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Post by sean on May 2, 2008 11:04:27 GMT
H. P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror - edited by Stephen Jones and Dave Carson First published 1993. Robinson edition 1994:  (cover illustration by Bruce Pennington) It feels a bit odd putting this anthology in the 80's/ 90's section as all the stories contained within obviously date from much earlier, but that was when it was put together so here it is... It's a pretty good collection. What the editors have done is take Lovecraft's essay 'Supernatural Horror in Literature' and simply reprinted a selection of the tales which HPL recommends therin. The result is a good anthology of earlier examples of horror tales. The only thing is, if you are interested in the era represented, the chances are that you will already have the vast majority of the stories in other books! I've certainly bumped into many of them before, but still it reads well as a whole and (if needed) would serve as a goodish introduction to the authors included within. Also contains some nifty illustrations by Dave Carson. BLURB:
A classic anthology selected by the classic author of horror
"Lovecraft opened the way for me, as he had done for others before me - Robert Bloch, Fritz leiber, and Ray Bradbury among them. the reader would do well to remember that it is his shadow, so long and gaunt, and his eyes, so dark and puritanical, which overlie almost all of the important horror fiction that has come since"
- Stephen King
H.P.LOVECRAFT'S BOOK OF HORROR presents twenty-one masterpieces of the macabre, recommended by the most important and infulential author of horror fiction in the twentieth century. With classic tales of terror by Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stephenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Amrose Bierce, Robert W Chambers, Clark Ashton Smith, Rudyard Kipling, William Hope Hodgeson, Arthur Machen, M. R. James and others, each uniquely prefaced by Lovecraft's own opinions, and including his ground-breaking essay Supernatural Horror in Literature, widely regarded as one of the most scholarly and extensive studies of horror fiction and its practitioners ever written. This is a feast of fear that no fan of the supernatural should miss!
So there! My favourite story from this collection (one I haven't encountered before) is 'The Spider' by Hanns Heinz Ewers. Creepy as fuck. Anyway, the contents are... H. P. LOVECRAFT - Supernatural Horror in Literature CHARLES DICKENS - The Signalman EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON - The House and the Brain HANNS HEINZ EWERS - The Spider THEOPHILE GAUTIER - The Foot of the Mummy GUY DE MAUPASSANT - The Horla EDGAR ALLAN POE - The Fall of the House of Usher AMBROSE BIERCE - The Damned Thing F. MARION CRAWFORD - The Upper Berth ROBERT W. CHAMBERS - The Yellow Sign MARY E. WILKINS-FREEMAN - The Shadows on the Wall RALPH ADAMS CRAM - The Dead Valley IRVIN S. COBB - Fishhead EDWARD LUCAS WHITE - Lukundoo CLARK ASTON SMITH - The Double Shadow RUDYARD KIPLING - The Mark of the Beast E. F. BENSON - Negotium Perambulans HUGH WALPOLE - Mrs Lunt WILLIAM HOPE-HODGESON - The Hog ARTHUR MACHEN - The Great God Pan M. R. JAMES - Count Magnus |
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