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A review by davybaby
Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural by Marvin Kaye
3.0
I read this in fits and starts over the past several years, usually around Halloween. Last year I decided to finish it around Christmas, thinking of the great tradition of spooky tales on Christmas Eve.
Masterpieces is a bit of a stretch. There were definitely some classics, like Goethe's "The Erl King" and Tolkien's "Riddles in the Dark" chapter of The Hobbit. But there were also many low-profile stories by literary greats like Jack London, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Shelley, and Walt Whitman. Most of the stories were low-level spooks, but a few really connected with me:
Orson Scott Card: Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory
Robert Aickman: The Hospice
A.M. Burrage: The Waxwork
The book was charmingly broken into thematic sections irrespective of chronology. This led to interesting transitions between 18th, 19th, and 20th century writers and stylistic jumps within the broad definition of "terror" fiction.
A good read for fans of classic horror, but I don't think I'll be rereading it.
Masterpieces is a bit of a stretch. There were definitely some classics, like Goethe's "The Erl King" and Tolkien's "Riddles in the Dark" chapter of The Hobbit. But there were also many low-profile stories by literary greats like Jack London, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Shelley, and Walt Whitman. Most of the stories were low-level spooks, but a few really connected with me:
Orson Scott Card: Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory
Robert Aickman: The Hospice
A.M. Burrage: The Waxwork
The book was charmingly broken into thematic sections irrespective of chronology. This led to interesting transitions between 18th, 19th, and 20th century writers and stylistic jumps within the broad definition of "terror" fiction.
A good read for fans of classic horror, but I don't think I'll be rereading it.