Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (Modern Library) (Hardcover)

~ (Editor), Herbert Wise (Introduction) "AH! MADAME," replied the doctor, "I have some appalling stories in my collection..." (more)
Key Phrases: cause des chats, tarry stickiness, twilit grotto, Van Rieten, Father Murchison, Miss Emily (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This bargain of a book is a thick hardcover anthology--more than 1,000 pages long--containing stories of naturalistic and supernatural terror. First published in 1944, it has stood the test of time and become a classic in the field. Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural is rivaled only by David G. Hartwell's The Dark Descent as the essential horror anthology. Fortunately, there's little overlap: of the 52 tales in this anthology, only 5 are duplicated in The Dark Descent. Included here are such memorable stories as W.W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw"; Saki's "Sredni Vashtar" and "The Open Window"; Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"; Conrad Aiken's "Silent Snow, Secret Snow"; Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan"; along with gems by E.F. Benson, H.G. Wells, Ambrose Bierce, Rudyard Kipling, Walter de la Mare, M.R. James, Guy de Maupassant, and O. Henry.

Product Description

When this longtime Modern Library favorite--filled with fifty-two stories of heart-stopping suspense--was first published in 1944, one of its biggest fans was critic Edmund Wilson, who in The New Yorker applauded what he termed a sudden revival of the appetite for tales of horror. Represented in the anthology are such distinguished spell weavers as Edgar Allen Poe ("The Black Cat"), Wilkie Collins ("A Terribly Strange Bed"), Henry James ("Sir Edmund Orme"), Guy de Maupassant ("Was It a Dream?"), O. Henry ("The Furnished Room"), Rudyard Kipling ("They"), and H.G. Wells ("Pollock and the Porroh Man"). Included as well are such modern masters as Algernon Blackwood ("Ancient Sorceries"), Walter de la Mare ("Out of the Deep"), E.M. Forster ("The Celestial Omnibus"), Isak Dinesen ("The Sailor-Boys Tale"), H.P. Lovecraft ("The Dunwich Horror"), Dorothy L. Sayers ("Suspicion"), and Ernest Hemingway ("The Killers").

"There is not a story in this collection that does not have the breath of life, achieve the full suspension of disbelief that is so particularly important in [this] type of fiction," wrote the Saturday Review. With an introduction and notes by Phyllis Cerf Wagner and Herbert Wise.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1056 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (October 18, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679601287
• ISBN-13: 978-0679601289
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,417 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensible for Ghost Story Lovers, December 29, 1998

By	C. Sahu "Cathy Sahu" (Southern California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've read all the stories in this book at least 3 times. Most of the times I skip around, but twice I've read straight through -- the stories are so consistently good, and, though wide ranging, complement each other so well. These are NOT horror stories. Horror (to me, at least) implies not only more explicit violence, but also an attitude that reality is, at core, physically and morally chaotic. "Dark Descent" is a horror anthology -- "Great Tales" is for the most part (although "The Great God Pan" and H.P. Lovecraft's 2 stories provide some exception) more old-fashioned "ghost stories," and what mystery genre critics would categorize as "English cozy": pleasant characters, warm surroundings introduced all the better to scare you with later on. The evil is seen through a hole in the curtain, so to speak, and never engulfs. The first group of stories ("Tale of Terror") are not exactly supernatural, but extremely suspenseful, with wonderful denouements. Poe's "The Facts in the Strange Case of M. Valdemar" is wonderfully horrible - a dying man is hypnotised to keep him alive (it turns out to be a mistake, of course). "Suspicion" by Dorothy Sayers is NOT a murder mystery, but a perfectly built-up tale of suspense. I've read it a dozen times and the pace of the story still catches me. "Home for Christmas," in which a nice doctor kills his bossy wife before leaving on vacation, would make a great Hitchcock movie. "Moonlight Sonata" is the short but shocking story of a man who stays overnight at a friend's house and awakens to an unpleasant visitor (not a ghost, but worse). Despite the emphasis on surprise endings, all of these stories have such great style and atmosphere that they are often, if anything, better the 2nd or 3rd time around. The second group, "Tales of the Supernatural," have all the qualities mentioned above but are more wide ranging in terms of imaginativeness. My Man M.R. James fits right in here, of course, and 2 of his best tales - "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" and "Casting the Runes" - are featured. Also Guy de Maupassant ("Was It a Dream?", in which a young lover spends the night mourning the death of his mistress in a cemetery, is fabulous). Also Rudyard Kipling; E.F. Benson; Algernon Blackwood ("Ancient Sorceries" features a mild-mannered Englishman oddly drawn to a small French village with a history of witchcraft); and such great titles as "The Screaming Skull" and "The Haunters and the Haunted or The House and the Brain" which, despite the campy names, will leave you far from laughing. There are stories in this section, also, that would better be categorized as fantasy ("The Celestial Omnibus" and "Adam and Eve and Pinch-me"). I liked them a lot even though I don't usually read fantasy. The majority are SCARY, though, and all are well-written by any standard (Henry James gives us "Sir Edmund Orme" and Ernest Hemingway tells of "The Killers"). If you like a more modern style, more explicit sex and violence, less atmosphere and more cut-to-the-chase, this book probably isn't for you. But if you like good, old-fashioned, solid, subtle, clever writing, with lots of atmosphere as well as great plotting (and you like to be scared), then this is a must-have.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Atmosphere And Stellar English Prose, January 18, 2005

By	Jeb Nome - See all my reviews

Over a year ago I had been overcome with the urge for horror fiction, but all the modern writers left me a bit cold. Even Stephen King, though he crafted many great tales, still writes in that modern way that will cheat, and throw in sex and violence when the ability to create atmosphere falters.
If you are looking for pure mood, and want to read writers that had complete respect for the language, then buy this book. Even one not normally inclined to horror fiction will find this endlessly entertaining. You will turn back to this book for years. It's sad, but there are few who write like this anymore. In my mind, it's understatement that provokes the sense of dread that many of these tales convey.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mount Everest of scary anthologies, July 16, 2002

By	James H. Wilson (Newport News, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am now on my second copy of of the Wise and Fraser anthology. I read my first copy (purchased in the late 1950's)to death. Over many years this book has remained one of the greatest anthologies of scary stories ever put toghter. As the title implies it is broken into two parts; stories that have terrifying situations and supernatural stories. It was first published in 1944 so do not look for stories by Stephen King or Cliver Barker. What you will find are wonderful stories that either already were or have become classics.
The terror stories include some adventures such as Connell's, "The Most Dangerous Game," and Collins' "Terribly Strange Bed." The Supernatural stories include greats such as M. R. James', "Casting the Runes" and Edward White's, "Lukundoo." (If "Lukundoo" does not make your skin crawl I suggest that you have your skin on too tight) There is also E.F. Benson's, "Mrs. Amworth" which I believe to be the best short vampire story ever written.
Here are 52 stories packed into an anthology tht belongs on the shelf of anyone who likes scary stories and is a basic staple on the shelf of a collector.