The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time [Paperback]

Leslie Pockell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2002

The stories that comprise this collection will surprise the reader even after numerous readings. They reflect innermost fears and head for spaces where reality is blurred by imagination, where insanity and madness are shrouded in mystery and where humanity is haunted by repressed passion and obsession.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A title like The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time automatically beggars belief. Immediately, readers will notice the absence of modern masters like Stephen King and Peter Straub, and past masters like E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Beaumont. A more accurate title for this volume would be Thirteen of the Best Horror Stories Published in English Between 1843 and 1948. Its selections are sometimes uneven, but usually excellent, and are often of tremendous importance.

The anthology presents some masterpieces that have appeared in innumerable other collections: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," W.W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw," H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu," and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." However, The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time avoids some obvious choices (instead of "Carmilla," the selection from J. Sheridan Le Fanu is "Green Tea"), and it includes a genre-stretching work (H.G. Wells's "The Country of the Blind," which may also be viewed as sci-fi or fantasy), as well as a classic novella (Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan") that is often excluded from other anthologies because of limited space.

Prefaced with a brief, intelligent introduction by editor Leslie Pockell, The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time is a wonderful book for the budding horror fan. Readers more experienced in fantastic fiction will want to compare the table of contents with their libraries before making a purchase decision. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time, edited by Leslie Pockell, boasts an all-star roster of names from the 19th century (Edgar Allan Poe, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker) to the first half of the 20th (M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson). For those new to horror literature wanting to sample some of the classic shorter works of the genre, this is an excellent starting point.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044667950X
• ISBN-13: 978-0446679503
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate unhinged collection, the force before which the soul of man blackens and withers, July 13, 2006

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time (Paperback)

You won't find a better line-up in any other book of short tales. Here are the Masters, the true "Old Ones", who paved the horror-ridden walkways that deranged souls love to walk upon. If someone says, "I don't like horror", or rejects the newer splatter horror, this book is the perfect gift to introduce them to what horror is really about.

It's not about blood; it's about dread. That sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, that feeling that forces your from your chair at night to turn on all the houselights and peek cautiously out into the night through curtains that flutter in unseen winds. You lock the door and you lock the windows, but the feeling will not leave.

Table Of Contents:

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

Green Tea by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs

Oh, Whistle And I'll Come To You, My Lad by M.R. James

The Country Of The Blind by H.G. Wells

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions

The Call Of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

From the languid, flowing prose from 'The Willows' by Algernon Blackwood, the terror of insanity in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, houses haunted by madness in 'The Beckoning Fair One' by Oliver Onions, and classic tales by Poe, Stevenson, Machen, Stoker, H.G. Wells, Lovecraft, and Jackson, this truly is the best of the best of horror. It's nice to have this classic pieces available in one book. Any horror fan of course has read and/or owns these works, but the convenience of perusing your midnight pleasures in a single collection is more than worth the price of the book. I would give it 10 stars if I could, this is a "must have" book for horror fans. Enjoy!

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Super and Scary Selection, June 13, 2007

By 

Wanderer (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time (Paperback)

Note: I made some Mormon reader angry over my negative reviews of books written by Mormons out to prove the Book of Mormon, and they have been slamming my reviews as soon as they are posted. Oh, well.

Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks.

This book is worth it for one story alone--the "Willows," by Algernon Blackwood. Just imagine camping on a willowy island in the Danube River. I hope the following first lines will make you feel that my little review was worth reading.

"After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest, the Danube enters a region of singular loneliness and desolation, where its waters spread away on all sides regardless of a main channel, and the country becomes a swamp for miles upon miles, covered by a vast sea of low willow bushes."

A great collection of other stories, too.

When an author has a name like "Algernon Blackwood," you know the story has to be good.

I enjoyed most of the stories because like the "Willows," they set up a mood of mystery. A great collection for a rainy day read.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly atmospheric and creepy tales, February 21, 2010

By 

Z Hayes (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time (Paperback)

"The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time" compiles true classics of the horror genre, though I would have preferred a larger compendium with more works. The tales included here are atmospheric, dark, and macabre. It makes a great introduction to the classic horror genre (note: not the gore-fest that is so characteristic of latter day works of horror) especially for those beginning to explore the genre, and also for adolescent readers. I have used many of these stories in my Language Arts classes and received favorable responses.

The tales represented here are:

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Green Tea - by J.Sheridan Le Fanu

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs

Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad by M.R. James

The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions

The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Amongst my favorites in this collection are M.R. James' Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad (MR James also happens to be one of my all-time favorite horror writers, who has the ability to chill my soul through his descriptive, fluid prose), "The Willows", "Dracula's Guest" (which interestingly had been cut out of the original manuscript of "Dracula" because of the length of the novel and only published in 1914, two years after Bram Stoker's death), and "The Lottery" (one of those pieces of writing that starts off on a languid note, and builds up tension slowly but surely towards a horrifying and chilling climax).

For those whose appetite for the genre has increased after reading these tales of the macabre, I'd suggest exploring the following:

Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories (The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James, Vol. 1)

The Haunted Doll's House and Other Ghost Stories (The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James, Vol. 2)

The Essential Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Collection (55 works)

Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood

The Lottery and Other Stories