Alone By Night

by Michael Congdon (Editor), Don Congdon (Editor)

Alone By Night

Genres: Horror

144 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1961

Reviews

[Harriette · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of ten short stories in the horror genre.

Unfortunately the book has eleven stories in it.

Sandwiched between It Will Come To You by Frank Belknap Long and the all time Richard Matheson classic of Nightmare At Twenty Thousand Feet is an absolutely baffling tale about a champagne socialist being turned into a gnome. A Gnome There Was doesn't at all read like horror, but as a children's fantasy story. The 'shock' of the ending is far too little, far too late after the missed opportunity for body horror when the protagonist transforms and the comedic gnome on gnome violence. The inclusion of this Henry Kuttner tale is baffling on its own, but its placement is even more jarring.

Overall, this is a book worth reading, even if A Gnome There Was is not worth your time.

[Tom Britz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little obscure title, from the year 1961, offers up eleven horror stories and most of them are quite good. There is the classic Richard Matheson tale, "Nightmare at Twenty Thousand Feet", and the excellent, "Enoch" by Robert Bloch, and even the humorous fantasy, "A Gnome There Was" by Lewis Padgett. Of the eleven stories eight or nine were excellent reads with only a couple that were less than good, but none that were bad. This was a surprisingly good anthology of older horror stories.

[Joseph DeBolt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories. Contains the first publication of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," by Richard Matheson.
Collection covers a range of entities -- fiend, ghost, ghoul, gnome, gremlin, imp, phantom, succubus, vampire, werewolf, and witch.
Stories by August Derleth, Frank Belknap Long, Henry Kuttner, Robert Bloch, Saki and more.
Cover by the great Richard Powers.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

ALONE BY NIGHT is a horror anthology from America, released back in the '60s. The book is a compilation of pulp horror stories with one or two non-pulp efforts thrown in. As it stands, this is a typically run-of-the-mill selection with familiar pieces from familiar authors, but there are a handful of stand-out efforts that make it worth a look.

IT WILL COME TO YOU, by the usually reliable Frank Belknap Long, is a bit of a stinker and the twist ends up being ruined by the format of the book. Many other stories are quite average. Robert Bloch's SWEETS TO THE SWEET is a short, not very twisty horror effort, best known for being adapted for the screen (with Christopher Lee) in the 1970 Amicus film THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD. THE STRANGE CHILDREN, by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, offers a few goosebumps and little else, while THE LIKENESS OF JULIE is an unpleasant tale of sexual violence written by Richard Matheson, unsurprisingly under a pseudonym.

IN THE MIDST OF DEATH, by Ben Hecht, is an efficient ghost story, but perhaps more ethereal than truly frightening. The other average tale is August Derleth's BAYNTER'S IMP, in which the author adopts a workmanlike approach to the familiar story of a demonic pact going terribly wrong.

Now for the good stuff. I had my doubts about Henry Kuttner's silly tale of A GNOME THERE WAS, but it proves to be a bizarre and outlandish sci-fi effort and one that's wildly entertaining. Saki's GABRIEL-ERNEST is a brilliant spin on the werewolf legend, written in the author's unique style, and Bloch's ENOCH is a classic of psychological suspense and terror. The final story in the volume, F. Marion Crawford's FOR THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE, is a romantic, chilling and atmospheric story of vampires which has much in common with the Hammer filmography.