Top 10 Must-Read Stories

[darkbrabo]

Dear Vault members,

It has been a while since I last posted here and I have several reasons for this. The last few months I have been busy with a lot of reading and writing. I read mainly to get inspiration for my own horror stories, which are mainly influenced by M.R. James, Roald Dahl, Stanley Ellin, John Collier, urban legends, EC Comics and local folk tales and superstitions from my area. Currently, I am working on twenty stories that are quite diverse in style and perhaps I will post a preview of some of them here when I am satisfied with the results.

The question I'm about to ask may have been asked several times already, but because I value the opinions of connoisseurs like you very much, I would like to know which 10 horror tales you cherish the most. 

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Dec 12, 2021 19:54:05 GMT darkbrabo said:

Dear Vault members,

It has been a while since I last posted here and I have several reasons for this. The last few months I have been busy with a lot of reading and writing. I read mainly to get inspiration for my own horror stories, which are mainly influenced by M.R. James, Roald Dahl, Stanley Ellin, John Collier, urban legends, EC Comics and local folk tales and superstitions from my area. Currently, I am working on twenty stories that are quite diverse in style and perhaps I will post a preview of some of them here when I am satisfied with the results.

The question I'm about to ask may have been asked several times already, but because I value the opinions of connoisseurs like you very much, I would like to know which 10 horror tales you cherish the most. 

Hello, I look forward to reading your story previews.

[Swampirella]

I've read so many great horror stories that it's hard to recall very many specifically (yet)) if E. F. Benson counts as horror rather than ghostly, I'll mention (for the nth time, I know!) "The Confession of Charles Linkworth" and "The Bus Conductor".

[Shrink Proof]

An absolute must-read is "The Tower" by Marghanita Laski. Neither a drop of blood nor a supernatural entity in it, but quite terrifying.

[PeterC]

Yes, agreed, ‘The Tower’ is a most powerful story.

[cauldronbrewer]

Dec 12, 2021 19:54:05 GMT darkbrabo said:

The question I'm about to ask may have been asked several times already, but because I value the opinions of connoisseurs like you very much, I would like to know which 10 horror tales you cherish the most. 

Interesting way of wording the question--not the "best" (which I couldn't speak to) or even "favorite," but the ones you "cherish the most." With that in mind, I've focused on the stories that mean the most to me.

1. "Masque of the Red Death" - Edgar Allan Poe. My sixth grade English teacher asked us read several Poe stories, of which this was my favorite; a foundational experience.

2. "The Lottery" - Shirley Jackson. Served as my entry point into Jackson's work and left a permanent mark on my soul.

3. "The Lurking Fear" - H. P. Lovecraft. As a kid, I was fascinated by Michael Whelan's pulpy cover for the Del Rey edition of The Lurking Fear and Other Stories; when I read the story itself years later, it lived up to the image.

4. "The Willows" - Algernon Blackwood. The tale that expanded my concept of horror to include the intersection of terror and awe.

5. "The White People" - Arthur Machen. The Green Book fragment may be the most evocative piece of horror writing I've ever read.

6. "The Canal" - Everil Worrell. The gothiest Weird Tales story, and a beautiful nightmare.

7. "The Eighth Green Man" - G. G. Pendarves. A lurid fever dream that captures the essence of Weird Tales magazine.

8. "Where Did She Wander?" - Manly Wade Wellman. A revelation to me in how Appalachian folklore could provide the basis for horror fiction.

9. "Up, Like a Good Girl" - Dorothy Haynes. Because sometimes I'm in the mood for something truly bleak.

10. "The Events at Poroth Farm" - T. E. D. Klein. Cosmic horror and meta-horror for those of us who sometimes forget to blink.

11. "The Specialist's Hat" - Kelly Link. I read this story on my honeymoon, of all times, and it's stuck with me through the years since then.

Note: This goes to eleven.

[dem]

Dec 14, 2021 19:28:39 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Interesting way of wording the question--not the "best" (which I couldn't speak to)

That would have ruled me out, too. But so has "cherish." Directly in my line of vision is Haining's The Penny Dreadful. There's likely not a "good" story/ extract in there, but I dearly cherish them all - so that's eleven-plus from a single book.

[darkbrabo]

I think that what you cherish the most can also pass for what you think is the best in a particular field.   cauldronbrewer listed some interesting stories and I will check 'em out!

[andydecker]

Dec 14, 2021 19:28:39 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Interesting way of wording the question--not the "best" (which I couldn't speak to) or even "favorite," but the ones you "cherish the most." With that in mind, I've focused on the stories that mean the most to me.

Interesting choices. I know six of the eleven, and some of the rest I never heard about. I don't know if I would get 10 together which I cherish, but I guess the list would be much different. Alex White's The Clinic sure would be included, come to think of it.

[enoch]

Dec 12, 2021 20:58:50 GMT Shrink Proof said:

An absolute must-read is "The Tower" by Marghanita Laski. Neither a drop of blood nor a supernatural entity in it, but quite terrifying.

Absolutely.  There's an excellent short horror film called "The Ten Steps" which is somewhat reminiscent of it.

[enoch]

I'm going to interpret "cherish" to mean stories that I return to again and again for the sheer pleasure of reading them.  Not necessarily the best or the most frightening, but if I were exiled to a desert island and could only bring a ten-story supernatural anthology with me, these are the stories I'd pick:

1. "The Triumph of Death" by H. Russell Wakefield.  I'm a huge Wakefield fan (at his best, I think he's superior to M.R. James) and could easily put four of his stories on this list.  I'll try to control myself and limit it to two.

2. "The Red Lodge" by H. Russell Wakefield.  Just edges out his "Blind Man's Buff" and "The Frontier Guards" (HA!  Managed to get four Wakefield stories on this list anyway).

3.  "The Scythe" by Ray Bradbury.  If you ever come across a deserted wheat farm, and on that farm you find a scythe inscribed "WHO WIELDS ME -- WIELDS THE WORLD!" you'd best not pick it up....

4. "The Screaming Skull" by F. Marion Crawford.  I find the first-person narration of this to be absolutely perfect.  Scary, but with an effective and appropriate dash of humor here and there.

5. "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe.  There are quite a few Poe stories I read for sheer pleasure, but this one's my favorite, just edging out "The Masque of the Red Death."

6. "The River Styx Runs Upstream" by Dan Simmons.  A scientific way to return the dead to a semblance of life (really, half-life) has been discovered.  A boy's dead mother rejoins the family.  Horrifying and sad.

7. "Moshigawa's Homecoming" by Gordon Linzner.  I love reading about feudal Japan, so this story of a clan's lone surviving samurai and the ghostly vengeance his dead family helps him achieve is a natural favorite.

8. "The Smell of Cherries" by Jeffrey Goddin.  I love the mood and atmosphere of this story; its plot - security guard late at night has supernatural encounter - is nothing special, but oh the execution of the plot!

9.  "Where Angels Fear" by Manly Wade Wellman.  Starts off as a fun evening of ghost-hunting, but this is one house nobody should enter.

10. "Halloween Girl" by Robert Grant.  Sad and sweet, this gentle ghost story reminds me of my own childhood -- poring over the latest issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine while looking forward to Halloween.

[ramseycampbell]

Dec 26, 2021 10:44:10 GMT enoch said:

Dec 12, 2021 20:58:50 GMT Shrink Proof said:

An absolute must-read is "The Tower" by Marghanita Laski. Neither a drop of blood nor a supernatural entity in it, but quite terrifying.

Absolutely.  There's an excellent short horror film called "The Ten Steps" which is somewhat reminiscent of it.

I confess to having been so unnerved by it when I was nine that I wrote a version into an eighties novel.

[cauldronbrewer]

Dec 26, 2021 11:32:56 GMT enoch said:

I'm going to interpret "cherish" to mean stories that I return to again and again for the sheer pleasure of reading them.  Not necessarily the best or the most frightening, but if I were exiled to a desert island and could only bring a ten-story supernatural anthology with me, these are the stories I'd pick:[

Intriguing list. I've read all of these except the stories by Simmons (I keep thinking I should try one of his novels, but they look so weighty) and Linzner. "The Red Lodge" is my favorite among the Wakefield tales. Particularly happy to see the inclusion of Wellman's "Where Angels Fear to Tread."

[enoch]

Dec 26, 2021 13:54:00 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Intriguing list. I've read all of these except the stories by Simmons (I keep thinking I should try one of his novels, but they look so weighty) and Linzner. "The Red Lodge" is my favorite among the Wakefield tales. Particularly happy to see the inclusion of Wellman's "Where Angels Fear to Tread."

As you probably know, both "The Red Lodge" and "Where Angels Fear" are based on real houses that their authors encountered.  I suppose the house Wellman entered has long since collapsed into ruin, but I presume that the Wakefield house (which apparently is the same house as that in "Blind Man's Buff") is still standing.  I'd love to have seen the real houses that inspired these stories.

I've never read any of Simmons' novels either.  Like you, I'm daunted by their bloated, overlong appearance.  He does have at least one short story collection, Prayers to Broken Stones, in which "The River Styx" appears.  I've never read that collection either, but I should probably check it out.

[dem]

Dec 26, 2021 19:03:18 GMT enoch said:

Dec 26, 2021 13:54:00 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

As you probably know, both "The Red Lodge" and "Where Angels Fear" are based on real houses that their authors encountered.  I suppose the house Wellman entered has long since collapsed into ruin, but I presume that the Wakefield house (which apparently is the same house as that in "Blind Man's Buff") is still standing.  I'd love to have seen the real houses that inspired these stories.

Hi Enoch. In case you're not aware, Wakefield wrote a sequel to The Red House, Ghost Hunt, (Weird Tales, March 1948). According to Peter Haining, setting was "a period house near Richmond Bridge where several suicides had occurred," though I'm not sure we ever found out the address.

Was glad to see the very beautiful Halloween Girl included on your list.

Later

I am a sceptic by temperament, though not, I hope, a wooden one, and the sceptical temperament is essentially a fair, open-spirited one, ever avid to examine and, if necessary, to accept evidence adverse to its creed. And I received such evidence during two weekends spent in a superficially charming and harmonious Queen Anne house about a mile and a half from Richmond Bridge. I mustn't locate it more precisely because — and it is a significant fact — even the most rampant unbelievers often refuse to live in a reputedly haunted house.
And I can assure them they are very wise.
I visited this house in 1917, and during the previous thirty years it had known five suicides — the old gardener, strictly against orders, blurted out this ominous record in his cups, and it was verified. One had hanged herself in a powder-closet. One shot himself in the tool-shed. The others had drowned themselves in the river about a hundred yards away, always, it was said, at dawn. And now mark this! About a year after I went there, the valet of a famous nobleman also drowned himself in the river at first light. He was seen running down the path as though a fearful fiend were hard upon his heels and plunging in to his death. I think you'll agree that gives one somewhat sombrely to think.

— H. R. Wakefield, in his introduction to The Strayers from Sheol, reprinted in Stephen Jones' Dancing With The Dark, 1997).