Weird Tales

by Michael Dirda (Editor), J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Harry Campbell (Illustrator)

Michael Dirda chooses the best Weird Tales ever written for this new collection from The Folio Society. Cthulhu and his ilk are summoned to the page by artist Harry Campbell.

Existing somewhere in the chilly territory between ghost stories and tales of horror, weird fiction is the exploration of the truly uncanny; these stories poke holes in the fabric of our everyday reality, revealing glimpses of a strange and unknowable universe. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael Dirda has long held a passion for the genre, and the twelve mind-shattering tales he has selected for this collection contain both genre-defining masterpieces and modern classics.

M. R. James, Shirley Jackson, Robert Aickman, Algernon Blackwood and Mark Samuels are just some of the writers waiting to induct the reader into a world of creeping horror. In his lively introduction, Dirda warns that the reader "will encounter revenants, demons, monsters and otherworldly entities, as well as black magic, unholy rites, prophetic dreams and accursed books," before explaining why each of these tales is an unmissable example of the "strange and uncanny." Artist Harry Campbell has created seven deeply unsettling illustrations for this edition, including a spectacular double-page spread that will delight fans of Lovecraft’s cosmic horror, and a pair of illustrated endpapers that hint at the delicious chills contained within.

OTHERWORLDLY ART BY HARRY CAMPBELL
Spare, elegant and stylised, Harry Campbell’s illustrations nod to the traditional woodcut images of ghost story collections of old, whilst remaining seductively fresh and compelling. In black and green and white, Campbell expertly uses shadows, architecture and eerie flowing shapes to introduce the ambiguity that is the pulsing heart of these stories. In these images, a dark shape follows a man aboard a ship, and light shines off a scaly tentacle as it bursts from a human chest – the laws of nature fall away to reveal the chaos beyond. Playing with the symbolism of the uncanny, the striking binding design features a staring magenta eye and a clutch of unsettling objects. Skulls, keys, spiders and a scurrying black cat warn that this book contains a menagerie of terrors. Featuring both celebrated classics like "The Call of Cthulhu" and lesser-known terrifying treats such as "The Little Room" by Madeline Yale Wynne, Weird Tales is an unmissable celebration of the fiction that reminds us of our insignificance in the face of a vast universe, presented in an edition that could grace any haunted library.

CONTENTS

Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter
Sheridan Le Fanu

Amour Dure
Vernon Lee

The Little Room
Madeline Yale Wynne

Novel of the Black Seal
Arthur Machen

The Willows
Algernon Blackwood

Casting the Runes
M. R . James

The Hall Bedroom
Mary E . Wilkins Freeman

The Call of Cthulhu
H. P. Lovecraft

The Daemon Lover
Shirley Jackson

Sticks
Karl Edward Wagner

The Hospice
Robert Aickman

The White Hands
Mark Samuels

Production Details
Three-quarter bound in blocked cloth with a printed and blocked paper front board
Set in Vendetta with Bordonaro as display
360 pages
7 full-page duotone integrated illustrations, including 1 double-page spread, printed in black and green.
Printed endpapers illustrated by the artist
Plain slipcase
Printed in Italy
9 ½˝ x 6 ¼˝

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy

360 pages, Hardcover

First published March 5, 2024

About the author

Michael Dirda (born 1948), a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning critic. After earning a PhD in comparative literature from Cornell University, the joined the Washington Post in 1978.

Two collections of Dirda's literary journalism have been published: Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-253-33824-7) and Bound to Please (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005; ISBN 0-393-05757-7). He has also written Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life (New York: Henry Holt, 2005; ISBN 0-8050-7877-0), Classics for Pleasure (Orlando: Harcourt, 2007; ISBN 0-151-01251-2), critical biographical study On Conan Doyle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011; ISBN 0-691-15135-0), which received a 2012 Edgar Award, and the autobiographical An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003; ISBN 0-393-05756-9).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_...

Reviews

[Christopher Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems ridiculous to start reading this Folio anthology when I’m only 500 pages (not halfway) through the VanderMeers’ giant The Weird compendium, but hey, nobody's perfect.

While all the stories in Weird Tales are examples of weird fiction, only one of them was originally published in Weird Tales magazine, so the title is both accurate and a little misleading. Sadly, it also suggests Folio has no intention of publishing a collection of classic stories associated with the 'unique magazine', which is a shame.

In his introduction, Michael Dirda says he chose the stories because they’re “the masterpieces everyone should know.” A glance at the contents largely reinforces this, although Dirda accepts that Madeline Yale Wynne’s The Little Room is something of an exception. It’s definitely a new one to me. Not included in this anthology are stories already featured in other Folio anthologies, and a whole heap of other weird classics (see: the VanderMeers), but I guess there was only so much room.

Stories with an asterisk are ones I’ve read before.

Sheridan Le Fanu, “Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter” (1839)
A love that can never be and a marriage secured with gold. Who is the sinister visitor from Rotterdam, and where does he go? This gothic novelette - an exploration of the story behind a painting - doesn’t shy away from the bigger questions of morality, choice and consequence. The characters of Schalken and his tutor, Douw, are based on the 17th century artists of the same names, famed for their candlelight portraits. Schalken’s art can be found in the Louvre and Buckingham Palace. Douw studied under Rembrandt and is mentioned by name in The Pirates of Penzance. In Le Fanu’s dread-filled (fictional) tale, the artists encounter something that will cast a shadow over the rest of their lives. A great start to the anthology. 4/5

Vernon Lee, “Amour Dure” (1887)
A Polish historian working in Italy. A supernatural beauty and her murdered lovers. This ghost story, told in diary form, stayed with me long after I’d finished reading. At its heart is Medea da Carpi – not just a victim of her circumstances, but a woman of mystery and depth, who continues to have agency even after her passing. Vernon Lee was the pen name for Violet Paget, whose supernatural stories, including Amour Dure (‘Love Endures’), were published in her 1890 collection, Hauntings. The poor historian never stood a chance. 5/5

Madeline Yale Wynne, “The Little Room” (1895)
I really loved this story of a little room (or china-closet) that isn't suppose to be there. Or maybe is. And I especially liked the role of the two aunts who somehow amplified the weirdness in their understated way. I started thinking about how Dirda said this story was an exception - one that maybe shouldn't have been included in the anthology. And then I wondered what it would be like if The Little Room (or china-closet) wasn't included in every copy of Weird Tales. What if other copies contained a different story altogether? And this freaked me out, so I decided I need a holiday. I'm docking a star because, well, the main characters were abandoned half way through in service of the plot. Otherwise, brilliant. 4/5

Arthur Machen, “The Novel of the Black Seal” (1895)
The ending of this one baffled me. The majority of the story is told from the point of view of the governess Miss Lally. Then in the final paragraphs, an unknown narrator takes over and Miss Lally is presented in the third person, which was quite jarring. It seems this story is part of a longer work, The Three Imposters, in which the switch in perspectives presumably makes more sense. Leaving this awkward aspect aside, The Novel of the Black Seal was great: folk horror, ancient civilisations, ill-fated academics and terrifyingly long paragraphs. Lovecraft was a fan, naming Machen one of the 'modern masters' of supernatural horror. 4/5

Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows" (1907)*
'I searched everywhere for proof of reality, when all the while I understood quite well that the standard of reality had changed.' This was my third trip along the Danube to the shrinking island of willow bushes, and Blackwood's haunting cosmic horror never fails to impress. Chilling, and brilliantly done. 5/5

M. R. James, "Casting the Runes" (1911)*
The story of a diabolist who's inclined to take revenge, using supernatural means, on anyone who gives his work a bad review. I've read this before in the aforementioned VanderMeer compendium, and in both instances it seemed out of place. It's weird, I suppose, in that it was written by M. R. James and isn't a ghost story - but is that enough? In his introduction, Dirda defines weird as 'inexplicable', 'pervaded by wrongness', 'the fabric of reality is shown to be pockmarked with holes'. For me, this story doesn't quite satisfy the brief. It's light on atmosphere, and it didn't make me feel uneasy the way a great weird tale should. Good, but an odd choice for this anthology. 3/5

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, "The Hall Bedroom" (1905)
'I told him I would rather have a regular ghost...' This one was definitely weird. A rented room in a lodging house. The strange picture on the wall. The inexplicable, multi-sensory experiences in the middle of the night. This wasn't especially creepy but it was flat-out strange, with an ending reveal that didn't disappoint. The only thing that jarred slightly was the first journal entry, where the tenant, Mr George H. Wheatcroft, took the time to give us a potted overview of his life and character. Would someone really do that midway through a diary? I don't know. 4/5

H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928)*
'The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.' Academics, sculptures of scaly monstrosities, cult rituals and racism are all present in Lovecraft's formative tale of the Cthulhu Mythos. There's something compelling in the way the narrator slowly pieces together the clues from multiple sources around the world, joining the dots and wishing he hadn't. Lovecraft thought this was 'rather middling', which seems harsh given the story's legacy. But then it was rejected by Weird Tales magazine on its first submission, so I guess that may have dampened his enthusiasm. Arthur Machen and Clark Ashton Smith get a nod, which was a nice touch, even if it threw me out of the story for a moment. 4/5

Shirley Jackson, "The Daemon Lover" (1949)
Outstanding. I don't think I've ever read anything by Jackson that was less than brilliant and this tale of a woman waiting for her fiancé to arrive on her wedding day didn't disappoint. Presumably inspired by the 17th century ballad of the same name, which is also known as 'James Harris' (the name of the fiancé in Jackson's story) and 'A Warning for Married Women.' 5/5

Karl Edward Wagner, "Sticks" (1974)*
The story that (may have) inspired The Blair Witch Project. A story that pays (tongue-in-cheek?) tribute to the writers and artists of the pulp magazines, including Weird Tales, which gets a mention. From its chilling, folk-horror opening, the decades slip by and we're left to grapple with something darker, almost cosmic. The pace is good and the ending works, although this version of the story also had an afterword, which was interesting if not entirely necessary. 5/5

Robert Aickman, "The Hospice" (1975)*
A cat that might not be a cat. A hospice that's caught somewhere between the original meaning (hotel) and the more modern meaning (care home) or possibly another meaning altogether (asylum). Wild screams in the night and the stench of familiar perfume. Nothing is what it seems in Aickman's Hospice but nor is it exactly different. Brilliant because it keeps us guessing until the end, poking and prodding but never disappointing. I need to read more by this author. 5/5

Mark Samuels, "The White Hands" (2003)*
The perfect story with which to end this anthology, and also frustrating as I'm sure I've read it before but I can't for the life of me remember where or when (it's in the VandeMeers' compendium but I haven't got that far yet). A modern-ish weird tale of an Oxford academic and his obsession - not with a weird artefact, but with an author of weird tales. '...these stories are not accounts of supernatural phenomena, but supernatural phenomena themselves.' What more can I say? 4/5

Maybe I was wrong to query the title of this anthology. While only one of these tales originally appeared in Weird Tales magazine (Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu), it's entirely possible that the other stories (1) inspired authors who contributed to Weird Tales, (2) were written by authors who had other stories published in Weird Tales, or (3) were written by authors inspired by Weird Tales. Two of the stories in this anthology explicitly reference Weird Tales, and others reference authors who are famed for their association with the magazine.

This said, I would still love to see a Folio anthology dedicated to the best of the stories featured in Weird Tales magazine one day - but what would they call it?

If you're interested in classic weird tales, this anthology is a good place to start.

[Daulton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of a weird fiction anthology that acknowledges the movement was far more than just Lovecraft. But the prelude does a poor job of explaining its history; parts are cut from certain stories unnecessarily; the art, in my opinion, was too cartoony to set a scary tone; and it’s a bad case of all filler, no killer. Only Call of Cthulhu and The Willows are really must-reads.

[Lawrence Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is only after I have finished a compendium of stories that I mull over why did I manage to finish the book. The answer lies in how eager you are to discover the outcome and with unnatural happenings what is yet to unfold. You do get a few damp squibs but on the whole there was plenty in this book to make you look at an Atlas whether it be to find the willows on the Danube or the terrain in upper New York state or the road network in the West Midlands - in fact when you think about many of these stories they occur in strange and unusual and remote locations. But by far the manipulation of the human mind through various methods makes for startling thoughts.
Not my usual type of reading but it took just over two weeks to come to a closure on what was worth many of these outlandish happenings!
It only gets a three stars because two stories were a bit too long and one was obscure virtually to the end!