family, such as the old photographs and a letter the youngest daughter of the family had written in her autumn years. But one night, after being visited by young Allegra who accosts him to his bedroom, Frank finds himself caught in the middle of an act of violence and death that occurred years ago where he will discover his final salvation...
This story, along with King's "The Reach," is one of those beautiful occasions where a tale of ghosts and spirits works on so many more levels than a mere shudder yarn. Both Kirk and King manage to make their stories just as heart-warming as they can be bone-chilling. Unlike many horror stories, a strong air of hope and redemption hangs in the air and inspires warm and fuzzy feelings in the reader. Well, except for that axe murder scene...
“THE CALL OF CTHULHU” by H. P. LOVECRAFT The nephew of an esteemed researcher looks through his deceased uncle’s notes and discovers the strange case the elder scientist had been looking into. During a time period of roughly a few months, strange occurrences that heralded the approach of an unnamable being spread all over the world in the form of unusual geological phenomena, accounts of ghastly dreams and visions by artists, and escalated sightings of mad cults performing disturbing rituals. When an artist comes to the scientist, he gives him a molded statue of his creation that depicts a half-dragon, half-octopus monster. When the scientist brings it to a convention of his colleagues, he is met by a police inspector from Louisiana who tells the group of his discovery of a dark gathering in the bayous that worshiped a god very much like the bizarre statuette. These terrifying happenings culminate in an insane crescendo when a captain’s ship docks onto a mysterious, slime-covered island and behold a force from within a tomb that can drive mankind mad...
‘Nuff said.
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Post by doomovertheworld on Jun 5, 2011 11:14:56 GMT
for my money this is one of the best anthologies of all time. if some one was just starting out reading horror fiction and wanted an idea of what the genre is all about i would probably give them this one. i think of it as being an almost a greatest hits of horror short fiction.
i think that attempting to pick out the best ones would be an exercise in futility because i would end up listing the entire contents.
however i would highlight Harlan Ellison's the whimper of whipped dogs , that peerless exercise in paranoia the summer people by Shirley Jackson & Fritz Leiber Smoke Ghost as being personal favorites.
it was also responsible for introducing me to the work of Karl Edward Wagner and in particular his story sticks. from the introduction set in 1942 to the superb ending you get the feeling that KEW meant business when he wrote the story. the lovecraftian aspects of the story are obvious, but he manages to make it distinct from the usual sub-lovecraftian tales that you usually find. i particularly like the sense of atmosphere that he manages to create.
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Post by PeterC on Jun 5, 2011 15:19:51 GMT
Philip K. Dick - A Little Something For Us Tempunauts
From the third volume: could any kind soul outline this story for me?
Many thanks.
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Post by PeterC on Jun 5, 2011 15:22:01 GMT
OK I just spotted the existing link.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 5, 2011 17:55:29 GMT
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Post by PeterC on Jun 5, 2011 20:54:35 GMT
Now you're spoiling me.
Cheers, Craig
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Post by dem bones on Jun 10, 2018 15:19:29 GMT
Fritz Leiber - Belsen Express: ( The Second Book of Fritz Leiber, 1975). George Simister's morbid preoccupation with the Gestapo and the 'Final Solution' catches up with him on the daily subway commute. The nightmare began when he received a parcel containing three books relating to the Holocaust in the mail, sender anonymous. "You think I'm the sort of person who'd buy books for the sake of nasty pictures?" protests George when his wife questions why on earth he should be sent such literature - for free. In truth, he's innocent. The books were mailed by fellow passenger Holstrom who'd grown irritated by George's "smug prejudices and blinkered narrow-mindedness" - Simister is racist - though he'd not expected such disastrous consequences. Simister comes to equate the crush of the docile crowd aboard the morning train with that aboard the cattle trucks transporting Jews to the death chamber. There is a baffling aspect of his death which rules out a heart attack. Thomas Disch - The Roaches: ( Escapade, Oct. 1965). "Mount them! Cover them! Devour them!" Fastidious to the point of obsession, Miss Marcia Kenwell is furious when hard-drinking neighbours the Shchapalovs - " they're on welfare!" - allow their apartment to become infested with cockroaches, which, inevitably, invade her own living space. Marcia is all set to move out until the exciting discovery that she can telepathically manipulate the bugs to do her bidding. As shamelessly ripped off and gored up by Roy Harrison as The Cockroaches for Mary Danby's Frighteners 2, 1976.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jun 11, 2018 20:27:19 GMT
Thomas Disch - The Roaches: Escapade, Oct. 1965). "Mount them! Cover them! Devour them!" Fastidious to the point of obsession, Miss Marcia Kenwell is furious when hard-drinking neighbours the Shchapalovs - " they're on welfare!" - allow their apartment to become infested with cockroaches, which, inevitably, invade her own living space. Marcia is all set to move out until the exciting discovery that she can telepathically manipulate the bugs to do her bidding. After I read this story, I wanted an entire novel about Roach Girl.
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