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5.0 von 5 Sternen
Indispensible for Ghost Story Lovers, 29. Dezember 1998
I've read all the stories in this book at least 3 times. Most of the times I skip around, but twice I've read straight through -- the stories are so consistently good, and, though wide ranging, complement each other so well. These are NOT horror stories. Horror (to me, at least) implies not only more explicit violence, but also an attitude that reality is, at core, physically and morally chaotic. "Dark Descent" is a horror anthology -- "Great Tales" is for the most part (although "The Great God Pan" and H.P. Lovecraft's 2 stories provide some exception) more old-fashioned "ghost stories," and what mystery genre critics would categorize as "English cozy": pleasant characters, warm surroundings introduced all the better to scare you with later on. The evil is seen through a hole in the curtain, so to speak, and never engulfs. The first group of stories ("Tale of Terror") are not exactly supernatural, but extremely suspenseful, with wonderful denouements. Poe's "The Facts in the Strange Case of M. Valdemar" is wonderfully horrible - a dying man is hypnotised to keep him alive (it turns out to be a mistake, of course). "Suspicion" by Dorothy Sayers is NOT a murder mystery, but a perfectly built-up tale of suspense. I've read it a dozen times and the pace of the story still catches me. "Home for Christmas," in which a nice doctor kills his bossy wife before leaving on vacation, would make a great Hitchcock movie. "Moonlight Sonata" is the short but shocking story of a man who stays overnight at a friend's house and awakens to an unpleasant visitor (not a ghost, but worse). Despite the emphasis on surprise endings, all of these stories have such great style and atmosphere that they are often, if anything, better the 2nd or 3rd time around. The second group, "Tales of the Supernatural," have all the qualities mentioned above but are more wide ranging in terms of imaginativeness. My Man M.R. James fits right in here, of course, and 2 of his best tales - "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" and "Casting the Runes" - are featured. Also Guy de Maupassant ("Was It a Dream?", in which a young lover spends the night mourning the death of his mistress in a cemetery, is fabulous). Also Rudyard Kipling; E.F. Benson; Algernon Blackwood ("Ancient Sorceries" features a mild-mannered Englishman oddly drawn to a small French village with a history of witchcraft); and such great titles as "The Screaming Skull" and "The Haunters and the Haunted or The House and the Brain" which, despite the campy names, will leave you far from laughing. There are stories in this section, also, that would better be categorized as fantasy ("The Celestial Omnibus" and "Adam and Eve and Pinch-me"). I liked them a lot even though I don't usually read fantasy. The majority are SCARY, though, and all are well-written by any standard (Henry James gives us "Sir Edmund Orme" and Ernest Hemingway tells of "The Killers"). If you like a more modern style, more explicit sex and violence, less atmosphere and more cut-to-the-chase, this book probably isn't for you. But if you like good, old-fashioned, solid, subtle, clever writing, with lots of atmosphere as well as great plotting (and you like to be scared), then this is a must-have.
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1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich:
5.0 von 5 Sternen
A Feast of Classic Chills, 24. März 1998
Von Ein Kunde
Despite the best-seller list popularity of horror novels, the horror genre is often best served by brevity. Remember all the ghost stories told around campfires -- the swift build from unease to terror, the surprise ending whispered or shouted in the dark. The short story format may be the ideal medium for serving up such visceral pleasures. Think of this massive anthology as a box of poisoned chocolates -- taken one at a time, the stories are most effective, delightful and only a little unsettling. This book is almost a necessity for serious students of the horror genre, for anyone who wants to know where writers like King and Koontz got their inspiration . . . or for anyone who just likes a good scare. Wise and company's anthology is a classic for many reasons: its historic scope, its inclusion of various types of horror (from "The Monkey's Paw," a brutal little cautionary tale that would be right at home by a campfire to the subtler depiction of obsession and madness in the little-known "The Beckoning Fair One"). There is something for every taste here, from old-fashioned ghost stories to more cerebral suspense. The anthology seems designed to show the range and richness of horror fiction. Of course, concentrating on mass and variety has its drawbacks -- if you are interested in tracing how different strains of the genre developed, you're on your own, because the editors offer no guidance. And despite its size (this is a hefty book; you wouldn't want to carry this with you in your briefcase or backpack) "Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural" is not a comprehensive overview. Types of horror fiction with which modern audiences are more familiar are under-represented. There is little violence, despite the presence of so much death; the collection may even seem a bit genteel. Also, women writers are given short shrift although many women worked the fields of the supernatural from the eighteenth century on. Still, the editors have worked hard to distill the brightest and best (or should that be the darkest and best?) of this surprisingly venerable genre. Buy it. You'll want to read and reread these stories -- maybe even beside a convenient campfire.
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5.0 von 5 Sternen
The best anthology of horror and supernatural stories ever, 30. Juli 1999
I have been a devotee of supernatural and horror stories since I first began to read. This was the very first one I ever read, and it's still -- after too many to count -- the best. The editors made the best possible selections from such masters as H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, E.F. Benson and numerous others. The biographical introductions to the stories are excellent. The editors even give the sound advice to not read too many of the stories at one sitting, so as not to lose the wonderful creepy effect and impact of one or two at the most. A bargain at twice the price.
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