The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels (Mammoth Books)
The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels (Mammoth Books) Review
Customer Rating :
|
The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels (Mammoth Books) Overviews
The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels (Mammoth Books) RelateItems
- The Mammoth Book of Terror (Mammoth Books)
- Stephen King’s Danse Macabre
- The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries
- The Mammoth Book of Monsters
- The Mammoth Book of New Terror
The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels (Mammoth Books) CustomerReview
This is one of the finest anthologies of supernatural fiction I have ever read. The short novel (novella) is, in the opinion of many, the perfect form for a work of supernatural terror, and the ten stories in this collection illustrate the point very well. They are a mixture of classic and more modern horror tales, covering a 100-year range (from the 1880s to the 1980s), and quite a few of them are very hard or impossible to find anywhere else:
“The Monkey”, by Stephen King – A man’s terrifying childhood toy has somehow returned to haunt him.
“The Parasite”, by Arthur Conan Doyle – A sceptical professor subjects himself to hypnotic experiments with disastrous results.
“There’s a Long, Long Trail A-Winding”, by Russell Kirk – A lonesome petty criminal with a good heart holes up in an abandoned house that seems to be haunted.
“The Damned”, by Algernon Blackwood – One of the most unusual haunted house stories ever written, in which the whole point is that nothing much happens.
“Fengriffen”, by David Case – A young bride at an old English manor comes under a horrifying family curse – or is it all in her mind? Although written by an American in the 1970s, this story masterfully creates a classic 19th-century Gothic atmosphere.
“The Uttermost Farthing”, by A. C. Benson – It’s a race to uncover the secrets hidden by a wicked dead man. Another unusual haunted house story, by E. F. Benson’s big brother.
“The Rope in the Rafters”, by Oliver Onions – A horribly disfigured WW-I veteran takes a room in an ancient French chateau, but he seems to have an unexpected roommate.
“Nadelman’s God”, by T. E. D. Klein – A pseudo-Satanic poem he wrote as a teenager (and which was later set to music by a heavy metal band) has come back to haunt the narrator in a very real way.
“The Feasting Dead”, by John Metcalfe – Many think that this powerfully creepy story is the gem of the collection, and I won’t disagree. A man’s son, staying with friends in France, returns with a very strange and unwelcome companion. The ending may be puzzling – indeed, the narrator never quite figures it out – but Metcalfe drops enough clues for an attentive reader to get at least a fairly good idea of what has happened.
“How the Wind Spoke at Madaket”, by Lucius Shepard – A wind monster from the sea wreaks bloody havoc on Nantucket. My least favorite story of the bunch, although even it has some very strong points.
Get this book!!!
*** Product Information and Prices Stored:Feb 05, 2010 19:00:08