Book SynopsisThis remarkable anthology of gothic fiction, spanning two centuries of American writing, gives us an intriguing and entertaining look at how the gothic imagination makes for great literature in the works of forty-six exceptional writers.Joyce Carol Oates has a special perspective on the “gothic” in American short fiction, at least partially because her own horror yarns rank on the spine-tingling chart with the masters. She is able to see the unbroken link of the macabre that ties Edgar Allan Poe to Anne Rice and to recognize the dark psychological bonds between Henry James and Stephen King. In showing us the gothic vision—a world askew where mankind’s forbidden impulses are set free from the repressions of the psyche, and nature turns malevolent and lawless—Joyce Carol Oates includes Henry James’s “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes,” Herman Melville’s horrific tale of factory women, “The Tartarus of MaiTrade Review“In compiling 40 short stories that represent the 200-year history of ‘gothic’ fiction in America, from Washington Irving's classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to Stephen King's The Reach, Oates employs an eclectic and elastic definition of the genre… Oates's taste in the quality of stories is always impeccable. The pieces also all share a certain darkness. Entries range from Edgar Allen Poe's sadistic The Black Cat to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's classic psychological horror story The Yellow Wallpaper. Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice and Katherine Dunn are also represented. Among the more idiosyncratic selections are Herman Melville's The Tartarus of Maids; Don DeLillo's beautiful tale of astronauts floating above the earth in Human Moments in World War III; and Paul Bowles's strange and powerful Allal, about a Moroccan orphan boy who so identifies with a snake that they mysteriously change bodies-and meet gory fates.”—Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsIntroductionCharles Brockden Brown (1771-1810), from Wieland, or the TransformationWashington Irving (1783-1859), The Legend of Sleepy HollowNathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), The Man of Adamant, Young Goodman BrownHerman Melville (1819-1891), The Tartarus of MaidsEdgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), The Black CatCharlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), The Yellow WallpaperHenry James (1843-1916), The Romance of Certain Old ClothesAmbrose Bierce (1842-1914?), The Damned ThingEdith Wharton (1862-1937), AfterwardGertrude Atherton (1857-1948), The Striding PlaceSherwood Anderson (1876-1941), Death in the WoodsH.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), The OutsiderWilliam Faulkner (1893-1962), A Rose for EmilyAugust Derleth (1909-1971), The Lonesome PlaceE.B. White (1899-1985), The DoorShirley Jackson (1919-1965), The Lovely HousePaul Bowles (1910- ), AllalIsaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), The ReencounterWilliam Goyen (1915-1983), In the Icebound HothouseJohn Cheever (1912-1982), The Enormous RadioRay Bradbury (1920- ), The VeldtW.S. Merwin (1927- ), The Dachau Shoe, the Approved, Spiders I Have Known, Postcards from the Maginot LineSylvia Plath (1932-1963), Johnny Panic and the Bible of DreamsRobert Coover (1932- ), In Bed One NightUrsula K. LeGuin (1929- ), Schrödinger's CatE.L. Doctorow (1931- ), The WaterworksHarlan Ellison (1934- ), Shattered Like a Glass GoblinDon DeLillo (1936- ), Human Moments in World War IIIJohn L'Heureux (1938- ), The Anatomy of DesireRaymond Carver (1938-1988), Little ThingsJoyce Carol Oates (1938- ), The TempleAnne Rice (1941- ), FrenierePeter Straub (1943- ), A Short Guide to the CitySteven Millhauser (1943- ), In the Penny ArcadeStephen King (1947- ), The ReachCharles Johnson (1948- ), Exchange ValueJohn Crowley (1942- ), SnowThomas Ligotti (1947- ), The Last Feast of HarlequinBreece D'J Pancake (1952-1979), Time and AgainLisa Tuttle (1952- ), ReplacementsMelissa Pritchard (1948- ), Spirit SeizuresNancy Etchemendy (1952- ), Cat in GlassBruce McAllister (1946- ), The Girl Who Loved AnimalsKathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg, Ursus Triad, LaterKatherine Dunn, The Nuclear Family: His Talk, Her TeethNicholson Baker (1957- ), Subsoil
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