Strange Tales from the Strand

Rating:
Summary: Useful, welcome reprints of forgotten works
Review: This book reprints "strange" tales by both famous and forgotten authors as appeared originally in The Strand magazine, which published from 1891 to 1950.The stories were written by writers (eg F. Tennyson Jesse) now familiar only to aficionados of the occult; those still recognized but now little read (Hugh Walpole, Edgar Wallace) and those still popular (H.G. Wells,Conan Doyle,Graham Greene). There are some gems here ("Waxworks" by W.L. George), along with highly prophetic, even futuristic stories (H.G. Wells's "The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper";Martin Swayne's "A Sense of the Future," written in 1924 but predicting a world in which automobiles, then a novelty, become obsolete due to rising petrol prices). A. Conan Doyle's "The Horror of the Heights", written in 1913 but dealing with horrible monsters met above the clouds by a daring pilot, is excellent and gives a sense of airplanes (mono and bi-planes)and flying of that era. This is overall a good collection, though some of the stories don't date well, and should be read at least by those with "strange" tastes.