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American Gothic Tales

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American Gothic Stories ed. and with an introduction by Joyce Carol Oates. Highly recommended.

In this 1996 anthology, noted American author Joyce Carol Oates collects American tales of horror and/or the supernatural, from an excerpt from Wieland, or the Transformation (1798) by Charles Brockden Brown, to "Subsoil" (1994) by Nicholson Baker, so that the 50 stories here represent nearly 200 years of the darker side of the American psyche.

The stories, arranged in chronological order, show some clear trends. In early stories, by Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and even Edgar Allan Poe, religion plays a prominent role. Interestingly, God and his creation are seen as at odds with one another. For example, in Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," the forest and the darkness are where Satan meets humanity. "The Tartarus of Maids," an industrial creation of Herman Melville's, is set in a remote rural location, contrasted to another Melville story (not included here), "The Paradise of Bachelors," set in a London gentlemen's club. Perhaps this conviction that nature is a place of mystery, evil, and fear, explains the early (and current) American drive to conquer it.

Another theme is denial of responsibility for one's own terrible actions. When called to account for committing some of the most heinous crimes possible, Wieland's defense is inarguable: He has proved his faith in God by doing that which God desired of him. (Unlike Wieland, the reader will recognise that the "shrill voice" expressing God's bloody will from behind a "fiery stream" is more likely that of the fallen angel Lucifer.)

A second example is the famous Poe story, "The Black Cat," in which the narrator, noted from infancy for his "docility and humanity," becomes a cold-blooded maimer and killer of that which he loves most. To what does he attribute his violence and subsequent fall in fortunes? Not to himself, but to the "Fiend Intemperance," saying, "for what disease is like Alcohol!" While Poe, a self-medicating alcoholic and bipolar sufferer, seems to have had an early understanding that alcoholism is not a moral deficiency but a disease, his narrator's choice of scapegoat does not explain the obvious: Most alcoholics do not maim and murder.

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman also beats the medical establishment in recognising a pathological condition rather than a purely emotional one: Postpartum depression. Gilman gets her digs in at the predominantly male medical profession-the narrator's own husband, who makes every misstep conceivable in his attempts to "help" her, is a physician. Feminism and the gothic meet.

As the collection progresses in time, the stores become less religious and psychotic in tone, and some, such as "Snow" by John Crowley and "The Girl Who Loved Animals" by Bruce McAllister, are more science fiction than gothic. "Exchange Value" by Charles Johnson translates the tradition of psychological horror into inner-city terms. "Replacements" by Lisa Tuttle is telling commentary on the battle of the sexes; a literal vampire is preferable as an object of affection, attention, and obsession to the emotional vampire the human male of the story represents.

Other highlights include "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury, which combines gothic sensibilities with science fiction; the unforgettable "Cat in Glass" by Nancy Etchemendy, in which the narrator's implausible reality is the only one that makes sense; and "In the Icebound Hothouse" by William Goyen, where erotic elements predominate.

A personal favourite, "The Lovely House" by Shirley Jackson, succeeds in evoking the surrealism of that most tangible and ordinary of places-a home.

In some cases, I wish Oates selected more obscure works of equal quality by the same author; for example, I wonder if there are any H. P. Lovecraft short-story alternatives to the oft-anthologised "The Outsider." Still, it is innovative of Oates to include "The Enormous Radio" by John Cheever, who is not traditionally seen as a gothic writer-although "The Swimmer" might have been an even better choice.

With the exception of a handful of selections (most notably Oates' own "The Temple," which is unoriginal and uninteresting), this is a rich, diverse collection. In the end, it does leave one wondering, What exactly is gothic? As helpful as some of the information Oates provides in the introduction may be, she offers few if any insights into the nature or history of the American gothic or the authors whose works are found here.

One quibble: I would like to have seen each story's year of publication included at its end, as is the case with many anthologies. Although the authors' birth and death dates are part of the contents page, some dates are mentioned in the introduction, and there is a permissions page with copyright dates, there is neither a comprehensive nor an elegant way for the interested reader to place each tale in its historical context-a serious deficiency in an otherwise excellent collection.

Diane L. Schirf, 13 May 2003.

No doubt because one of America's finest writers of literary fiction edited it, American Gothic Tales contains stories that not only frighten and disturb in their content, but delight in their style as well. Although some of the writers represented here are associated with the gothic/horror genre (Poe, Bierce, Anne Rice, Stephen King, to name a few), many others are celebrated mainstream writers. Of the oldies but goodies, I enjoyed re-reading (after an interim of thirty years or so) Poe's "The Black Cat," a story much more subtle than my younger self appreciated. Several of the stories suggest meanings that go far beyond mere horror. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and Shirley Jackson's "The Lovely House," for example, deal with the confining roles of women. In the first story, a woman who would write and enjoy stimulating company is relegated by her husband to a "nursery" where her every desire is belittled and dismissed. In the second--ostensibly a ghost story--the upkeep required of a fabulous but vampiric house keeps its family prisoners of never-ending housework. Lisa Tuttle's "Replacements" uses an ugly, hairless, helpless, mewling alien creature, rescued and doted on by women, as a droll analogy to a newborn replacing a husband in the life of his wife. Breece D'J Pancake's "Time and Again," told in the voice of a serial killer, provides horror aplenty, but--often missing in this genre--character, motivation, and a pervading sense of tragedy and loss. Bruce McAllister's "The Girl Who Loved Animals" presents a near-future,environmentally-devastated dystopia where a mentally retarded young woman consents to carry in her uterus a gorilla child. In this not-so-alien world of drug addiction and elective surgery run amok, the bonds between mother and child remain intact and poignant. In spite of its searing vision of the future, "The Girl Who Loved Animals" must be an anomaly in the gothic/horror genre--a story with a happy ending.

American Gothic Tales, edited by Joyce Carol Oats, is a wonderful compilation of short stories from the bizzare and twisted to the utterly grotesque. This book includes authors known for their horrific tales like Edgar Allen Poe and Anne Rice, to others such as Charolette Perkins Gilman and Mark Twain, who I would not expect to be included in this anthology of gothic tales. "Freniere" by Anne Rice (one of my favorite storytellers) takes your imagination to the mysterious and historical city of New Orleans.In some hotel room in the French Quarter, a vampire named Louis tells the agonizing story of his life as the undead. Shirly Jackson's perplexing story "The Lovely House" will keep you guessing the entire time you are reading this haunted tale. The most thought provoking story I read was "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charolette Perkins Gilman. This is a tale of a woman who's greatest enjoyment comes from writing, but due to the repression by her husband and the times she lives in, she is denied her greatest pleasure. As you turn each page, you will find yourself joining in her downward spiral to insanity. Of coarse a collection of gothic tales would not be complete without a story from Poe. Oats pick, "The Black Cat" explores the maddness of a man addicted to alcohol and the cruelties he inflicts upon his beloved cat Pluto, and wife.

I had to get this book for a Gothic class I recently took, and absolutely loved it! This is the kind of book that you keep and read over and over again. One of the things that I really liked was the way Oates selected authors and put them in chronological order through the book. I can't think of anything I would change about this collection - all the stories are very unique in their own way.

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this book. All I knew was that some of the authors sparked my attention -- namely Joyce Carol Oates, one of my favorite writers, as the editor -- because I had no idea that said authors wrote gothic tales. This is one of the darkest, most thought-provoking and downright sinister short-story collections out there. The horror in the stories are like no other ones I have read. I still haven't been able to get some of these stories out of my head. My favorite stories are "The Black Cat," by Edgar Allen Poe; "Afterward," by Edith Wharton; "Freniere," by Anne Rice; "In Bed One Night," by Robert Coover; and "Replacements," by Lisa Tuttle. This book definitely made an interesting read on my round trip train ride to be with family on Thanksgiving. American Gothic Tales enthralled me from beginning to end. I highly recommend this collection to those who are in the bargain for literary gothic stories written by literature's biggest names from yesterday and today.

I haven't had a chance to read all of the stories, but all that I have read so far I have loved! This collection of short stories is a wonder mix of the horrific and bizzarre

I don't necesarily agree with Joyce Carol Oates' defintion of Gothic literature in her introduction or that all of the stories in this collection are Gothic. The editor does a good job on the back cover, in her biographic section, and in the final page, of trying to advertise herself as being not only a "genius" but "rank[ing] on the spine-tingling chart with the masters". I beg to disagree.

Traditionally, Gothic literature deals with the dark and mysterious and with the tortured soul. I had great difficulty seeing some of these stories as being gothic at all. Some of these stories would better fit the category of "tales of the weird", but some don't even fit in that category. For example, there's a two-page story of a man leaving his wife and trying to wrest the baby from her arms in the dark. There's another with two men in a spaceship contemplating life. Another is merely a story of someone tripping on drugs.

Granted, there are some good gothic and weird stories here. The stories are placed in the book chronologically. Many of the earlier stories are anti-climatic with endings that are little more than a tiny "Boo!" (if that). Such a story is Oates' own attempt at a gothic story, "The Temple". Others are page-turners. In trying to put in some more obscure stories, she's left out better ones by the same author. For example, "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" would have been a better Gothic literature choice for displaying Nathaniel Hawthorne's talents. And authors like H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, who greatly inspired writers of this genre, should have more inclusions in the book.

If this book were to truly be a book of good gothic literature, the following stories would remain (favorites starred): *Brown's exerpt from Wieland, *Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Hawthorne's "The Man of Adamant" and "Young Goodman Brown", Poe's "The Black Cat", Perkin's "The Yellow Wallpaper", James' The Romance of Certain Old Clothes", Bierce's "The Damned Thing", *Wharton's "Afterward", Anderson's "Death in the Woods", *Lovecraft's "The Outsider", Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", Derleth's "The Lonesome Place", *Jackson's "The Lovely House", *Cheever's "The Enormous Radio" (more twilight zone than gothic), *Bradbury's "The Veldt" (more science fiction than gothic), Doctorow's "The Waterworks", *L'Heureux's "The Anatomy of Desire", Oates' "The Temple", *Rice's "Freniere", Millhauser's "In the Penny Arcade", *King's "The Reach", Johnson's "Exchange Value" (good but not really gothic), *Crowley's "Snow", *Ligotti's "The Last Feast of the Harlequin" (a wonderful story in memory of Lovecraft), *Tuttle's "The Replacements", *Etchemendy's "Cat in Glass", and Baker's "Subsoil".

Even though I felt that some of the selections for this anthology were poor choices, the good selections makes this a worthwhile read. Had she replaced the non-gothic and anti-climatic stories with more good stories by the above authors, the book would have been perfect. I will definitely be looking more into works by some of the authors like Ligotti and Wharton. I will not, on the other hand, be seeking out works by the editor. Her self-advertisement has fallen upon deaf ears.

With authors such as Poe, King, Bradbury and many other well known authors we can be nothing less than pleased with this genre. Joyce Carol Oates chose many wonderful short stories to combine together to make up American Gothic Tales. In rereading Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt" I found there to be more insight to the story than I remember before; such as the childrens names and the computer taking the role of humans. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Lovely House" we see the effects of the confining roles put on women. We see how it changed their lives and who they were. In John Cheever's "The Enormous Radio" a woman learns about her neighbors through her radio. Later she finds that she is just like them and is left with a not so happily ever after. With stories set in the past and up to the future the book has a varity of stories. In Bruce McAllister's "The Gril Who Loved Animals" we are introduced to a picture of the future. We see a young woman who is carrying a gorilla baby, and that the new fad is to be of both genders. To complete the gothic tales genre you must have your usual serial killer and blood and guts. In Breece D'J Pancake's "Time and Again" we hear a story told by the serial killer himself. Although the man has no motivation to kill, except to keep his pigs fed, he has killed many people who were passing through the town. Now in his older age he has lost the will and energy to kill anyone else. He comes back home to his pigs and wonders what to do with his life now; continue on or offer himself to the pigs. With some happy endings, others sad and some leaving you to wonder you get a wide range of gothic tales that leaves you satisfied with investing in a wonderful book.

The book, American Gothic Tales, by Joyce Carol Oates, compiles classics from Charles Brocken Brown (1798) and continues with works that cover up to 1994 by Nicholson Baker. The purpose of this collection of American Litery Tales of horror and suspense is to provide an historic overview of "gothicism" in our literature. Oates has brought together more than forty of the best examples of Gothic literature. His book contains not only the obvious from Edgar Allen Poe, but classics such as Washington Irving's, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. This book was a great book on information for a Popular Culture English course. The stories were not only interesting, but the oddness of the stories kept your interest and drew you into reading it until the end. I would recommend this book.

By far American Gothic Tales is a magnificent book. The book includes many wonderful authors with spine-chilling stories. One of the stories is Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt" it deals with a highly advanced house that caters to the families every need, the parents find something very unsettling in the children's room, this story has a chilling ending. Another great story in Shirley Jackson's "The lovely House" this is a story of never ending cleaning, it has a wonderful twist in characters at the end of the story. One of the story's that I will never forget is Bruce McAllister's " The Girl Who Loved Animals" A twenty year old girl with a mental handicap, has something strange growing inside of her. She loved the animals so much she took money to have a baby gorilla implanted inside of her, this story has a lot of shocking fads but a wonderful ending. An particular story that keeps you hanging on to every word and wondering what is going to happen next is Edith Wharton's "Afterward" this story is about a newlywed couple who encounter strange things, the wife finds out a secret her husband has been keeping from her, then he has a mysterious disappearance. The books' stories are filled with mystery and horror that is guaranteed to make you sleep with one eye open at night. This is a classic book that will be around for centuries to come. Joyce Carol Oates did an outrageous job of editing these stories. What a wonderful arrangement of many great authors both old and new. This I will keep this book for years to come, to look back one day on all the great authors and their stories. These are the stories I will tell to my children sitting around a campfire late at night.