Synopses & Reviews
The modern horror story grew and developed across the nineteenth century, embracing categories as diverse as ghost stories, supernatural and psychological horror, medical and scientific horrors, colonial horror, and tales of mystery and premonition. This anthology brings together 29 of the greatest horror stories of the period from 1816 to 1912, from the British, Irish, American, and European traditions. It ranges widely across the sub-genres to encompass authors whose terror-inducing powers remain unsurpassed.
The book includes stories by some of the best writers of the century - Hoffmann, Poe, Balzac, Dickens, Hawthorne, Melville, Zola - as well as established genre classics such as M. R. James, Arthur Machen, Bram Stoker, Algernon Blackwood, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and others. It includes rare and little-known pieces by writers such as William Maginn, Francis Marion Crawford, W. F. Harvey, and William Hope Hodgson, and shows the important role played by periodicals in popularizing the horror story. Wherever possible stories are reprinted in their first published form, with background information about their authors and helpful, contextualizing annotation. Darryl Jones's lively introduction discusses horror's literary evolution and its articulation of cultural preoccupations and anxieties. These are stories guaranteed to freeze the blood, revolt the senses, and keep you awake at night: prepare to be terrified!
Review
"From tales that are mildly creepy to full-out gory gems, these 29 stories from the 19th century should round out library horror collections." - Library Journal
Synopsis
Human beings are the only species to have evolved the trait of emotional crying. We weep at tragedies in our lives and in those of others - remarkably even when they are fictional characters in film, opera, music, novels, and theatre. Why have we developed art forms - most powerfully, music - which move us to sadness and tears? This question forms the backdrop to Michael Trimble's discussion of emotional crying, its physiology, and its evolutionary implications. His exploration examines the connections with other distinctively human features: the development of language, self-consciousness, religious practices, and empathy. Neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the brain have uncovered unique human characteristics; mirror neurones, for example, explain why we unconsciously imitate actions and behaviour. Whereas Nietzsche argued that artistic tragedy was born with the ancient Greeks, Trimble places its origins far earlier. His neurophysiological and evolutionary insights shed fascinating light onto this enigmatic part of our humanity.
About the Author
Darryl Jones has taught at Trinity College Dublin since 1994. Prior to this he taught in the University of Lodz, Poland. He has held Visiting Professorships at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj, Transylvania, and Tongji University, Shanghai. He is the author or editor of nine books, including
Horror: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film (Arnold/OUP 2002),
It Came From the 1950s!: Popular Culture, Popular Anxieties (with Elizabeth McCarthy and Bernice M. Murphy, Palgrave Macmillan 2011), and M. R. James,
Collected Ghost Stories (OUP, 2011, 2013).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Note on the Texts
Select Bibliography
Chronology
E.T.A. HOFFMANN, The Sandman
WILLIAM MAGINN, The Man in the Bell
JAMES HOGG, George Dobson's Expedition to Hell
HONORÉ DE BALZAC, La Grande Bretêche
EDGAR ALLAN POE, Berenice
SHERIDAN LE FANU, Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The Birth-Mark
HERMAN MELVILLE, The Tartarus of Maids
FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN, What Was It?
CHARLES DICKENS, No. 1 Branch Line: The Signal-Man
ÉMILE ZOLA, The Death of Olivier Bécaille
RONALD ROSS, The Vivisector Vivisected
ROBERT-LOUIS STEVENSON, The Body-Snatcher
RUDYARD KIPLING, The Mark of the Beast
AMBROSE BIERCE, Chickamauga
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN,The Yellow Wall Paper
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, The Case of Lady Sannox
BRAM STOKER, The Squaw
ROBERT W. CHAMBERS, The Repairer of Reputations
ARTHUR MACHEN, Novel of the White Powder
RICHARD MARSH, The Adventure of Lady Wishaw's Hand
W. W. JACOBS, The Monkey's Paw
MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN, Luella Miller
M. R. JAMES, Count Magnus
FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD, For the Blood is the Life
ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, The Wendigo
W. F. HARVEY, August Heat
E. F. BENSON, The Room in the Tower
WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON, The Derelict
Explanatory Notes