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

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 ….

A Century Of Ghost Stories

Anon [Dorothy M. Thomlinson?] (ed.) – A Century Of Ghost Stories (Hutchinson, 1935)

Many thanks to Richard Humphreys who kindly provided this enchanting dust-jacket scan.

J. Sheridan Le Fanu – The Familiar
J. Sheridan Le Fanu – Green Tea
Cecil Binney – The Saint And The Vicar
Sir Walter Scott – The Tapestried Chamber
Anthony Gittins – Gibbet Lane
Mrs Gaskell – The Old Nurse’s Story
M.R. James – The Residence At Whitminster
M.R. James – A Warning To The Curious
Sir Edward Bulwer- Lytton – The Haunted And The Haunters
Walter De La Mare – The Green Room
Miss Braddon – Eveline’s Visitant
Edith Wharton – Afterward
Ambrose Bierce – The Middle Toe Of The Right Foot
F. Marion Crawford – Man Overboard!
Shane Leslie – In A Glass Dimly
Shane Leslie – The Lord-In-Waiting
Bram Stoker – Dracula’s Guest
E.F. Benson – Expiation
E.F. Benson – Pirates
Algernon Blackwood – The Woman’s Ghost Story
Percival Landon – Thurnley Abbey
Oliver Onions – The Rosewood Door
Vernon Lee – The Virgin Of The Seven Daggers
Mrs Oliphant – The Library Window
Ann Bridge – The Song In The House
Violet Hunt – The Operation
Ex-Private X – The Sweeper
Ex-Private X – The Running Tide
W.L. George – Perez
——————–
R. H. Barham – The Spectre Of Tappington
Amelia B. Edwards – The Phantom Coach
Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Grey Champion
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown
Wilkie Collins – The Dream Woman
Frederick Marryat – The Werewolf
Charles Dickens – The Story Of The Bagman’s Uncle
E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
Edgar Allan Poe – Berenice
Frederich Von Schiller – The Ghost-Seer
Alan Cunningham – The Haunted Ships
Ludwig Tieck – The Klausenburg
R. S. Hawker – The Bothanon Ghost
George Eliot – The Lifted Veil

A Century Of Ghost Stories (1936) is a much extended edition of the previous year’s Fifty Years Of Ghost Stories which includes only the stories listed above the dotted line (i.e., from Le Fanu’s The Familiar through to W. L. George’s Perez).

Detail from cover of 50 Years Of Ghost Stories provided by All Things Horror

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

Dennis Wheatley – Uncanny Tales 1

Dennis Wheatley (ed.) – Uncanny Tales 1 [# 9] (Sphere, 1974)

Sheridan Le Fanu – Carmilla
Wilkie Collins – The Dream Woman
Sir Walter Scott – The Tapestried Chamber
Mrs Oliphant – The Open Door
Washington Irving – The Spectre Bridegroom
Edgar Allen Poe – Ligeia
Théophile Gautier – Clarimonde

Thanks to Bob Rothwell of Dennis Wheatly Info for providing the list of contents. RIP, Bob.

Vere H. Collins – Ghosts and Marvels

Vere H. Collins – Ghosts and Marvels: A Selection Of Uncanny Tales from Daniel Defoe to Algernon Blackwood (H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1924)

M. R. James – Introduction

Daniel Defoe – The Apparition Of Mrs. Veal
Walter Scott – Wandering Willie’s Tale
F. Marryat – The Werewolf
Lord Lytton – The Haunted And The Haunters; or, The House and the Brain
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown
Edgar A. Poe – Ligeia
J. S. Le Fanu – A Strange Event In The Life of Schalken the Painter George Eliot – The Lifted Veil
Mrs. Oliphant – The Open Door
R. L. Stevenson – The Body-snatcher
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
H. G. Wells – The Crystal Egg
Algernon Blackwood – Ancient Sorceries
Barry Pain – The Moon-slave
M. R. James – Casting the Runes

Dennis Wheatley – Quiver Of Horror

Dennis Wheatley (ed.) – Quiver Of Horror (Arrow, 1964)

Introduction – Dennis Wheatley

Margaret Irwin – The Earlier Service
Mrs. Oliphant – The Open Door
Saki – The Music On The Hill
F. Tennyson Jesse – The Canary
Ex Private X (A. M. Burrage) – Smee
Ex Private X (A. M. Burrage) – One Who Saw
William Younger – The Angelus
Theodore Drieser – The Hand
M. R. James – The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas
Bram Stoker – The Judges House
Louis Golding – The Call Of The Hand
Walter De La Mare – All Hallows
William Hope Hodgson – The Whistling Room
Charles Birkin – A Right To Know
Dennis Wheatley – A Life For A Life

A new introduction (repeated in both volumes) and the two Birkin stories would be reason enough for some of us to buy this. The C. E. Montague war story is a forgotten gem (the sweepstake involves betting on which of you will be next to die), otherwise the best of this stuff is more easily obtainable elsewhere.