Over the Edge: Stories to Freeze Your Blood

by August Derleth (Editor)

18 horror stories by some of the greats of the genre, including:

The Crew of the Lansing by William Hope Hodgson
The Last Meeting of Two Old Friends by H. R. Wakefield
The Shadow in the Attic by H.P. Lovecraft
The Renegade by J. Metcalfe
Told in the desert by Clark Ashton Smith
When the Rains Came by F. B. Long
The Blue Flame of Vengeance by R. E. Howard
Crabgrass by Jesse Stuart
Kincaid's Car by C. Jacobi
The Patchwork Quilt by A. Derleth
The Old Lady's Room by J. Vernon Shea
The North Knoll by J. P. Brennan
The Huaco of Senor Perez by Mary E. Counselman
Mr. Alucard by David A. Johnstone
Casting the Stone by John Pocik
Aneanoshian by Michael Bailey
The Stone on the Island by J. Ramsey Campbell

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Weird Fiction, Literature, Short Stories, Fiction

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the Cosmic Horror genre, as well as his founding of the publisher Arkham House (which did much to bring supernatural fiction into print in hardcover in the US that had only been readily available in the UK), Derleth was a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography

A 1938 Guggenheim Fellow, Derleth considered his most serious work to be the ambitious Sac Prairie Saga, a series of fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and non-fiction naturalist works designed to memorialize life in the Wisconsin he knew. Derleth can also be considered a pioneering naturalist and conservationist in his writing

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augus...]

Reviews

[Karl]

The book was originally released in 1964 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,520 copies. The anthology was produced to mark the 25th anniversary of Arkham House. None of the stories had been previously published. This is the first British Edition.

Contents:

003 - "The Crew of the Lancing" by William Hope Hodgson
015 - "The Last Meeting of Two Old Friends" by H. Russell Wakefield
050 - "The Shadow in the Attic" by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth
076 - "The Renegade" by John Metcalfe
088 - "Told in the Desert" by Clark Ashton Smith
096 - "When the Rains Came" by Frank Belknap Long
113 - "The Blue Flame of Vengeance" by Robert E. Howard & John Pocsik
135 - "Crabgrass" by Jesse Stuart
142 - "Kincaid's Car" by Carl Jacobi
161 - "The Patchwork Quilt" by August Derleth
174 - "The Black Gondolier" by Fritz Leiber
211 - "The Old Lady's Room" by J. Vernon Shea
219 - "The North Knoll" by Joseph Payne Brennan
227 - "The Huaco of Señor Perez" by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
247 - "Mr. Alucard" by David A. Johnstone
252 -"Casting the Stone" by John Pocsik
276 - "Aneanoshian" by Michael Bailey
283 - "The Stone on the Island" by J. Ramsey Campbell

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

OVER THE EDGE is another Arkham House anthology of horror fiction, edited by August Derleth and culled from the pages of WEIRD TALES and elsewhere. This is one of my favourite genres of fiction so I was guaranteed to have a good time with it.

Things kick off on a real high with William Hope Hodgson's THE CREW OF THE LANCING, one of his excellent seafaring ghost tales which proves more than effective with the story of an abandoned ship full of strange creatures. H. Russell Wakefield's THE LAST MEETING OF TWO OLD FRIENDS is another winner, a chilling story about a cursed memorial that rivals the best of M.R. James. By comparison, THE SHADOW IN THE ATTIC - a supposed collaboration between Lovecraft and Derleth - is a rather weak pastiche which feels like a retread of DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE.

THE RENEGADE is by John Metcalfe, and a rather annoyingly whimsical tale, although Clark Ashton Smith can be relied upon to entertain with his TOLD IN THE DESERT. Likewise, Robert E. Howard delivers with THE BLUE FLAME OF VENGEANCE, another story in which Solomon Kane goes up against some nameless evil and proceeds to dispel it quite remarkably. Frank Belknap Long's WHEN THE RAINS CAME is an odd effort about a flooding alien planet, but it focuses too much on extraterrestrial details and not enough on the human characters involved in the narrative.

The unknown-to-me Jesse Stuart contributes CRABGRASS, a moving coming-of-age ghost story, while Carl Jacobi's KINCAID'S CAR is a sci-fi tale that suffers from being exceedingly obvious and rather dated. Derleth's THE PATCHWORK QUILT is better, a Southern Gothic which reads like a genteel Victorian ghost story. Fritz Leiber's THE BLACK GONDOLIER is an unwieldy beast, a lengthy and imaginative story of persecution and conspiracy, not very believable and loaded down a bit with exposition, although it does deliver the goods come the climax.

J. Vernon Shea's THE OLD LADY'S ROOM is another ghost story, nasty enough to work, while Joseph Payne Brennan's THE NORTH KNOLL explores similar territory to Clark Ashton Smith's GENIUS LOCI. It's not as long or as detailed, but it still works well. Mary Elizabeth Counselman's THE HUACO OF SENOR PEREZ is even better, a ghastly story of an ancient curse being played out against a suitably loathsome protagonist. MR. ALUCARD, a one-note joke by David A. Johnstone, is best glossed over.

John Pocsik delivers the goods with CASTING THE STONE, a fine spin on black magic themes with elements of James and Lovecraft mixed in well. Michael Bailey's ANEANOSHIAN is quite brief and quite predictable, although mildly horrific; it reminded me of the film THE RUINS a fair bit and may have been an inspiration. Finally, THE STONE ON THE ISLAND is an early Lovecraftian story by Ramsey Campbell; it moves beyond the realms of a mere pastiche and delivers some of the icy psychological disturbance that the author is best known for.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of three collections of previously unpublished Weird Tales which Derleth put out in the 1960's, this is a mixed bag, some rather poor inclusions, but some excellent stuff too. Derleth delivers yet another of his Faux Lovecraft stories, which is awful as usual, "The Shadow in the Attic". Other lows include a rather mediocre Solomon Kane story (his least interesting creation) from Robert E. Howard and a pretty forgettable sci-fi story, "When the Rains Came" by Frank Belknap Long. The best thing here, and really the reason to own this collection, is "The Black Gondolier" by Fritz Leiber. This is an exceptional addition to the 'Modern Horrors' of his seminal Arkham collection 'Night's Black Agents', a hallucinatory dystopian fable which utilises alienating elements inherent in modern industrial culture to create something genuinely scary. Also of note is "The Last Meeting of Two Old Friends" by H. Russell Wakefield, very creepy and one of his best. Ramsey Campbell gives us "The Stone on the Island", an excellent tale set in the same world as his 'Inhabitant of the Lake' stories, but vastly improving on them in terms of originality (and horror!). Other worthy inclusions are provided by the always reliable Mary Elizabeth Counselman with "The Huaco of Señor Perez", Clark Ashton Smith's last tale, the poetic "Told in the Desert" and "Casting the Stone" by John Pocsik (it's a shame he didn't produce more fiction, because this is rather good!). Overall, a worthwhile book for Arkham House collectors, with Lieber's story justifying the price of admission alone

[Chris Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d forgotten I hadn’t finished this book, hence the almost full year between starting and ending the thing. It also tells you probably all you know about how good the book is: excellent in places, silly in others and just a bit boring for the rest. This is, of course, half the point of trudging through old horror collections - the search for a neglected and barely collected classic. There’s a couple of those here but the rest is mostly pretty middling I’m afraid

[Zina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous gem of weird fiction, great stories from great masters. Interesting plot twists, cool characters, wonderful writing style. Highly recommend.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing, in an interesting, historic sort of way, a curiosity, but whether the authors are still worth reading? I'll have to say I am not sure they are. I suppose if you are a horror aficionado then it does no harm to read the early 'masters' the genre, but I just don't think I could argue that it is really important or necessary or that not reading them might be a lost opportunity. But because the editor, August Derleth, has reputation, and because I didn't hate his works, I give this book three stars - with reservations.

[Kthxbai! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genuinely creepy in parts. Really only a few stumbles. Overall a strong collection of "weird" fiction with enough thrills to satisfy anyone looking for a bit of a scare before bedtime.