Horror Stories: By The Greatest Masters Of The Gruesome

Anonymous (ed.) – Horror Stories: By The Greatest Masters Of The Gruesome (Paul Elek Bestseller Library, 1962)

Alexander Woolcott – Midnight Sonata
Arthur Machen – The Novel Of The Black Seal
E. F. Benson – Mrs. Amworth
F. Marion Crawford – The Upper Berth
H. P. Lovecraft – The Dunwich Horror
Guy de Maupassant – Was It a Dream?
Bram Stoker – The Judges House
Charles Collins & Charles Dickens – The Trial For Murder
J. F. Sullivan – The Man With A Malady
Anonymous – Sawney Beane and His Family
Bram Stoker – The Squaw
A. J. Alan – The Hair
Fitz-James O’Brien – What Was It?
H. G. Wells – The Cone
F. Marion Crawford – The Screaming Skull
Blurb

Warning
If these tales are read late at night when the reader is alone in the house, the publishers will not he responsible for the consequences.

and nor will i be held accountable for posting ’em here!

Perhaps the most interesting thing to be said for this selection is that the contents are identical to  The Arrow Book Of Horror Stories (1965)

Anon – Fifty Masterpieces Of Mystery

Anon – Fifty Masterpieces Of Mystery (Odhams, nd.  [1937])

Crime Stories

Dorothy L. Sayers – The Learned Adventure Of The Dragon’s Head
Austin Freeman – The Magic Casket
H. C. Bailey – The President Of San Jacinto
Anthony Berkeley – Outside The Law
The Baroness Orczy – The Regent’s Park Murder
Margery Allingham – They Never Got Caught
J. J. Connington – Before Insulin
Stacy Aumonier – The Perfect Murder
G. K. Chesterton – The Shadow Of The Shark
O. Henry – The Marsonettes
F. Britten Austin – Diamond Cut Diamond
Augustus Muir – Murder At The Microphone
Milward Kennedy – Death In The Kitchen
Freeman Willis Croft – The Vertical Line
Edgar Wallace – The Clue Of Monday’s Settling
Gerard Fairlie – The Ghost Of A Smile
Bertram Atkey – Sons Of The Chief Warder

Strange And Horrible Stories

Seamark – Query
Ralph Straus – The Room On The Fourth Floor
A. E. W. Mason – The Wounded God
Lord Dunsany – The Electric King
A. J. Alan – Charles
John Metcalfe – The Funeral March Of A Marionette
W. W. Jacobs – The Interruption
C. D. Heriot – Nobody At Home
Agatha Christie – The Blood-Stained Pavement
Mrs. Belloc Lowdnes – St. Catherine’s Eve
F. Marion Crawford – The Screaming Skull
Joseph Conrad – The Idiots
Sydney Horler – The Vampire
Saki – The Interlopers
L. P. Hartley – The Travelling Grave
E. A. Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart
H. Spicer – The Bird Woman
W. Fryer Harvey – The Dabblers

Ghost Stories

Vernon Lee – Marsyas In Flanders
Eleanor Scott – The Room
Marjorie Bowen – Florence Flannery
Ernest Bramah – The Ghost At Massingham Mansions
Norman Matson – The House On Big Faraway
Naomi Royde-Smith – Madam Julia’s Tale
L. A. G. Strong – Sea Air
Ann Bridge – The Buick Saloon
May Sinclair – The Token
Oliver Onions – The Cigarette Case
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch – A Pair Of Hands
H. R. Wakefield – Blind Man’s Buff
Algernon Blackwood – The Man Who Was Milligan
Richard Hughes – The Ghost
A. M. Burrage – The Room Over The Kitchen
J. S. LeFanu – Mr. Justice Harbottle
Anonymous – The Dead Man Of Varley Grange

Includes:

Eleanor Scott – The Room: “I’m not going to try and tell you what it was … I’d as soon try to describe the most loathsome surgical operation or the most indecent physical illness. And if I wanted to, I couldn’t. Thank Heaven, we haven’t made the word for what I saw.”

A room in Massingham’s house has the reputation of being haunted, so when five of his friends answer his invitation to stay with him, naturally they decide to each take a turn at spending a night in the creepy chamber and “do down the spook!” By the time Amery the Parson gets to take his turn, it’s clear from the state of Grindley and Vernon that whatever is in there is far more powerful and evil than a mere ghost. By the following morning, the Parson is a broken man, but Reece, the ‘simple’ little curate, is insistent that he’s not going to be denied the experience. Although we’re never told outright what each man endured in the room – the closest we get is with Amery who is confronted by the past crimes of his Church – it hardly makes the goings-on any less unsettling. Not quite as striking as Randall’s classic Celui-La but very deserving of your attention i’d have said. “There must be an amazing amount of goodness somewhere when here is such a quantity of unspeakable evil in men like us, who thought ourselves decent fellows enough.”

John Metcalfe – The Funeral March Of A Marionette: On a snowy, bitterly cold November 4th, budding entrepreneur Alf and little George drag a trolley along the Millbank, collecting a small fortune in coppers from admires of their uncannily lifelike Guy. Unfortunately, old Gus the tramp isn’t equip to handle the sub-zero temperatures ….

A. M. Burrage – The Room Over The Kitchen: A weary rambler arrives in Penhiddoc, his one thought to get a room at the inn for the night. In the doorway, he’s accosted by a fellow who he takes to be the local harmless lunatic who implores him not to take the room over the kitchen. It transpires that twenty years ago, four Oxford students stayed at the inn. For a chuckle, a trio of these fellows, in cahoots with the landlord, convinced the nervous young Mr. Farney that his room was haunted. They pushed the joke too far ….

C. D. Heriot – Nobody At Home: Frank and Maurice have drifted out of each others lives since Oxford, and now the former, learning his old pal has fallen on hard times, is keen to put the friendship back on course. Maurice has tried to make a go of it as a poet, but as soon as he arrives at the decrepit old schoolhouse that serves as his home, Frank realises it’s gone very badly for him. At first, Frank is angry that he may have made a wasted journey as no-one replies to his knocks at the door. But when he takes a look through the letterbox ….

Henry Spicer – The Bird Woman: A young lady answers an advertisement for a position as carer to “an invalid, infirm or lunatic person” at a dingy-looking house which has the reputation of being haunted. “Having little fear of anything human and none at all of apparitions” she’s confident that she’ll be able to cope with her charge – until she actually claps eyes on the owl-like travesty she’s expected to look after.

Sydney Horler – The Vampire: Two Roman Catholic priests discuss the case of a man of whom everyone seemed to have an “instinctive horror”. When a terrible murder is committed, leaving the victim minus most of her throat, the shunned individual confesses to Father ——, who, of course, he is powerless to pass on the information to the police. Sometimes published as The Believer

Richard Hughes – The Ghost: Told from the perspective of Millie, who’s just had her head bashed in by cheating husband Johnny. Having spent her life terrified of ghosts, now she’s evidently one herself Millie intends to haunt the murderer, especially as he doesn’t seem the least perturbed about what he’s done.

H. R. Wakefield – Blind Man’s Buff: Aylesbury, Herts. Mr. Cort learns why none of the locals will approach Lorn Manor after nightfall. In pitch darkness, He loses himself within a few feet of the front door and is pursued about the old house by unseen entities.

W. W. Jacobs – The Interruption: With his wife dead at last Spencer Goddard can get his hands on all of her lovely money! How happy he is! For all of twenty seconds. Hannah, his cook, wastes no time in letting on that she knows more about her late mistress’s “illness” – and his part in it – than he’d prefer and neither is she slow in turning the situation to her advantage. Should she die suddenly – like poor Mrs. Goddard for example – she’s left a letter with her sister , the contents of which he should regret being made known to the police. Now he must think of a way to save his neck and see hers stretched he opts for a high risk solution …

Anonymous – The Dead Man Of Varley Grange: Westernshire. When young Henderson takes over the Grange, he unwisely invites eight friends to spend the Christmas holiday with him. Prior to his arrival the property had remained vacant for years due to the dreadful family curse as it is reputed that, some centuries ago, Captain Varley murdered his sister after she fled the Convent and ran off with her lover. Now their phantoms stalk the Grange and if you’re unfortunate enough to see the dead nun’s face you die within the year!

Anon – A Century Of Thrillers: From Poe To Arlen

Anon – A Century Of Thrillers: From Poe To Arlen (Daily Express, 1934)

James Agate – Foreword

Wilkie Collins – The Traveller’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed
Wilkie Collins – Mad Monkton
Wilkie Collins – The Biter Bit
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Adventure of the Speckled Band
Mary Shelley – The Mortal Immortal
Micheal Arlen – The Gentleman from America
R. H. Barham – The Leech of Folkstone
R. H. Barham – Jerry Jarvis’ Wig
R. H. Barham – The Spectre of Tappington
R. H. Barham – Singular Passage in the Life of the Late Henry Harris, Doctor of Divinity
Mrs Henry Wood – The Ebony Box
A. J. Alan – My Adventure at Chiselhurst
A. J. Alan – The Hair
Edgar Allan Poe – The Gold Bug
Edgar Allan Poe – The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe – The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe – The Mystery of the Marie Roget
Edgar Allan Poe – The Pit and the Pendulum
Edgar Allan Poe – Berenice
Edgar Allan Poe – William Wilson
Edgar Allan Poe – The Masque of the Red Death
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Roger Malvin’s Burial
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Dr Heidegger’s Experiment
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Grey Champion
Sir Walter Scott – Wandering Willie’s Tale
Sir Walter Scott – The Two Drovers
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkeys Paw
J. S. Le Fanu – Sir Dominick Sarsfield
J. S. Le Fanu – Mr Justice Harbottle
J. S. Le Fanu – Green Tea
Oscar Wilde – The Birthday of the Infanta
Charles Dickens – The Trial For Murder
Charles Dickens – The Story of the Bagmans Murder
Charles Dickens – No 1 Branch Line, The Signalman
Elizabeth Gaskell – The Squires Story
J. S. Fletcher – The Lighthouse of Shivering Sand
Anthony Trollope – Malachi’s Cove
Lord Lytton – The Haunted and the Haunters
Frederick Marryat – The Story of the Greek Slave
Algernon Blackwood – The Woman’s Ghost Story
Algernon Blackwood – Secret Worship
Mrs Oliphant – The Open Door
Ambrose Bierce – The Suitable Surroundings
Ambrose Bierce – One of the Missing
Ambrose Bierce – The Affair at Coulters Notch
Ambrose Bierce – A Tough Tussle
Ambrose Bierce – A Horseman in the Sky

One of the evil clones i mentioned on an earlier Century post.  According to E. F. Bleiler (The Guide To Supernatural Fiction,  Kent State Universtity Press, 1983)

“The CENTURY volumes were one of the results of Depression newspaper wars in Great Britain in the 1930’s. Books of enormous size, they were given as premiums for subscriptions, then taken over by commercial publishing (Hutchinson’s mostly).”

And to think these days we’re happy with the occasional Belles of St. Trinians DVD ….

Anon – A Century Of Thrillers: Second Series

Anon – A Century Of Thrillers: Second Series (Daily Express, 1935)

Somerset Maugham – The Taipan
Donn Byrne – Tale Of The Piper
George Eliot – The Lifted Veil
M. R. James – Number 13
M. R. James – Rats
M. R. James – Count Magnus
G. K. Chesterton – The Queer Feet
H. G. Wells – Pollock And The Porrah Man
A. J. Alan – My Adventure In Norfolk
Sax Rohmer – Tcheriapin
J. S. Fletcher – The Ivory God
Daniel Defoe – The Apparition Of Mrs Veal
E. F. Benson – The Thing In The Hall
Guy De Maupassant – Night
Guy De Maupassant – The Drowned Man
Guy De Maupassant – Who Knows?
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown
Oscar Wilde – The Ballad Of Reading Gaol
Edgar Allan Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe – The Fall Of The House Of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe – The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe – Ligeia
Bram Stoker – The Squaw
Sir A. T. Quiller-Couch – A Pair Of Hands
O. Henry – The Last Leaf
W. W. Jacobs – The Well
Charles Dickens – The Haunted Man And The Ghost’s Bargain
Ambrose Bierce – Moxon’s Master
Ambrose Bierce – The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot
Ambrose Bierce – The Damned Thing
W. F. Harvey – The Beast With Five Fingers
F. Marion Crawford – The Upper Berth
F. Marion Crawford – Man Overboard!
N. A. Temple Ellis – Diver’s Drops
Sydney Parkman – The Cards
Ashton Wolfe – The Knights Of The Silver Dagger
Frederick Marryat – The Werewolf
J. S. LeFanu – Shalken The Painter
J. S. LeFanu – Carmilla
J. S. LeFanu – The Familiar
Wilkie Collins – Gabriel’s Marriage
Mrs. Gaskell – The Sexton’s Hero

Dorothy L. Sayers – Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror: 3rd Series

Dorothy L. Sayers – Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror: 3rd Series (Gollancz, 1934)

Help! Cover Wanted!

1. Detection  and Mystery

2. Mystery and Horror

A.J. Alan – The 19 Club
Martin Armstrong – Sombrero
John  Betjeman – Lord Mount Prospect
Algernon Blackwood – The Wendigo
Ann Bridge – The Song in the House
D.K. Broster – Couching at the Door
Thomas Burke – The Dumb Wife
A.M. Burrage – The Bargain
A.E. Coppard – Arabesque: the Mouse
Oswald Couldrey – The Mistaken Fury
E. M. Delafield – Sophy Mason Comes Back
Lord Dunsany – Our Distant Cousins
J.F. Dwyer – A Jungle Graduate
Leonora Gregory – The Scoop
Alan Griff – The House of Desolation
L.P. Hartley – The Island
W.F. Harvey – Double Demon
Margaret Irwin – The Book
W.W. Jacobs – The Interruption
M.R. James – The Diary of Mr. Poynter
Cyril Landon – You’ll Come to the Tree in the End
John Metcalfe – Time-Fuse
J. C. Moore – Decay
Claire D. Pollexen – Stowaway
Arthur Quilter-Couch – A Pair of Hands
R.E. Roberts – The Hill
Naomi Royde-Smith – The Pattern
Herbert Shaw – What Can a Dead Man Do?
V. Sheehan – The Virtuoso
Lady Eleanor Smith – No Ships Pass
Sir Frederick Treves – The Idol With Hands of Clay
H. R. Wakefield – The Frontier Guards
H.G. Wells – The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham
B. A. Williams – Witch-Trot Pond
Clarence Winchester – Anniversary

Dorothy L Sayers – Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror: 2nd Series

Dorothy L Sayers (ed.) –  Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror: 2nd Series (Gollancz, July, 1931)

Help! Cover Wanted!

Dorothy L. Sayers – Introduction

1. Detection & Mystery (25 stories by Sayers, M. P. Shiel, H. C. Bailey, Robert Barr, Mrs. Belloc Lowdnes & Co.)

2. Mystery and Horror:

A.J. Alan – My Adventure in Norfolk
Stacy Aumonier – Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty
R. H. Barham – The Leech of Folkestone
Max Beerbohm – A.V. Laider
E.F. Benson – The Room in the Tower
J.D. Beresford – Cut-Throat Farm
Ambrose  Bierce – The Damned Thing
Algernon Blackwood – Secret Worship
Mrs. E. Bland  (Edith Nesbit) – No. 17
Douglas G. Browne – The Queer Door
A.M. Burrage – The Waxwork
Wilkie Collins – Mad Monkton
Alan Cunningham – The Haunted Ships
Clemence Dane – The King Waits
Walter de la Mare – The Tree
S.L. Dennis – The Second Awakening of a Magician
Charles Dickens – No.1 Branch Line: The Signalman
Ford Madox Ford – Reisenberg
Violet Hunt – The Prayer
W.F. Harvey – The Beast With Five Fingers
Holloway Horn – The Old Man
W.W. Jacobs – The Well
Edgar Jepson – The Resurgent Mysteries
J.S. Le Fanu – Mr. Justice Harbottle
E. Bulwer-Lytton – The Haunted and the Haunters
Arthur Machen – The Great Return
Frederick Marryat – The Story of the Greek Slave
John Masefield – Anty Blight
John Metcalfe – The Double Admiral
Mrs. Oliphant – The Library Window
Barry Pain – Rose,  Rose
Eden Phillpotts – The Iron Pineapple
Edgar Allan Poe – Berenice
Sir A. Quiller-Couch – The Roll-Call of the Reef
Naomi Royde-Smith – Mangaroo
Saki – Sredni Vashtar
Mary Shelley – The Mortal Immortal
M. P. Shiel – The Primate of the Rose
Henry Spicer – Called to the Rescue
Hugh Walpole – The Enemy
H. G. Wells – The Inexperienced Ghost
Edward Lucas White – Lukundoo

Dorothy L. Sayers – Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery & Horror

Dorothy L. Sayers – Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery & Horror (Gollancz, September 1928)

Margaret Oliphant – The Open Door
Charles Dickens – Story of the Bagman’s Uncle
Charles Collins & Charles Dickens- The Trial for Murder
M. R. James – Martin’s Close
Oliver Onions – Phantas
Robert Hichens – How Love Came to Professor Guildea
Saki – The Open Window
Arthur Machen – The Black Seal
Sax Rohmer – Tcheriapin
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
A. J. Alan – The Hair
E. F. Benson – Mrs. Amworth
Ambrose Bierce – Moxon’s Master
Jerome J. Jerome – The Dancing Partner
Robert Louis Stevenson – Thrawn Janet
R. H. Benson – Father Meuron’s Tale
Marjorie Bowen – The Avenging of Ann Leete
J. F. Sullivan –  The Man With A Malady
William Fryer Harvey – August Heat
Morley Roberts – The Anticipator
Joseph Conrad – The Brute
May Sinclair – Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu – Green Tea
J. D. Beresford – The Misanthrope
John Metcalfe – The Bad Lands
Alfred M. Burrage – Nobody’s House
Arthur Quiller-Couch – The Seventh Man
N. Royde-Smith – Proof
Walter de la Mare – Seaton’s Aunt
Michael Arlen – The Gentleman From America
R. Ellis Roberts – The Narrow Way
Traditional – Sawney Beane
Bram Stoker – The Squaw
Violet Hunt – The Corsican Sisters
Barry Pain – The End of A Show
H. G. Wells – The Cone
Ethel Colburn Mayne – The Separate Room

The first of three epic volumes in this classic series; stories listed are the Mystery & Horror content only.  Series II and III to follow ASAP

Arrow Book of Horror Stories

Anonymous (ed.) – Arrow Book of Horror Stories (1965)

Arrow Book of Horror Stories

Alexander Woollcott – Moonlight Sonata
Arthur Machen – The Novel of the Black Seal
E.F. Benson – Mrs Amworth
F. Marion Crawford – The Upper Berth
H.P. Lovecraft – The Dunwich Horror
Guy de Maupassant – Was it a Dream?
Bram Stoker – The Judge’s House
Charles Collins & Charles Dickens – The Trial for Murder
J.F. Sullivan – The Man With a Malady
Anonymous – Sawny Bean and His Family
Bram Stoker – The Squaw
A.J. Alan – The Hair
Fitz-James O’Brien – What Was It?
H.G. Wells – The Cone
F. Marion Crawford – The Screaming Skull

Thanks to James Doig for providing the cover scan & contents!

Peter Underwood – Thirteen Famous Ghost Stories

Peter Underwood (ed.) – Thirteen Famous Ghost Stories (J. M. Dent Everyman’s Library, 1977)

Ambrose Bierce – The Damned Thing
A. J. Alan – The Dream
E. F. Benson – Caterpillars
Algernon Blackwood – Secret Worship
Charles Dickens – The Signalman
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
M. R. James – Martin’s Close
Rudyard Kipling – They
Lord Lytton – The Haunted and the Haunters
Arthur Machen – Change
E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
Vincent O’Sullivan – When I Was Dead
Edith Wharton – Afterward