About the Book
A masterful collection of horror fiction by widely acclaimed authors whose contributions to the genre have been lost in the shadow of Poe
Edgar Allan Poe did not invent the tale of terror. There were American, English, and Continental writers who preceded Poe and influenced his work. Similarly, there were many who were in turn influenced by Poe's genius and produced their own popular tales of supernatural literature. This collection features masterful tales of terror by authors who, by and large, are little-remembered for their writing in this genre. Even Bram Stoker, whose Dracula may be said to be the most popular horror novel of all time, is not known as a writer of short fiction.
Distinguished editor Leslie S. Klinger is a world-renowned authority on those twin icons of the Victorian age, Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. His studies into the forefathers of those giants led him to a broader fascination with writers of supernatural literature of the nineteenth century. The stories in this collection have been selected by him for their impact. Each is preceded by a brief biography of the author and an overview of his or her literary career and is annotated to explain obscure references.
Read on, now, perhaps with a flickering candle or flashlight at hand ...
Stories by Ambrose Bierce, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Théophile Gautier, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lafcadio Hearn, M. R. James, Bram Stoker, and many others
About the Author :
Leslie S. Klinger, one of the world's foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes, is the Edgar Award-winning editor of the three-volume set The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes.
Leslie S. Klinger, one of the world's foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes, is the Edgar Award-winning editor of the three-volume set The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes.
Ambrose Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. Ambrose Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish author and the leading writer of gothic and mystery stories of the time, helping develop the genre in the Victorian Era. His most widely-read works are Uncle Silas, In a Glass Darkly, and Carmilla.
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish author and the leading writer of gothic and mystery stories of the time, helping develop the genre in the Victorian Era. His most widely-read works are Uncle Silas, In a Glass Darkly, and Carmilla.
Traber Burns worked for thirty-five years in regional theater and has appeared in many television productions and commercials, including Lost, Without a Trace, Grey's Anatomy, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, and others.
With acting credits that span stage and screen, Gildart Jackson is most often recognized for his role as Gideon on Charmed. Other notable TV roles include Jackson Palmer on Providence and Simon Prentiss on General Hospital, as well as guest appearances on Stargate: Atlantis, Las Vegas, and CSI. Theater roles include Trigorin in The Seagull, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, and Adrian in Private Eyes at the Old Globe. Saskia Maarleveld is a voice-over actress and an Earphones Award-winning narrator.
James Langton trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner, he has performed many voice-overs and narrated numerous audiobooks, including the international bestseller The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud by Julia Navarro, The Virtues of War by Steven Pressfield, and The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan. He is also a professional musician who led the internationally renowned Pasadena Roof Orchestra from 1996 to 2002. James was born in York, England, and is now based in New York City. John Lescault, a native of Massachusetts, is a graduate of the Catholic University of America. He lives in Washington, DC, where he works in theater.
Keith Szarabajka has appeared in many films, including The Dark Knight, Missing, and A Perfect World, and on such television shows as The Equalizer, Angel, Cold Case, Golden Years, and Profit. Szarabajka has also appeared in several episodes of Selected Shorts for National Public Radio. He won the 2001 Audie Award for Unabridged Fiction for his reading of Tom Robbins's Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and has won several Earphones Awards.
Tavia Gilbert has recorded hundreds of titles across a wide span of genres, including Erica Spindler, romantic thrillers; John Scalzi, science fiction; and Jeanienne Frost, fantasy. She has received four Audie nominations and has won three AudioFile Earphones Awards for the titles The Obituary Writer, Sing Them Home, and The Day of the Pelican. In addition to voice acting, Gilbert is an accomplished producer, singer, and theater actor.
Marguerite Gavin is a seasoned theater veteran, a five-time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award, and the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones and Publishers Weekly awards. Marguerite has been an actor, director, and audiobook narrator for her entire professional career. With over four hundred titles to her credit, her narration spans nearly every genre, from nonfiction to mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance, and children's fiction.
Simon Prebble has worked extensively on British and American television as both actor and narrator.
Read by Derek Perkins. Simon Vance (a.k.a. Robert Whitfield) is an award-winning actor and narrator. He has earned more than fifty Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration thirteen times. He was named Booklist's very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London. He is also an actor who has appeared on both stage and television.
Review :
"Klinger mixes well-known and obscure authors in this solid anthology of twenty short tales of terror...This volume provides a good introduction to dark fiction of an earlier age."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
