My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/Fci9xrJToYs

Enjoy! ( )

Good-but-not-great compendium of horror stories originally published in 1981 and since reissued under a number of different titles (Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural, The Giant Book of Horror Stories, et al.). It covers a lot of ground, but much of the book reflects the very individual tastes of its editors...and, particularly amongst the more recent material, this leads to the ill-advised inclusion of stories which, even by the loosest definition, struggle to qualify as "horror." Hence a couple of pointless, uninvolving vignettes like Arthur L. Samuels's "Mass Without Voices" and Elizabeth Morton's "Namesake," and a longer story such as editor Bill Pronzini's "Black Wind." (Pronzini wrote at least one bang-up horror tale, "Peekaboo," and it's the one that should have appeared in this collection.) Most of the earlier stories are fantastic, however, and Truman Capote's chilling "Shut a Final Door" demonstrates that horror can be found in atypical locations. There's a curious lack of emphasis on English authors, who were incredibly important to the development of ghost and horror stories. You may find it difficult to imagine a book that purports to trace the history of the genre yet includes nothing by M.R. James or Algernon Blackwood, but here it is. (However, James's favorite ghost story writer--the Irishman Sheridan Le Fanu--is represented with "Squire Toby's Will," one of his greatest works.)

All in all there's some terrific stuff, including less frequently anthologized tales by Poe ("Hop Frog") and Nathaniel Hawthorne ("Rappaccini's Daughter"), as well as undisputed classics by Henry James ("The Jolly Corner"), Lovecraft ("Pickman's Model") and Karl Edward Wagner ("Sticks"). The intro was written by Stephen King, who also contributes one of his best and most overtly horrific stories ("The Crate," later dramatized in George Romero's 1982 film Creepshow). Not a comprehensive anthology, but a very readable one for the most part. ( )

Excellent anthology. Highly recommended. ( )