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Title: Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
Editors: Herbert A. Wise and Phyllis Fraser
Published: New York: The Modern Library, 1944
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 1076
Total Page Count: 110,260
Text Number: 317
Read Because: personal enjoyment and because it contains Machen's "The Great God Pan" which is mentioned in Kiernan's The Red Tree, borrowed from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
century_eyes who purchased it used at St. Johns Booksellers
Review: Murderous spouses, ancient curses, talking corpses, seductive ghosts—over a thousand pages long, presenting 52 stories from 33 authors, this collection is massive and dated, halfway a historical fragment and halfway a resource, fascinating but deep enough to drown in. It's so vast that it's almost impossible to review: no single opinion can reflect so many stories. There are a few classics here, just as many minor offerings from famous authors, and plenty of forgettable selections. Half the joy is simply seeing what's included, because not all of these authors or stories would be considered genre now—and as such, this collection is a fascinating snapshot of the creation of canon and genre. The exclusions are also telling: there's only one vampire story because "these stories all tend to be very much alike" (760), and only three female authors (which seems to be a fault of the general climate more than the book's enthusiastic editors).
As pleasure reading is concerned, the introduction recommends slow going and I concur. Volumes like this are longterm bedside companions; try to hurry through them, and the stories become so many bricks in a wall. Classic horror has a different pace from modern horror, often finding an uneasy balance between atmospheric subtlety and heavy-handed themes such that it both bores and batters. But then along will come a story like Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" with its haunting, insidious beauty, or Lovecraft's superbly crafted imaginings of the unknown, or even Blackwood's tales, deeply flawed but rewarding patience with fantastic atmosphere. There are also authors and stories which helped create the genre but are now forgotten, and pleasant surprises such as Benson's skin-crawling "Caterpillars." There's more emphasis on action than modern readers may expect, and a sprinkling of gallows humor. There are too many duds to recommend it to a casual reader, and the selections are too arbitrary to make it the only classic horror anthology you own, but Great Tales is often fascinating and occasionally great fun. It's an enjoyable, if random, overview for fans of the genre, and I loved it. To my surprise, the anthology is still in print—so if you stumble upon it, I well recommend you pick it up and read a few tales.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Editors: Herbert A. Wise and Phyllis Fraser
Published: New York: The Modern Library, 1944
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 1076
Total Page Count: 110,260
Text Number: 317
Read Because: personal enjoyment and because it contains Machen's "The Great God Pan" which is mentioned in Kiernan's The Red Tree, borrowed from
century_eyes who purchased it used at St. Johns BooksellersReview: Murderous spouses, ancient curses, talking corpses, seductive ghosts—over a thousand pages long, presenting 52 stories from 33 authors, this collection is massive and dated, halfway a historical fragment and halfway a resource, fascinating but deep enough to drown in. It's so vast that it's almost impossible to review: no single opinion can reflect so many stories. There are a few classics here, just as many minor offerings from famous authors, and plenty of forgettable selections. Half the joy is simply seeing what's included, because not all of these authors or stories would be considered genre now—and as such, this collection is a fascinating snapshot of the creation of canon and genre. The exclusions are also telling: there's only one vampire story because "these stories all tend to be very much alike" (760), and only three female authors (which seems to be a fault of the general climate more than the book's enthusiastic editors).
As pleasure reading is concerned, the introduction recommends slow going and I concur. Volumes like this are longterm bedside companions; try to hurry through them, and the stories become so many bricks in a wall. Classic horror has a different pace from modern horror, often finding an uneasy balance between atmospheric subtlety and heavy-handed themes such that it both bores and batters. But then along will come a story like Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" with its haunting, insidious beauty, or Lovecraft's superbly crafted imaginings of the unknown, or even Blackwood's tales, deeply flawed but rewarding patience with fantastic atmosphere. There are also authors and stories which helped create the genre but are now forgotten, and pleasant surprises such as Benson's skin-crawling "Caterpillars." There's more emphasis on action than modern readers may expect, and a sprinkling of gallows humor. There are too many duds to recommend it to a casual reader, and the selections are too arbitrary to make it the only classic horror anthology you own, but Great Tales is often fascinating and occasionally great fun. It's an enjoyable, if random, overview for fans of the genre, and I loved it. To my surprise, the anthology is still in print—so if you stumble upon it, I well recommend you pick it up and read a few tales.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
