Eight ingenious, gripping tales by the master of suspense and creator of the American Gothic horror story: "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "William Wilson," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Gold-Bug," "The Purloined Letter, and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Classic, spine-tingling tales for ghost story enthusiasts.

A masterful collection of ghost stories that have been overlooked by contemporary readers—including tales by celebrated authors such as Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton—presented with insightful annotations by acclaimed horror anthologists Leslie S. Klinger and Lisa Morton. The ghost story has long been a staple of world literature, but many of the genre's greatest tales have been forgotten, overshadowed in many cases by their authors' bestselling work in other genres. In this spine-tingling anthology, little known stories from literary titans like Charles Dickens and Edith Wharton are collected alongside overlooked works from masters of horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe and M. R. James. Acclaimed anthologists Leslie S. Klinger (The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes) and Lisa Morton (Ghosts: A Haunted History) set these stories in historical context and trace the literary significance of ghosts in fiction over almost two hundred years—from a traditional English ballad first printed in 1724 through the Christmas-themed ghost stories of the Victorian era and up to the science fiction–tinged tales of the early twentieth century. In bringing these masterful tales back from the dead, Ghost Stories will enlighten and frighten both longtime fans and new readers of the genre. Including stories by: Ambrose Bierce, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Olivia Howard Dunbar, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, M. R. James, Arthur Machen, Georgia Wood Pangborn, Mrs. J. H. Riddell, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Walter Scott, Frank Stockton, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton.

This is the ultimate feast of fear by a host of horror writers such as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, and others. Twenty-four macabre tales include the nerve-twisting novelette The Mist by Stephen King.

This book presents a detailed academic study of suspense building in Stephen King’s horror novels The Shining and Carrie and their respective film adaptations. Two film versions of each book are taken into consideration – one released immediately after the novel publication and one that appeared decades later. After providing a general idea of what suspense as a phenomenon related to fiction is, the study establishes some repeated plot-bound suspense motifs and episodes in the literary works, and traces their development in the films in order to demonstrate the similarities and differences in the techniques of achieving suspense in literature and in cinema. The model detailed here can also be used for individual or comparative suspense analysis of other literary or cinematic works.

"This collection of chilling horror stories from the maestro of suspense contains nearly 20 of Edgar Allan Poe's best known stories"--Amazon.com