About the Book
Edited by Stephen Jones and Dave Carson. Illustrated by Dave Carson.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." So writes H.P. Lovecraft, in his groundbreaking essay 'Supernatural Horror in Literature', which introduces this volume. In nine sections, Lovecraft, the acknowledged master of the genre, traces its evolution from ancient roots to the early Gothic, and through to the work of his American, British, and European contemporaries. Throughout, he cites the works he feels are of the first order, and from these the editors have selected twenty-one stories, each prefaced by Lovecraft's own opinions. Discover the eerie worlds of Clark Ashton Smith, which in Lovecraft's words are "a universe of remote and paralyzing fright — jungles of iridescent blossoms on the moons of Saturn, evil and grotesque temples in Atlantis, Lemuria, and forgotten elder worlds..." and the works of Arthur Machen, "in which the elements of hidden horror and brooding fright attain an almost incomparable substance and realistic acuteness..." Other selections include stories by M.R. James, Ambrose Bierce, and Edgar Allan Poe. Lovecraft also identifies the best horror tales from writers famed for different work, such as Charles Dickens, R.L. Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, and E.F. Benson. This collection of Lovecraft's favorites is a feast of fear that no fan of the supernatural will be able to resist. Since, in the words of the master: "Children will always be afraid of the dark and men with minds sensitive to hereditary impulse will always tremble at the thought of the hidden and fathomless worlds of strange life which may pulsate in the gulfs beyond the stars, or press hideously upon our own globe in unholy dimensions which only the dead and the moonstruck can glimpse."
Contents:
- SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE by H.P. Lovecraft
- THE SIGNALMAN by Charles Dickens
- THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
- THE BODY SNATCHER by Robert Louis Stevenson
- THE SPIDER by Hanns Heinz Ewers
- THE FOOT OF THE MUMMY by Théophile Gautier
- THE HORLA by Guy de Maupassant
- THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER by Edgar Allan Poe
- THE DAMNED THING by Ambrose Bierce
- THE UPPER BERTH by F. Marion Crawford
- THE YELLOW SIGN by Robert W. Chambers
- THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL by Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman
- THE DEAD VALLEY by Ralph Adams Cram
- FISHHEAD by Irvin S. Cobb
- LUKUNDOO by Edward Lucas White
- THE DOUBLE SHADOW by Clark Ashton Smith
- THE MARK OF THE BEAST by Rudyard Kipling
- NEGOTIUM PERAMBULANS by E.F. Benson
- MRS. LUNT by Hugh Walpole
- THE HOG by William Hope Hodgson
- THE GREAT GOD PAN by Arthur Machen
- COUNT MAGNUS by M.R. James
- AFTERWORD: LOVECRAFT AND THE 'LITERATURE OF COSMIC FEAR' by Stephen Jones and Dave Carson
