Great Tales of Terror

These 23 chilling tales tell of the returning dead, haunted places, weird creatures, and the supernatural in "The Return of the Soul" by Robert Hichens, "The Mummy's Foot" by Theophile Gautier,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 048641938X
• ISBN13: 9780486419381
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

An Interesting Anthology

A homicidal tortoise, a man's head changes into that of a criminal with whom he has been drinking, and a observer follows the dead into a series of caves where, like Dante, they observe their torments. These are a few of the subject covered by this book of weird tales. As noted by reviewer Rory Coker the stories are divided into categories dealing with haunted places, weird creatures, and fantasy. The stories cover a period roughly from the mid-19th century into the early decades of the 20th. One of stories that caught my attention was "The Mummies Foot" by Theophile Gautier, which I had read years before and did not have in any anthologies I currently have. Like many anthologies of tales of terror the stories can be a bit uneven. I found H. L. Mencken's "The Windows of Horror" more of an amusing satire on the designers of women's clothing, although there is a connection to the "House of Wax" films. "The Graven Image" of William Sharp is a well written and conceived ghost story. There also are other familiar names in the collection that do not disappoint: Lafcadio Hearn's tale warns us not to make promises we cannot keep; Ambroise Bierce is his irreverent self as he talks to a demon and Sheridan Lefanu's shady astrologer. While not all of the stories are on the same level this is a collection worth investigating. The book itself is well-made, as one expects from Dover, with type of a good size and a sturdy binding that is made to last.