Customer Reviews

Great Weird Tales: 14 Stories by Lovecraft, Blackwood, Machen and Others

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This volume is an indispensible guide to the authors that have inspired modern horror, as well as a darn good read. Blackwood's "The Man Whom the Trees Loved" is a study in despair that will surprise even the most savvy of readers. R.H. Barlow's "A Dim-Remembered Story" creates a feeling of the surreal that is so strong, one begins to question the truth of our own existence. Machen, Lovecraft, and Lord Dunsany are also represented. The book is organized in a fashion that categorizes the stories as examples of various types of weird tales. Many of these stories are out of print, so to find a collection of the finest stories of the genre is, one might say, a stroke of Providence.

S.T. Joshi, author of H.P. LOVECRAFT: THE DECLINE OF THE WEST (1990) and H.P. LOVECRAFT: A LIFE (1996), editor of LOVECRAFT STUDIES and STUDIES IN WEIRD FICTION, has compiled 14 tales of madness, horror and the bizarre which highlight the work of some of the best American and British authors from the 'golden age of weird fiction' (circa 1880-1940).

Following Joshi's informative introduction, he categorizes the stories as follows:

I. Tales of Supernatural Horror
Ralph Adams Cram, "The Dead Valley"
Fiona Macleod, "The Sin Eater"
William Hope Hodgson, "The Voice In The Night"

II. Tales Of Non-Supernatural Horror
W.C. Morrow, "His Unconquerable Enemy"
Ambrose Bierce, "My Favorite Murder"

III. Tales Of Awe
Arthur Machen, "The Inmost Light"
Algernon Blackwood, "The Man Whom The Trees Loved"

IV. Tales Of Fantasy
F. Marion Crawford, "The King's Messenger
Lord Dunsany, "The Unhappy Body"
M.P. Shiel, "Xelucha"
Frank Belknap Long, "The Eye Above The Mantle"
R.H. Barlow, "A Dim-Remembered Story"

V. Tales Of Pseudo-Science
Fitz-James O'Brien, "The Diamond Lens"
H.P. Lovecraft, "Facts Concerning The Late Arthur Jermyn And His Family

The inclusion of Macleod's "The Sin Eater" and Barlow's "A Dim-Remembered Story" alone make this anthology a worthwile purchase.

A good intro into the genre of the weird and eeries tale. Almost all the selections were good reads. Especially notable are Algernon Blackwood's "The Man Whom The Trees Loved" and Fiona MacLeod's "The Sin Eater."
But a Poe selection would have been good to show the pioneering work the great man made to the development of the genre. And why wasn't a selection from Robert E. Howard's vast body of work included? As for Lovecraft, "The Colour Out Of Space" would have been a much better selection than "Arthur Jermyn." For that matter, authors such as Lovecraft and Blackwood and Machen should have had more than one selection. Such an overwhelming influence did these three in particular have on the genre.

If you see this book on the library shelves borrow it.

some great stories here. by machen, lovecraft, cram and hodgson. also an interesting one by blackwood. but basically, that's it. the non-supernatural and most of the weird fiction was completely uninteresting to me.