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jeanne_i_d's review against another edition
4.0
“Several “five star” reads here mixed in with many “not so five star” selections. I am not sure how I stumbled across this collection in the first place but it was worth it just to discover Angus Wilson and his “Raspberry Jam” and to read “Our Feathered Friends” by Phillip MacDonald. Most of the authors and many of the other selections I have read before including some of my favorites “August Heat”, “Mars is Heaven”, “Oh Whistle…” and “A Rose for Emily”.
susysstories's review
dark
slow-paced
2.5
“…Cinema provides you with the pictures, channels you visually. Oddly, people still read the book of the film even after having seen the film. The images must be yours for the horror, to be yours. When you read horror the images are yours, personally. They bypass the censor. The shape they take is you, no getting away from it; words wriggle into your brain and fester. The poison is of your own manufacture.”
I’m not a big fan of short stories. On top of that many of these were quite boring, had me wondering why they were included in this short story collection. And to make it even worse there were 751 pages of tiny lettering. I experienced quite a relief when I reached the last page. Luckily there were some stories that were ok/good.
1. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe ***.5
2. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe **.5
3. The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe ***
4. The Torture of Hope by Villiers de l’Isle Adam **.5
5. An Episode of the Terror by Honoré de Balzac **
6. The Hand by Guy de Maupassant ***
7. The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy ***
8. The Idiots by Joseph Conrad *
9. The Bird by Thomas Burke ***
10. The Terror by Arthur Machen **
11. Lot No. 249 by Arthur Conan Doyle ***.5
12. The Apprentice by Hilaire Belloc *
13. The Sentence by J. Kaden-Bandrowski *
14. The Killers by Ernest Hemingway *
15. Arabesque: the Mouse by A. E. Coppard *
16. Treasure Trove by F. Tennyson Jesse ***
17. Cinci by Luigi Pirandello *
18. Suspicion by Dorothy L. Sayers ***
19. The Last Chukka by Alec Waugh **
20. Dead on Her Feet by Cornell Woolrich ***
21. Taboo by Geoffrey Household ***
22. A Little Place off the Edgware Road by Graham Greene ***
23. The Words of Guru by CM Kornbluth **.5
24. Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch ****
25. The Glass Eye by John Keir Cross ***.5
26. The Web by D’Arcy Niland *.5
27. The Little Black Bag by CM Kornbluth ***.5
28. The Physiology of Fear by CS Forrester **
29. The Head and the Feet by CS Forrester *.5
30. The Veld by Ray Bradbury ***
31. Skeleton by Ray Bradbury ***
32. Evening Primrose by John Collier **
33. Back from the Grave by Robert Silverberg ***.5
34. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner **
35. The Island of Bright Birds by John Christopher **
36. The Comforts of Home by Flannery O’Connor *
37. The Skylight by Penelope Nortimer *
38. Pig by Roald Dahl ****
39. The Question by Stanley Ellin **.5
40. In the Steam Room by Frank Baker **.5
41. The Pencil by Edmund Crispin ***
42. The Dark of the Moon by Olaf Ruhen **.5
43. Falling Object by William Brittain ***
44. The Terrapin by Patricia Highsmith **
45. The Taste of Your Love by Eddy C. Bertin ***
46. Aunt Jennie’s Tonic by Leonard Tushnet **.5
47. Not After Midnight by Daphne du Maurier ***
48. The Game by Thomasina Weber ***.5
49. The Fanatic by Arthur Porges ***.5
50. The Whimper of Whipped Dogs by Harlan Ellison *.5
51. Judas Story by Brian M. Stableford *
52. You’re Putting Me On - Aren’t You? by Joe Gores**
53. Wake Up Dead by Tim Stout ***.5
54. Corabella by David Fletcher ***
I’m not a big fan of short stories. On top of that many of these were quite boring, had me wondering why they were included in this short story collection. And to make it even worse there were 751 pages of tiny lettering. I experienced quite a relief when I reached the last page. Luckily there were some stories that were ok/good.
1. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe ***.5
2. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe **.5
3. The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe ***
4. The Torture of Hope by Villiers de l’Isle Adam **.5
5. An Episode of the Terror by Honoré de Balzac **
6. The Hand by Guy de Maupassant ***
7. The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy ***
8. The Idiots by Joseph Conrad *
9. The Bird by Thomas Burke ***
10. The Terror by Arthur Machen **
11. Lot No. 249 by Arthur Conan Doyle ***.5
12. The Apprentice by Hilaire Belloc *
13. The Sentence by J. Kaden-Bandrowski *
14. The Killers by Ernest Hemingway *
15. Arabesque: the Mouse by A. E. Coppard *
16. Treasure Trove by F. Tennyson Jesse ***
17. Cinci by Luigi Pirandello *
18. Suspicion by Dorothy L. Sayers ***
19. The Last Chukka by Alec Waugh **
20. Dead on Her Feet by Cornell Woolrich ***
21. Taboo by Geoffrey Household ***
22. A Little Place off the Edgware Road by Graham Greene ***
23. The Words of Guru by CM Kornbluth **.5
24. Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch ****
25. The Glass Eye by John Keir Cross ***.5
26. The Web by D’Arcy Niland *.5
27. The Little Black Bag by CM Kornbluth ***.5
28. The Physiology of Fear by CS Forrester **
29. The Head and the Feet by CS Forrester *.5
30. The Veld by Ray Bradbury ***
31. Skeleton by Ray Bradbury ***
32. Evening Primrose by John Collier **
33. Back from the Grave by Robert Silverberg ***.5
34. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner **
35. The Island of Bright Birds by John Christopher **
36. The Comforts of Home by Flannery O’Connor *
37. The Skylight by Penelope Nortimer *
38. Pig by Roald Dahl ****
39. The Question by Stanley Ellin **.5
40. In the Steam Room by Frank Baker **.5
41. The Pencil by Edmund Crispin ***
42. The Dark of the Moon by Olaf Ruhen **.5
43. Falling Object by William Brittain ***
44. The Terrapin by Patricia Highsmith **
45. The Taste of Your Love by Eddy C. Bertin ***
46. Aunt Jennie’s Tonic by Leonard Tushnet **.5
47. Not After Midnight by Daphne du Maurier ***
48. The Game by Thomasina Weber ***.5
49. The Fanatic by Arthur Porges ***.5
50. The Whimper of Whipped Dogs by Harlan Ellison *.5
51. Judas Story by Brian M. Stableford *
52. You’re Putting Me On - Aren’t You? by Joe Gores**
53. Wake Up Dead by Tim Stout ***.5
54. Corabella by David Fletcher ***
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