A unique and wide-ranging anthology of horror fiction from the Victorian and Edwardian periods that embraces the diversity of the developing genre to showcase its terrifying achievements.
Includes all horror types from supernatural tales and ghost stories to scientific horror and mad doctor tales, to psychological horror and colonial horror.
The first anthology of nineteenth-century horror underpinned by scholarly research, sourcing stories, wherever possible, back to their original published versions.
Includes writers from the British, Irish, European, an American traditions.
Lively and accessible Introduction discusses horror`s appeal and often controversial nature, its particular attraction to nineteenth-century writers and readers as a way of articulating cultural preoccupations and anxieties, and the importance of the periodical market to the history of the genre.
Comprehensive notes include brief accounts of the writers` lives and careers, full chronology, and select bibliography that includes classic critical works and the latest scholarship in the field.
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 horrors, 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, Zola - as well as established genre classics such as 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!

Contents:

ntroduction
Note on the Texts
Select Bibliography
Chronology
E.T.A. HOFFMANN, The Sandman
WILLIAM MAGINN, The Man in the Bell
JAMES HOGG, George Dobson`s Expedition to Hell
HONORÉ DE BALZAC, La Grande Bretêche
EDGAR ALLAN POE, Berenice
SHERIDAN LE FANU, Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The Birth-Mark
HERMAN MELVILLE, The Tartarus of Maids
FITZ-JAMES O`BRIEN, What Was It?
CHARLES DICKENS, No. 1 Branch Line: The Signal-Man
ÉMILE ZOLA, The Death of Olivier Bécaille
RONALD ROSS, The Vivisector Vivisected
ROBERT-LOUIS STEVENSON, The Body-Snatcher
RUDYARD KIPLING, The Mark of the Beast
AMBROSE BIERCE, Chickamauga
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN,The Yellow Wall Paper
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, The Case of Lady Sannox
BRAM STOKER, The Squaw
ROBERT W. CHAMBERS, The Repairer of Reputations
ARTHUR MACHEN, Novel of the White Powder
RICHARD MARSH, The Adventure of Lady Wishaw`s Hand
W. W. JACOBS, The Monkey`s Paw
MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN, Luella Miller
M. R. JAMES, Count Magnus
FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD, For the Blood is the Life
ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, The Wendigo
W. F. HARVEY, August Heat
E. F. BENSON, The Room in the Tower
WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON, The Derelict
Explanatory Notes