 Best Horror Short Stories
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An anthology award finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, 6a66le: The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849 delivers 12 of the greatest horror stories for the first half of the nineteenth century.
Andrew Barger read over 300 horror short stories to compile the 12 best. At the back of the book he includes a list of all short stories he considered along with their dates of publication and author, when available. He includes background for each of the stories and author photos. A number of the stories were published in leading periodicals of the day such as Blackwood's and Atkinson's Casket. Read The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849 today!
Andrew Barger read over 300 horror short stories to compile the 12 best. At the back of the book he includes a list of all short stories he considered along with their dates of publication and author, when available. He includes background for each of the stories and author photos. A number of the stories were published in leading periodicals of the day such as Blackwood's and Atkinson's Casket. Read The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849 today!
- 1836 The Old Man's Tale About the Queer Client by Charles Dickens (1812 -1870)
- 1817 The Deserted House by E.T. A. Hoffmann (1776 - 1822)
- 1836 The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864)
- 1843 The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)
- 1830 The Mysterious Mansion by Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)
- 1828 The Severed Hand by Wilhelm Hauff (1802 - 1827)
- 1826 The Lighthouse by George Soane (1789 - 1860)
- 1842 The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)
- 1832 The Executioner by Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)
- 1832 The Thunder-Struck and the Boxer by Samuel Warren (1807 - 1877)
- 1845 The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)
- 1839 The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)
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 The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849 was an award-winning finalist in the Next Generation Book Awards.
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Interview with Andrew Barger
Q1: Andrew, there are many horror anthologies out there. Why did you decide to edit a book of the best horror short stories from 1800-1849?
A1: In my view, classic horror anthologies have given us a disappointing selection of stories. Many times scant background information is provided about the horror stories and their authors. This is frustrating.
Q2: So the editors were light on horror short story content?
A2: To those editors of the gigantics, the colossals, the monstrous, the huge, the huger, the bigs, the really bigs, the even biggers--these portly books of collected horror--you have made my literary waistline bloated with quantity over quality. You have hardened my literary arteries. I was full when pushing back from your table only to be hungry a few hours later. The "greatest" horror anthologies have been greatly disappointing. I have spent time with the "fantastic" and was fantastically used. I have been calmed by the "terrifying" and under-whelmed by the "incredible." The "mammoth" books have left me feeling wooly inside. The "omnibuses" are the gas guzzlers of terror. [Smiles]
Q3: Are there any other reasons you compiled The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849?
A3: I have never seen one that addresses this 50 year period by itself. This is when the horror short story genre began thanks to Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Honoré de Balzac and so many others. I felt that the best stories of these great horror writers needed to be compared and that is best accomplished when they are put shoulder-to-shoulder. And part of it was my curiosity to see just how good--how groundbreaking--Poe was in telling his horror stories. I was also frustrated reading anthologies that did not disclose what horror stories were considered when compiling them. It's like declaring a beauty pageant winner without showing the other contestants. I want to know what literary wheat got separated from the chaff. This would answer many questions for my inquisitive mind. Rare is the short horror story anthology that has shown the world what tales were actually considered in making the compilation. In this case I have tried to stem this tide of literary attrition. All of the short horror stories are listed that I reviewed for this anthology, along with their respective author and earliest publication date, if available.
Q4: How does this compare to Shifters: The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849 that you edited?
A4: There were only a handful of werewolf short stories published in the English language from 1800-1849. With the horror stories I had exponentially more to pick from and picking the best was much harder.
Q5: How many horror short stories from the first half of the nineteenth century did you read?
A5: I read over 300. Many of the obscure ones came from key periodical magazines such as Blackwood's and Atkinson's Casket. My horror anthology includes background information for each story and a photograph of the author. In the non-ebook version annotations are included for difficult or antiquated terms.
Q6: Did you find any obscure horror story from these periodicals that made your list of the best horror stories? Sort of a one-hit wonder?
A6: There is one unknown horror story: "The Lighthouse" by George Soane. I included it in the collection. It is the best lighthouse horror story to come out of this period. I say this knowing that Poe never got a chance to finish his story titled "The Lighthouse." George Soane, the son of the famous architect John Soane, is the most underrated writer of short horror stories to come out of this fifty year period. He is not a one-hit wonder.
Q7: Edgar Allan Poe wrote his horror stories during this period. How many of his made the list?
A7: Four. In my view he penned one third of the best horror stories from 1800-1849. That's amazing.
Q8: What is your favorite horror story from the anthology?
A8: That's tough. They are all great in their own devious ways. If I have to pick, I would say "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. The story has some of Poe's best character generation and is rife with fear. The horror story builds to a crescendo and still maintains a high literary quality. The writing is top notch. For this period it is tough to top this story on almost any level.
Q9: What book are you working on now?
Q9: I just published Mailboxes - Mansions - Memphistopheles: A Collection of Dark Tales. It's my first short story collection and it was a finalist in the International Best Book Awards short story collection category. I have also edited Phantasmal: The Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849.
A1: In my view, classic horror anthologies have given us a disappointing selection of stories. Many times scant background information is provided about the horror stories and their authors. This is frustrating.
Q2: So the editors were light on horror short story content?
A2: To those editors of the gigantics, the colossals, the monstrous, the huge, the huger, the bigs, the really bigs, the even biggers--these portly books of collected horror--you have made my literary waistline bloated with quantity over quality. You have hardened my literary arteries. I was full when pushing back from your table only to be hungry a few hours later. The "greatest" horror anthologies have been greatly disappointing. I have spent time with the "fantastic" and was fantastically used. I have been calmed by the "terrifying" and under-whelmed by the "incredible." The "mammoth" books have left me feeling wooly inside. The "omnibuses" are the gas guzzlers of terror. [Smiles]
Q3: Are there any other reasons you compiled The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849?
A3: I have never seen one that addresses this 50 year period by itself. This is when the horror short story genre began thanks to Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Honoré de Balzac and so many others. I felt that the best stories of these great horror writers needed to be compared and that is best accomplished when they are put shoulder-to-shoulder. And part of it was my curiosity to see just how good--how groundbreaking--Poe was in telling his horror stories. I was also frustrated reading anthologies that did not disclose what horror stories were considered when compiling them. It's like declaring a beauty pageant winner without showing the other contestants. I want to know what literary wheat got separated from the chaff. This would answer many questions for my inquisitive mind. Rare is the short horror story anthology that has shown the world what tales were actually considered in making the compilation. In this case I have tried to stem this tide of literary attrition. All of the short horror stories are listed that I reviewed for this anthology, along with their respective author and earliest publication date, if available.
Q4: How does this compare to Shifters: The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849 that you edited?
A4: There were only a handful of werewolf short stories published in the English language from 1800-1849. With the horror stories I had exponentially more to pick from and picking the best was much harder.
Q5: How many horror short stories from the first half of the nineteenth century did you read?
A5: I read over 300. Many of the obscure ones came from key periodical magazines such as Blackwood's and Atkinson's Casket. My horror anthology includes background information for each story and a photograph of the author. In the non-ebook version annotations are included for difficult or antiquated terms.
Q6: Did you find any obscure horror story from these periodicals that made your list of the best horror stories? Sort of a one-hit wonder?
A6: There is one unknown horror story: "The Lighthouse" by George Soane. I included it in the collection. It is the best lighthouse horror story to come out of this period. I say this knowing that Poe never got a chance to finish his story titled "The Lighthouse." George Soane, the son of the famous architect John Soane, is the most underrated writer of short horror stories to come out of this fifty year period. He is not a one-hit wonder.
Q7: Edgar Allan Poe wrote his horror stories during this period. How many of his made the list?
A7: Four. In my view he penned one third of the best horror stories from 1800-1849. That's amazing.
Q8: What is your favorite horror story from the anthology?
A8: That's tough. They are all great in their own devious ways. If I have to pick, I would say "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. The story has some of Poe's best character generation and is rife with fear. The horror story builds to a crescendo and still maintains a high literary quality. The writing is top notch. For this period it is tough to top this story on almost any level.
Q9: What book are you working on now?
Q9: I just published Mailboxes - Mansions - Memphistopheles: A Collection of Dark Tales. It's my first short story collection and it was a finalist in the International Best Book Awards short story collection category. I have also edited Phantasmal: The Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849.
Early Horror Short Stories Trivia
Did Edgar Allan Poe Write a Vampire Story? Edgar Allan Poe was the undisputed king of the early horror story. He was 10 when John Polidori published the first vampire story in the English language that was followed a few months later by "The Black Vampyre," which was published anonymously by Robert Sands in 1819. Both caused quite a stir in the literary community. Many people thought Lord Byron wrote Polidori's tale and "The Black Vampyre" was pinned on the valedictorian of Columbia. Both were published with background information in The Best Vampire Stories 1800-1849 and are a must read for vampire aficionados. Surely Edgar Allan Poe heard of these stories and likely read one or both when he got older.
Did he respond in kind with his own vampire tale? Sorry to disappoint, but from my research Poe did not pen a vampire story. If a reader has to stretch their imagination to determine if a character is a vampire, then it is likely not a vampire. After all, a vampire is what a vampire does. Teeth play a telling role (as does the presence of blood) in many vampire tales. Because of this a number of anthologist have placed Poe’s “Ligeia” in their collections with hopes that if the tale is included in a substantial number of vampire anthologies it will be transmogrified into a vampire story. **Spoiler Alert** When Ligeia dies and is subsequently brought back to life through Rowena’s body, the unnamed protagonist touches her and she moves away, again displaying no lust for blood. Before her death, Rowena is given a cup of reddish liquid that could easily be wine or a potion concocted by the protagonist. There is no evidence that anyone’s blood was spilt. The only other hint of vampirism comes when Rowena’s lips part on her deathbed to display a line of “pearly teeth.” If she was a vampire we would learn of long teeth or sharp teeth, but that is not the case. Poe’s only slight references to vampires were in his poems. “Tamerlane” references a vampire-bat and “To Helen” calls out vampire-winged panels. Articles about the vampire motif in “The Fall of the House of Usher” have been disorganized and unconvincing. There is no hint that Roderick Usher was a vampire. Essays about a volitional vampire in “Morella” have . . . well . . . sucked. The ponderous dissertations that seek to attribute the protagonist’s lust for teeth to a vampire fixation in “Berenice” have felt chompy. A tooth fixation is not a blood fixation.
What was the First Out of Body Experience in a Horror Short Story? One of the first short stories in the English language to feature an out of body experience was A Singular Passage in the Life of the Late Henry Harris D.D. The early horror story was published in Blackwood's Magazine by Richard Harris Barham (1788-1845). Published in 1831, this story is ranked 35th in the Top 40 horror short stories from 1800-1849.
Did he respond in kind with his own vampire tale? Sorry to disappoint, but from my research Poe did not pen a vampire story. If a reader has to stretch their imagination to determine if a character is a vampire, then it is likely not a vampire. After all, a vampire is what a vampire does. Teeth play a telling role (as does the presence of blood) in many vampire tales. Because of this a number of anthologist have placed Poe’s “Ligeia” in their collections with hopes that if the tale is included in a substantial number of vampire anthologies it will be transmogrified into a vampire story. **Spoiler Alert** When Ligeia dies and is subsequently brought back to life through Rowena’s body, the unnamed protagonist touches her and she moves away, again displaying no lust for blood. Before her death, Rowena is given a cup of reddish liquid that could easily be wine or a potion concocted by the protagonist. There is no evidence that anyone’s blood was spilt. The only other hint of vampirism comes when Rowena’s lips part on her deathbed to display a line of “pearly teeth.” If she was a vampire we would learn of long teeth or sharp teeth, but that is not the case. Poe’s only slight references to vampires were in his poems. “Tamerlane” references a vampire-bat and “To Helen” calls out vampire-winged panels. Articles about the vampire motif in “The Fall of the House of Usher” have been disorganized and unconvincing. There is no hint that Roderick Usher was a vampire. Essays about a volitional vampire in “Morella” have . . . well . . . sucked. The ponderous dissertations that seek to attribute the protagonist’s lust for teeth to a vampire fixation in “Berenice” have felt chompy. A tooth fixation is not a blood fixation.
What was the First Out of Body Experience in a Horror Short Story? One of the first short stories in the English language to feature an out of body experience was A Singular Passage in the Life of the Late Henry Harris D.D. The early horror story was published in Blackwood's Magazine by Richard Harris Barham (1788-1845). Published in 1831, this story is ranked 35th in the Top 40 horror short stories from 1800-1849.
Copyright Andrew Barger - All rights reserved.