The modern horror story grew and developed across the nineteenth century, embracing categories as diverse as ghost stories, the supernatural and psychological horror, medical and scientific horror, colonial horror, and tales of the uncanny and precognition. This anthology brings together twenty-nine of the greatest horror stories of the period, from 1816 to 1912, from the British, Irish, American, and European traditions. It ranges widely across the sub-genres to encompass authors whose terror-inducing powers remain unsurpassed.
The book includes stories by some of the best writers of the century -- Hoffmann, Poe, Balzac, Dickens, Hawthorne, Melville, and Zola -- as well as established genre classics from M. R. James, Arthur Machen, Bram Stoker, Algernon Blackwood, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and others. It includes rare and little-known pieces by writers such as William Maginn, Francis Marion Crawford, W. F. Harvey, and William Hope Hodgson, and shows the important role played by periodicals in popularizing the horror story. Wherever possible, stories are reprinted in their first published form, with background information about their authors and helpful, contextualizing annotation. Darryl Jones's lively introduction discusses horror's literary evolution and its articulation of cultural preoccupations and anxieties. These are stories guaranteed to freeze the blood, revolt the senses, and keep you awake at night: prepare to be terrified!
Industry Reviews
Horror Stories is a very impressive collection. It includes a number of tales that anyone who has a passionate interest in horror should have on their bookshelf, with staple titles known across horror aficionados as well as some lesser known works from some very prolific authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and E.F. Benson. With a very thorough and analytical introduction from Darryl Jones, you see the origins of these stories and the enduring influence they have had on the genre. You will not be disappointed. * Nick Blackshaw, Starburst *
Darryl Jones has crafted a fantastic compilation; there are no fillers, all killers (literally in many cases) ... An added bonus with this collection is the detailed introduction by Jones, providing historical context, and the extensive explanatory notes at the end ... Those that have not dared venture into classic horror should buy this collection immediately, and they'll be hooked and buying coffins filled with Poe and M.R. James anthologies before Christmas. * John Upton, Gore in the Store *
Horror Stories is no common schlock-fest. Darryl Jones has skilfully gathered the most beautifully written, unsettling stories in the English language. * Vulpes Libris, Moira Briggs *
a beautiful collection of nineteenth-century horror with enough set pieces to educate the novice and enough curiosities to delight the connoisseur. * Kirsty Jane McCluskey, Books of the year 2014, Tablet *
It is a beautifully finished book that you just want to take care of ... The content is as good as the production. * Lizzi Thomasson, These Little Words *
[A] superb collection of short fiction * John Connolly, Irish Times *
As well as the general introduction, which provides a useful history of horror from its Gothic origins through a long nineteeth century, each story in the collection is accompanied by a set of notes explaining when and where it was published as well as providing the usual glosses for unfamiliar terms. This contextual emphasis on the nineteeth century periodicals where the readers would first have encounted the work of a writer such as Dickens is particularly illuminating for those interested in horror stories as a meeting of form and content ... Darryl Jone's anthology is a highly accessible guide to the major developments in horror writing during the nineteeth century, and an intriguing reminder that every aspect of Western societies' push for advancement during this period, from industrialization to colonial expansion, produced its own nightmares in the collective unconscious. * Sophie Devlin, The Times Literary Supplement *
As well as the general introduction, which provides a useful history of horror from its Gothic origins through a long nineteenth century, each story in this collection is accompanied by a set of notes explaining when and where it was published as well as providing the usual glosses for unfamiliar terms. Darryl Jones's anthology is a highly accessible guide to the major developments in horror writing during the nineteenth century. * Sophie Devlin, Times Literary Supplement *
Editing an anthology of this sort is a delicate balancing act ... Horror Stories does a good job here, and offers a bracing mixture of the classic but familiar and fresher material. This broad-ranging and well-researched anthology of horror is full of gruesome things: haunting, possession, revenge, witchcraft, vampires, crime even disease and madness. * Nicholas Daly, Guardian *
This compendium of ghoulish stories from 1816-1912 has a bit of everything. All are fab for reading aloud. * Lizzy Dening, Grazia *
