Fifty tales of terror and horror by masters of the genre. They range from Bianca's Hands, by Theodore Sturgeon, in which a man becomes obsessed with a girl's hands, to Jack Snow's Midnight, the story of an occultist who is attacked by demons.

Offers horror stories by Poe, Stoker, Wells, Bierce, Lovecraft, Faulkner, and modern writers such as King, Sheckley, and Joyce Carol Oates

While the numinous and heavily psychological aspects of the Gothic have received serious attention, studies do not tend to examine the relation of the Gothic supernatural to the very different backgrounds of 18th-century and Victorian belief. This study examines the rise of the form, the artistic difficulties experienced by its early practitioners, and the transformation of the original problem-ridden Gothic works into the successful Victorian tales of unearthly terror. In doing so, this study makes a distinct contribution to our grasp of the Gothic and of the links between literature and religion.

Selected by Marvin Kaye and Saralee Kaye.

Classic and contemporary ghost tales from five regions of the United States are presented.