August 4, 2014
Critical analysis meets shilling shocker in this eclectic sampling of 19th-century terror and titillation. “What do you consider to be the greatest element of terror?” asks Dr. Hammond in Fitz-James O’Brien’s “What Was It?” That question provides the central organizing theme of this comprehensive reprint anthology, which includes a wide range of aesthetic and philosophical replies. Jones’s introduction analyzes guiding principles of the Gothic, supernatural and psychological horror, and what he calls “Colonial Horror,” a politically motivated critical stance. Souls, minds, and bodies are transformed in 29 elegant nightmares whose ghosts, demons, monsters, and madmen mirror corresponding social concerns. Penny-dreadful menace reigns in Maginn’s “The Bell” and the Grand Guignol cruelty of Balzac’s “La Grande Bretêche.” Suggestive supernaturalism evokes tragedy in LeFanu’s “Shalken the Painter.” The ghostly thrills of M.R. James’s “Count Magnus” contrast nicely with the mythic terror of Algernon Blackwood’s “The Wendigo.” Even more intriguing are Richard Marshe’s pulpy “The Adventure of Lady Wishaw’s Hand” and James Hogg’s folklore-inspired “George Dobson’s Expedition to Hell,” neither of which has been widely reprinted. This survey of sensationalism will appeal to horror fans, critics, and academics alike.
October 15, 2014
The Victorian and Edwardian eras were a rich time for the young genre of horror. The stories collected here play on the period's fear of the unknown, repressed sexuality, and fascination with the afterlife. Some classics are represented, such as W.W. Jacobs's macabre "The Monkey's Paw" and the supreme tale of feminine hysteria that is Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," but anthology editor Jones (M.R. James's Collected Ghost Stories) also includes lesser-known pieces from some of the greats of the genre such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and M.R. James, as well as stories from literary giants not usually lauded for horror. VERDICT From tales that are mildly creepy to full-out gory gems, these 29 stories from the 19th century should round out library horror collections. As a more scholarly treatment, the book provides an in-depth introduction from the editor that gives some background on the prose of the period. The footnotes interspersed amid the text could be helpful for readers not used to the old-fashioned terms and historical background, although they do interrupt the flow of the narratives.
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 1, 2014
Editor Jones explains that horror in fiction reflects cultural preoccupations, fears, and anxieties . . . rendered metaphorically as monsters, madmen, ghosts. The macabre tales collected here, encompassing the years 1815 through 1912, embody a reaction to the secularism and rationalism of the Enlightenment as well as later theories expounded by Darwin and Freud. The popularity of horror fiction was largely due to their publication in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, in which many of these stories were originally published. Here you will find eerie tales featuring crumbling mansions, mad scientists, premature burials, dreadful curses, and insanity. In addition to works by such luminaries as Balzac, Dickens, Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, and Stoker, this anthology includes E. T. A. Hoffman's The Sandman, about a man's ill-fated love for an automaton; Charlotte Perkins Gilman's feminist classic, The Yellow Wallpaper; Robert W. Chambers' The Repairer of Reputations, from The King in Yellow (which recently got plenty of attention after it was mentioned in the first season of HBO's True Detective); W. W. Jacobs' classic, The Monkey's Paw; and William Hope Hodgson's The Derelict, a spine-tingling tale of an organism inhabiting an old ship.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)