The Haunted Omnibus

Rating:
Summary: A terrific ghost anthology
Review: This is a hefty book touted as "the greatest ghost stories of all time." The table of contents reads like a college literature course: Poe, Algernon Blackwood, John Collier, Richard Middleton, Ambrose Bierce, Guy de Maupassant, Pliny the Younger, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, and others. This effort brings together some of the all-time classical horror literature, specifically literature dealing with death, ghosts, hauntings. Don't go searching for King or Koontz or Barker. This one was first copyrighted in 1937. But these stories continue to raise goosebumps.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is represented here with her short story "The Yellow Wall Paper." This is one of the most unsettling stories I have ever read, relating the psychological terrors of a young married woman. Taken to a country estate to summer "for her own good" by her husband, the woman is forced to endure time in the house nursery where she is convinced she sees a growing number of women creeping around the ugly yellow wall paper on the scarred walls. This is the perfect metaphor for repressed rage and frustration, and this story creeps under my skin every time I read it. (Is it really the yellow wall paper the woman peels off strip by strip or something more horrifying?)

These 41 stories harken back to a time before "splatter" became a standard in horror literature. These are great to tell by a fire on a cold night. But this collection is also a look into some incredibly talented authors who can still scare us in this "enlightened" time. There are ghosts and monsters and goblins, grave robbers, reincarnated animals ("Laura" by Saki is a tongue-in-cheek tale sure to elicit at least a chuckle), and then even more ghosts. This is a wonderful collection which belongs on the shelf of anyone who appreciates classic, well-written ghost stories.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific ghost anthology
Review: This is a hefty book touted as "the greatest ghost stories of all time." The table of contents reads like a college literature course: Poe, Algernon Blackwood, John Collier, Richard Middleton, Ambrose Bierce, Guy de Maupassant, Pliny the Younger, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, and others. This effort brings together some of the all-time classical horror literature, specifically literature dealing with death, ghosts, hauntings. Don't go searching for King or Koontz or Barker. This one was first copyrighted in 1937. But these stories continue to raise goosebumps.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is represented here with her short story "The Yellow Wall Paper." This is one of the most unsettling stories I have ever read, relating the psychological terrors of a young married woman. Taken to a country estate to summer "for her own good" by her husband, the woman is forced to endure time in the house nursery where she is convinced she sees a growing number of women creeping around the ugly yellow wall paper on the scarred walls. This is the perfect metaphor for repressed rage and frustration, and this story creeps under my skin every time I read it. (Is it really the yellow wall paper the woman peels off strip by strip or something more horrifying?)

These 41 stories harken back to a time before "splatter" became a standard in horror literature. These are great to tell by a fire on a cold night. But this collection is also a look into some incredibly talented authors who can still scare us in this "enlightened" time. There are ghosts and monsters and goblins, grave robbers, reincarnated animals ("Laura" by Saki is a tongue-in-cheek tale sure to elicit at least a chuckle), and then even more ghosts. This is a wonderful collection which belongs on the shelf of anyone who appreciates classic, well-written ghost stories.