Books in the Classics of Gothic Horror series

This volume presents the weird fiction of the American writer Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930). Better known for her mainstream writings focusing on the lives of men and women in New England, Freeman was frequently attracted to the weird, and her work culminated in the notable volume The Wind in the Rose-bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural (1903). But that book contained only a small number of her weird tales, and this volume for the first time reprints all the weird work written over her long career, including a rare play about the Salem witchcraft, Giles Corey, Yeoman. The Classics of Gothic Horror series seeks to reprint novels and stories from the leading writers of weird fiction over the past two centuries or more. Ever since the Gothic novels of the late 18th century, supernatural horror has been a slender but provocative contribution to Western literature. Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, the Victorian ghost story writers, the "titans" of the early twentieth century (Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft), the Weird Tales writers, and many others contributed to the development and enrichment of weird fiction as a literary genre, and their work deserves to be enshrined in comprehensive, textually accurate editions. S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction, has done exactly that in establishing this series. Using scholarly resources honed over decades of wide-ranging research, he has assembled volumes featuring not only the complete weird writings of the authors in question, but exhaustive bio-critical introductions and bibliographical data.

This volume contains the weird tales of the British writer E. Nesbit (1858-1924), who wrote two early collections of horror stories, Grim Tales (1893) and Fear (1910), while gaining celebrity with an array of books for children. But the weird attracted her throughout her career, and she devoted herself to such themes as the haunted house, the ghost, psychological terror, and even some ventures into proto-science fiction, in such celebrated tales as "Man-Size in Marble" and "The Five Senses." Her weird work, long out of print, is now available again in this meticulously edited volume. Editor's Note: The stories in this book have largely been taken from the collection Fear (1910); "The Mass for the Dead" is taken from Grim Tales (1893), while "The Pavilion" is taken from To the Adventurous (1923), as reflecting the author's late revisions to the tale. The uncollected stories are taken from their magazine appearances as specified in the bibliography. There have been several other collections of Nesbit's weird tales-E. Nesbit's Tales of Terror, edited by Hugh Lamb (Methuen, 1983), subsequently revised as In the Dark: Tales of Terror (Equation, 1988) and In the Dark (Ash-Tree Press, 2000)-and they include stories not included here; but in my judgment these tales are not genuinely weird. The Classics of Gothic Horror series seeks to reprint novels and stories from the leading writers of weird fiction over the past two centuries or more. Ever since the Gothic novels of the late 18th century, supernatural horror has been a slender but provocative contribution to Western literature. Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, the Victorian ghost story writers, the "titans" of the early twentieth century (Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft), the Weird Tales writers, and many others contributed to the development and enrichment of weird fiction as a literary genre, and their work deserves to be enshrined in comprehensive, textually accurate editions. S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction, has done exactly that in establishing this series. Using scholarly resources honed over decades of wide-ranging research, he has assembled volumes featuring not only the complete weird writings of the authors in question, but exhaustive bio-critical introductions and bibliographical data.

This volume presents the weird fiction of the British writer Thomas Burke (1886-1945), author of the scintillating horror collection Night-Pieces (1935). But Burke-celebrated for his evocative tales of London's Chinatown, gathered in Limehouse Nights and other volumes-wrote other weird tales, scattered through his many other collections. One of the most distinctive is "Johnson Looked Back," a tour de force of second-person narration. This volume constitutes the first occasion when Burke's complete supernatural writing has been gathered in a single volume. The Classics of Gothic Horror series seeks to reprint novels and stories from the leading writers of weird fiction over the past two centuries or more. Ever since the Gothic novels of the late 18th century, supernatural horror has been a slender but provocative contribution to Western literature. Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, the Victorian ghost story writers, the "titans" of the early twentieth century (Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft), the Weird Tales writers, and many others contributed to the development and enrichment of weird fiction as a literary genre, and their work deserves to be enshrined in comprehensive, textually accurate editions. S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction, has done exactly that in establishing this series. Using scholarly resources honed over decades of wide-ranging research, he has assembled volumes featuring not only the complete weird writings of the authors in question, but exhaustive bio-critical introductions and bibliographical data.

This volume contains the ghostly tales of the British writer W. W. Jacobs (1863-1943), best known for the immortal classic "The Monkey's Paw." But Jacobs wrote many other weird tales throughout the course of his life, many of them set on the high seas. Jacobs was best known in his time as a comic writer, and he fuses humor and weirdness with a deft touch. This volume is the first to include Jacobs's complete weird writing-and also includes two dramatic adaptations of his stories as well as Louis N. Parker's celebrated dramatization of "The Monkey's Paw." The Classics of Gothic Horror series seeks to reprint novels and stories from the leading writers of weird fiction over the past two centuries or more. Ever since the Gothic novels of the late 18th century, supernatural horror has been a slender but provocative contribution to Western literature. Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, the Victorian ghost story writers, the "titans" of the early twentieth century (Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft), the Weird Tales writers, and many others contributed to the development and enrichment of weird fiction as a literary genre, and their work deserves to be enshrined in comprehensive, textually accurate editions. S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction, has done exactly that in establishing this series. Using scholarly resources honed over decades of wide-ranging research, he has assembled volumes featuring not only the complete weird writings of the authors in question, but exhaustive bio-critical introductions and bibliographical data.

This volume includes the complete weird writings of Mary Shelley (1797-1851), who wrote the imperishable novel Frankenstein before she was twenty. This novel not only is a pioneering weird tale but also a foundational work of science fiction; its provocative notion that human life can be created in the laboratory is rich in complex moral overtones. Shelley went on to write shorter weird tales, including the reanimation stories "Valerius" and "Roger Dodsworth"; "Transformation," a story of psychic transference; and "The Mortal Immortal," about the quest for eternal life. The Classics of Gothic Horror series seeks to reprint novels and stories from the leading writers of weird fiction over the past two centuries or more. Ever since the Gothic novels of the late 18th century, weird fiction has been a slender but provocative contribution to weird fiction. Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, the Victorian ghost story writers, the "titans" of the early twentieth century (Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft), the Weird Tales writers, and many others contributed to the development and enrichment of weird fiction as a literary genre, and their work deserves to be enshrined in comprehensive, textually accurate editions. S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction, has done exactly that in establishing this series. Using scholarly resources honed over decades of wide-ranging research, he has assembled volumes featuring not only the complete weird writings of the authors in question, but exhaustive bio-critical introductions and bibliographical data.

This volume gathers the weird and fantastic tales of Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), a pioneering French author whose weird work includes such distinctive tales as the Egyptian fantasies "One of Cleopatra's Nights" and "The Mummy's Foot," the classic vampire story "Clarimonde," and an entrancing novella of psychic transference, "Avatar." Gautier's tales feature a haunting fusion of eroticism and weirdness, in consonance with his view that the human female constituted the most exalted form of beauty in all creation. The evocative translations of Lafcadio Hearn and Edgar Saltus have been used in this volume. The Classics of Gothic Horror series seeks to reprint novels and stories from the leading writers of weird fiction over the past two centuries or more. Ever since the Gothic novels of the late 18th century, weird fiction has been a slender but provocative contribution to weird fiction. Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, the Victorian ghost story writers, the "titans" of the early twentieth century (Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft), the Weird Tales writers, and many others contributed to the development and enrichment of weird fiction as a literary genre, and their work deserves to be enshrined in comprehensive, textually accurate editions. S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction, has done exactly that in establishing this series. Using scholarly resources honed over decades of wide-ranging research, he has assembled volumes featuring not only the complete weird writings of the authors in question, but exhaustive bio-critical introductions and bibliographical data.