Daisy Butcher (ed.) – Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic

Daisy Butcher (ed.) – Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic (British Library, 2019)

Enrique Bernardou

Cover design by Maurico Villamayor

Daisy Butcher – Introduction

Nathaniel Hawthorne – Rappaccini’s Daughter
Arthur Conan Doyle – The American’s Tale
Lucy H. Hooper – Carnivorine
Charlotte Perkins Gilman – The Giant Wistaria
H.G. Wells – The Flowering of the Strange Orchid
Edmond Nolcini – The Guardian of Mystery Island
M.R. James – The Ash Tree
Ambrose Bierce – A Vine on a House
Howard R. Garis – Professor Jonkin’s Cannibal Plant
William Hope Hodgson – The Voice in the Night
Edith Nesbit – The Pavilion
H.C. McNeile – The Green Death
Abraham Merritt – The Woman of the Wood
Emma Vane – The Moaning Lily

Blurb:
Strangling vines and meat-hungry flora fill this unruly garden of strange stories, selected for their significance as the seeds of the villainous (or perhaps just misunderstood) “killer plant” in fiction, film, and video games.
Step within to marvel at Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s giant wistaria and H. G. Wells’ hungry orchid; hear the calls of the ethereal women of the wood, and the frightful drone of the moaning lily; and do tread carefully around E. Nesbit’s wandering creepers…
Every strain of vegetable threat (and one deadly fungus) can be found within this new collection, representing the very best tales from the undergrowth of Gothic fiction.

Stephanie Dowrick (ed.) – Classic Tales of Horror

Stephanie Dowrick (ed.) – Classic Tales of Horror  (Book Club, 1976; originally Constable, 1976)

Suzanne Perkins

Stephanie Dowrick – Introduction

Edgar Allen Poe – The Black Cat
Charles Dickens – To Be Taken With a Grain Of Salt
Sheridan Le Fanu – Spectre Lovers
Wilkie Collins – The Dream Woman
Mrs. Oliphant – The Open Door
Elizabeth Braddon – The Cold Embrace
Ambrose Bierce – The Moonlit Road
Henry James – The Romance Of Certain Old Clothes
Bram Stoker – The Judge’s House
Guy De Maupassant – The Hand
Robert Louis Stevenson – The Body-Snatcher
Francis Marion Crawford – The Screaming Skull
Charlotte Perkins Gilman – The Yellow Wallpaper
M. R. James – Lost Hearts
Algernon Blackwood – Keeping His Promise
Saki – The Music On The Hill
Hugh Walpole – Tarnhelm

Alan C Jenkins (ed.) – Thin Air

Alan C Jenkins (ed.) – Thin Air   (Blackie, 1966)

Alan C. Jenkins – Introduction
M. R. James- The Treasure of Abbot Thomas
Algernon Blackwood – Running Wolf
Andrew Lang – The Ghost of Glam
S. L. Sadhu – The Haunted Mosque
Oscar Wilde – The Canterville Ghost
Sir Arthur Grimble – The Whistling Ghosts
Elliott O’Donnell – A Ghost in the Ring
Warren Armstrong  – A Phantom of the Seas
Francis Hayley Bell – The Unforgiving Garden
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
H. G. Wells – The Inexperienced Ghost
W. H. Barrett – The Ghost of a Saint
Rudyard Kipling – My Own True Ghost Story
Charles Downing – The Death Watch
Saki – The Open Window
Guy de Maupassant – An Apparition
Washington Irving – The Spectre Bridegroom
William Fryer Harvey  – Sambo
 Edgar Allan Poe – William Wilson
Richard Middleton – The Ghost Ship
Hugh Walpole – A Little Ghost
Charles Dickens – The Signal-Man
E. F. Benson – The House with the Brick-Kiln
Arthur Quiller-Couch  – A Pair of Hands
Oliver Onions – Phantas
A. E. D. Smith – The Coat
Roger Lancelyn Green – The Story of Admetus
Ambrose Bierce – The Stranger
Geoffrey Palmer & Noel Lloyd – The Haunted Forest
Alexander Woollcott  – Full Fathom Five

Elizabeth Lee (ed.) – Spine Chillers

Elizabeth Lee (ed.) – Spine Chillers: an Anthology of Mystery and Horror  (Elek, 1961)

Edgar Allan Poe – The Pit and the Pendulum
Edgar Allan Poe – The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe – Berenice
Charles Dickens  – No. 1 Branch Line, the Signalman
Charles Dickens  – The Trial for Murder (Aka To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt)
Wilkie Collins – A Terribly Strange Bed
Sir Walter Besant & James Rice – The Case of Mr. Lucraft
Ambrose Bierce – A Watcher by the Dead
F. Marion Crawford – The Screaming Skull
E. Nesbit – Man-Size in Marble
E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
M. R. James –  The Mezzotint
Arthur Machen – The Novel of the White Powder
H. G. Wells – Pollock and the Porroh Man
H. G. Wells – The Red Room
Edward Lucas White – Lukundoo
E. F. Benson – In the Tube
E. F. Benson – At the Farmhouse
Vincent O’Sullivan – When I Was Dead
Vincent O’Sullivan – The Business of Madame Jahn
Algernon Blackwood – The Strange Adventures of a Private Secretary in New York
Oliver Onions – Benlian
Oliver Onions – Phantas
May Sinclair – Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched
William Hope Hodgson – The Voice in the Night
Lord Dunsany – The Bureau d’Echange de Maux
H. Russell Wakefield  – That Dieth Not
H. P. Lovecraft- The Thing on the Doorstep
H. P. Lovecraft – Cool Air
H. P. Lovecraft – The Outsider
L. P. Hartley – A Visitor from Down Under
William Faulkner – A Rose for Emily
Elizabeth Bowen – The Cat Jumps
Pamela Hansford Johnson – Ghost of Honour
Robert Bloch – Catnip
Robert Bloch – Enoch
Muriel Spark – The Portobello Road
Ray Bradbury – Skeleton

Richard Dalby – The Anthology Of Ghost Stories

Richard Dalby (ed.) – The Anthology Of Ghost Stories (Tiger, 1994)

Robert Aickman – The Unsettled Dust
Louisa Baldwin – How He Left the Hotel
Nugent Barker – Whessoe
E.F. Benson – The Shuttered Room
Ambrose Bierce – An Inhabitant of Carcosa
Charles Birkin – Is there Anybody there?
Algenon Blackwood – The Whisperers
L.M. Boston – Curfew
A.M. Burrage – I’m Sure it was No. 31
Ramsey Campbell – The Guide
R. Chetwynd-Hayes – The Limping Ghost
Wilkie Collins – Mrs Zant and the Ghost
Basil Copper – The House by the Tarn
Ralph A. Cram – In Kropfsberg Keep
Daniel Defoe – The Ghost in all the Rooms
Charles Dickens – The Bagman’s Uncle
Arthur Conan-Doyle – The Bully of Brocas Court
Amelia B. Edwards – In the Confessional
Shamus Frazer – The Tune in Dan’s Cafe
John S. Glasby – Beyond the Bourne
William Hope Hodgson – The Valley of Lost Children
Fergus Hume – The Sand-Walker
Henry James – The Real Right Thing
M.R. James – The Haunted Dolls’ House
Roger Johnson – The Wall-Painting
Rudyard Kipling – They
D.H. Lawrence – The Last Laugh
Margery Lawrence – Robin’s Rath
J. Sheridan Le Fanu – The Dream
R.H. Malden – The Sundial
Richard Marsh – The Fifteenth Man
John Metcalfe – Brenner’s Boy
Edith Nesbit – Uncle Abraham’s Romance
Fitz-James O’Brien – What was It?
Vincent O’Sullivan – The Next Room
Roger Pater – The Footstep of the Aventine
Edgar Allan Poe – William Wilson
Forrest Reid – Courage
Mrs J.H. Riddell – The Last of Squire Ennismore
L.T.C. Rolt – The Garside Fell Disaster
David G. Rowlands – The Tears of St. Agatha
Saki – The Soul of Laploshka

I’m guessing Tiger were an instant remainder imprint?

If you’re looking for an A-S of great ghost story authors, this is one for you! At first glance a straight reprint of Richard Dalby’s Mammoth Book Of Ghost Stories Vol 1, closer inspection reveals they’d not set aside enough pages so once we’re done with Saki’s story there’s no more room making the reference to Mark Twain on the cover entirely spurious. Worse, the stories gone AWOL include some of the best in the volume:
——————————————–
Sapper – The Old Dining-Room
Montague Summers – The Between-Maid
Mark Twain – A Ghost Story
Mark Valentine – The Folly
H. Russell Wakefield – Out of the Wrack I Rise
Karl Edward Wagner – In the Pines
Manly Wade Wellman – Where Angels Fear
Edward Lucas White – The House of the Nightmare
Oscar Wilde – The Canterville Ghost
William J. Wintle – The Spectre Spiders

Readers Digest – Great Ghost Stories

Readers Digest – Great Ghost Stories (Readers Digest, 1997)

Robert Wheeler & Tony Stone

The Editors – Introduction

Robert Aickman – Ringing The Changes
Cynthia Asquith – The Corner Shop
A. L. Barker – The Whip Hand
Ambrose Bierce – A Tough Tussle
Algernon Blackwood – Transition
Ray Bradbury – The Crowd
Ann Bridge – The Buick Saloon
Rhoda Broughton – The Truth, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth
A. M. Burrage – Smee
A. S. Byatt – The July Ghost
B. M. Croker – ‘To Let’
Robertson Davies – The Ghost Who Vanished By Degrees
Walter de la Mare – Seaton’s Aunt
Charles Dickens – No. 1 Branch Line: The Signalman
Lord Dunsany – August Cricket
Elizabeth Fancett – The Ghost Of Calagou
Frederick Forsyth – The Shepherd
Shamus Frazer  – Florinda
Elizabeth Gaskell – The Old Nurse’s Story
Graham Greene – A Little Place Of The Edgware Road
L. P. Hartley – Someone In The Lift
William Hope Hodgson – The Gateway Of The Monster
Thomas Hood – The Shadow Of A Shade
Holloway Horn – The Old Man
Elizabeth Jane Howard – Three Miles Up
Henry James – The Romance Of Certain Old Clothes
M. R. James – The Ash Tree
Rudyard Kipling – The Phantom Rickshaw
Marghanita Laski – The Tower
J. S. le Fanu – Shalken The Painter
Penelope Lively – Black Dog
Alison Lurie – The Highboy
W. Somerset Maugham – The Taipan
Guy de Maupassant – An Apparition
E. Nesbit – Man-size In Marble
Edgar Allan Poe – William Wilson
Alexander Pushkin – The Queen Of Spades
Jean Rhys – I Used To Live Here Once
Robert Louis Stevenson – The Body-snatcher
Bram Stoker – The Judge’s House
Elizabeth Taylor – Poor Girl
H. R. Wakefield – Blind Man’s Buff
Elizabeth Walter – Dual Control
Fay Weldon – Breakages
Oscar Wilde – The Canterville Ghost
Emile Zola – Angeline, or The Haunted House

Blurb:

If you enjoy reading about elusive spirits and uncanny happenings, bizarre hauntings and malevolent ghosts, this is the volume for you. It brings together forty-six of the very best ghost stories ever written.

There are unforgettable classics from the great masters of the ghost story such as M. R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Ambrose Bierce, Edith Nesbit and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Then there are wonderfully macabre tales from world-famous authors such as Charles Dickens, Alexander Pushkin, Guy de Maupassant and Graham Greene, as well as gems from some of today’s best writers including Ray Bradbury, A. S. Byatt, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Penelope Lively, Fay Weldon and Frederick Forsyth.

This is a collection to entertain and intrigue, to terrify and to tantalise … to chill you to the bone. You have been warned!

John Edgell – Ghosts

John Edgell (ed.) – Ghosts (Firefly, 1970)

John Edgell – Introduction

John Edgell – The Funeral
John Edgell – May I Join You?
John Edgell – All Change
John Edgell – Skin Deep
John Edgell – For Appearance’s Sake
John Edgell – The Screaming Skull
John Edgell – The Number Thirteen Bus
John Edgell – Summons From Altica
John Edgell – Nightwatch
John Edgell – Just Married
John Edgell – The Hallowe’en Party
John Edgell – The Last Programme
John Edgell – Old Wine In New Bottles
John Edgell – Dead – And Buried?
John Edgell – Four Twenty-Four Previously
John Edgell – Dead Line
John Edgell – A Night With The Mummies
John Edgell – Purr
John Edgell – The Perfect Murder
John Edgell – Night Flyer
John Edgell – The Invitation
John Edgell – The Diary Of John Pilgrim
John Edgell – Walking On Your Grave
John Edgell – Bookworm
John Edgell – The Summer House On The Lake
John Edgell – Did You See the Window-cleaner?
John Edgell – The Mahogany Wardrobe
John Edgell – The Portrait
John Edgell – Accident Black Spot
John Edgell – Davy Jones
John Edgell – Bones
John Edgell – A Desirable Residence

Ambrose Bierce – a Tough Tussle
E. F. Benson – Caterpillars
Richard Middleton –  On The Brighton Road
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
E & H. Heron – The Story Of The Spaniards, Hammersmith
E. Nesbit – Man-Size In Marble
Vincent O’Sullivan – When I Was Dead
E & H. Heron – The Story Of Yand Manor House
Vincent O’Sullivan – The Business Of Madame Jahn
E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
Ambrose Bierce – The Man And The Snake

Anonymous – Tales Of Horror & Mystery

Anonymous – Tales Of Horror & Mystery (Dean, 1993)

Luis Rey

Horror Stories

Roald Dahl – The Landlady
Walter De La Mare – The Riddle
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Ruth Ainsworth – Through The Door
E. Nesbit – Man-Size In Marble
Edgar Allan Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart
Helen Cresswell – A Kind Of Swan Song
Gene Kemp – The Clock Tower Ghost
Robert Arthur – The Haunted Trailer
Ambrose Bierce – The Stranger
Walter De La Mare – Bad Company
Michael Joseph – The Yellow Cat
W. W. Jacobs – The Well
Saki – Laura
Joan Aiken – The Swan Child
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Brown Hand
H. G. Wells – The Red Room

Mystery Stories

Joan Aiken – The Blade
M. R. James – Lost Hearts
Charles Dickens – The Signalman
Oscar Wilde – The Picture Of Dorian Gray (Extract)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Silver Mirror
Bret Harte – The Stolen Cigar Case
Honore De Balzac – The Mysterious Mansion
Nicholas Fisk – Sweets From A Stranger
Roald Dahl – The Hitch-Hiker
Wilkie Collins – The Dream Woman
Edgar Allan Poe – The Masque Of The Red Death
Karen Blixen – The Sailor Boy’s Tale
Guy de Maupassant – The Horla
Theophile Gautier – The Mummy’s Foot

Blurb:
“It is very seldom that one encounters what would appear to be sheer unadulterated evil in a human face; an evil, I mean, active, deliberate, deadly, dangerous.”

This anthology contains more than thirty spine-chilling stories by contemporary and classic writers, drawing us into a world of ghosts, demons and horrific happenings.

In Walter de la Mare’s Bad Company who is the evil-looking stranger on the Underground who leads us to a frightening discovery? And in Roald Dahl’s The Landlady what sinister secret is the mysterious proprietress of the guesthouse witholding from her unsuspecting guest?

These startling and compelling stories by some of the world’s greatest writers will enthrall readers to the very last page.

Michael Newton – The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories

Michael Newton (ed.) – The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (Penguin, Feb 2010, £10.99)

Acknowledgements
Chronology Of The Ghost Story 1820-1914
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note On The Texts

Elizabeth Gaskell – The Old Nurse’s Story
Fitz-James O’Brien – What Was It?
Edward Bulwer Lytton – The Haunted And The Haunters: or, The House And The Brain
Mary E. Braddon – The Cold Embrace
Amelia B. Edwards – The North Mail
Charles Dickens – No 1 Branch Line: The Signalman
J. S. Le Fanu – Green Tea
Harriet Beecher Stowe – The Ghost In The Cap’n Brown House
Robert Louis Stevenson – Thrawn Janet
Margaret Oliphant – The Open Door
Rudyard Kipling – At The End Of The Passage
Lafcadio Hearn – Nightmare Touch
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman – The Wind In The Rose-Bush
M. R. James – “Oh Whistle, And I’ll Come To You, My Lad”
Ambrose Bierce – The Moonlit Road
Henry James – The Jolly Corner
Mary Austin – The Readjustment
Edith Wharton – Afterward

Glossary Of Scots Words
Biographical And Explanatory Notes

Blurb:
‘The ghost is the most enduring figure in supernatural fiction. He is absolutely indestructible… He changes with the styles in fiction but he never goes out of fashion. He is the really permanent citizen of the earth, for mortals, at best, are but transients’ – Dorothy Scarborough

This new selection of ghost stories, by Michael Newton, brings together the best of the genre. From Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘The Old Nurse’s Story’ through to Edith Wharton’s ‘Afterword’, this collection covers all of the most terrifying tales of the genre. With a thoughtful introduction, and helpful notes, Newton places the stories contextually within the genre and elucidates the changing nature of the ghost story and how we interpret it.

Stephen Jones & Dave Carson – H.P. Lovecraft’s Book Of Horror

Stephen Jones & Dave Carson (eds.) – H.P. Lovecraft’s Book Of Horror (Robinson, 1994)

H. P. Lovecraft – Supernatural Horror In Literature

Charles Dickens – The Signalman
E. Bulwer-Lytton – The House and the Brain
R L Stevenson – The Bodysnatcher
Hanns Heinz Ewers – The Spider
Theophile Gautier – The Foot of the Mummy
Guy De Maupassant – The Horla
Edgar Allan Poe – The Fall of the House of Usher
Ambrose Bierce – The Damned Thing
F Marion Crawford – The Upper Berth
Robert W Chambers – The Yellow Sign
Mary Wilkins Freeman – The Shadows on the Wall
Ralph Adams Cram – The Dead Valley
Irwin S Cobb – Fishhead
Edward Lucas White – Lukundoo
Clark Ashton Smith – The Double Shadow
Rudyard Kipling – The Mark of the Beast
E F Benson – Negotium Perambulans
Hugh Walpole – Mrs Lunt
William Hope Hodgson – The Hog
Arthur Machen – The Great God Pan
M R James – Count Magnus

Stephen Jones – Lovecraft and the ‘Literature of Cosmic Fear’