pinkalpaca's review
4.0
This collection took forever to read! Admittedly, it was mostly read over the past two months, but the 271 pages are misleading. The pages are around 8 1/2 x 11 and the font is pretty small. I was reading these stories out loud and some were surprising in how long they took.
Anyway, overall this collection was pretty well put together. A lot of gems here.
10/14-11/14:
~Levitation by Joseph Payne Brennan, 3*
~The House in Goblin Wood by Carter Dickson, 3*
~The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft, 3* Maybe my expectations were too high? This was so clinical.
~Homecoming by Ray Bradbury, 4* Such great imagery!
~The Willows by Algernon Blackwood, 4* Could've been shortened somewhat, but I get that he was going for slow-building intensity
~The Man who Never Grew Young by Fritz Leiber, 4* Sort of out of place for this collection, but very intriguing
~The Upper Berth by F. Marion Crawford, 3* Well, it did take place on an ocean liner...
~Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch, 4* Very amusing
~The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers, 4*
~The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, 5*, I've always loved this one especially; it's so visual
~August Heat by W.F. Harvey, 4*
~History of the Young Man with Spectacles by Arthur Machen, 3*, the info about the author was more intriguing than the story.
~The Exiles Club by Lord Dunsany, 4*
~Rope Enough by John Collier, 4*
~A Visitor from Egypt by Frank Belknap Long, 3*
~Ethan Brand by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 3*
~Lost Hearts by M.R. James, 3*
~The Graveyard Rats by Henry Kuttner, 4*, Yikes!!
~Oil of Dog by Ambrose Bierce, 5*, I don't think I've ever read anything quite like this
~Born of Man and Woman by Richard Matheson, 5*, Sad, disturbing and chilling
~Squire Toby's Will by Sheridan le Fanu, 4*, At turns kind of hilarious, other times quite creepy!
11/10: Have only read 4 stories so far:
~The Adventure of the German Student- Washington Irving
~The Red Room- H.G. Wells
~The Voice in the Night- William Hope Hodgson
~They Bite- Anthony Boucher
All were pretty chilling and made even creepier with the far-out illustrations. Lengthy intros on the authors as well which is always a plus.
Anyway, overall this collection was pretty well put together. A lot of gems here.
10/14-11/14:
~Levitation by Joseph Payne Brennan, 3*
~The House in Goblin Wood by Carter Dickson, 3*
~The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft, 3* Maybe my expectations were too high? This was so clinical.
~Homecoming by Ray Bradbury, 4* Such great imagery!
~The Willows by Algernon Blackwood, 4* Could've been shortened somewhat, but I get that he was going for slow-building intensity
~The Man who Never Grew Young by Fritz Leiber, 4* Sort of out of place for this collection, but very intriguing
~The Upper Berth by F. Marion Crawford, 3* Well, it did take place on an ocean liner...
~Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch, 4* Very amusing
~The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers, 4*
~The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, 5*, I've always loved this one especially; it's so visual
~August Heat by W.F. Harvey, 4*
~History of the Young Man with Spectacles by Arthur Machen, 3*, the info about the author was more intriguing than the story.
~The Exiles Club by Lord Dunsany, 4*
~Rope Enough by John Collier, 4*
~A Visitor from Egypt by Frank Belknap Long, 3*
~Ethan Brand by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 3*
~Lost Hearts by M.R. James, 3*
~The Graveyard Rats by Henry Kuttner, 4*, Yikes!!
~Oil of Dog by Ambrose Bierce, 5*, I don't think I've ever read anything quite like this
~Born of Man and Woman by Richard Matheson, 5*, Sad, disturbing and chilling
~Squire Toby's Will by Sheridan le Fanu, 4*, At turns kind of hilarious, other times quite creepy!
11/10: Have only read 4 stories so far:
~The Adventure of the German Student- Washington Irving
~The Red Room- H.G. Wells
~The Voice in the Night- William Hope Hodgson
~They Bite- Anthony Boucher
All were pretty chilling and made even creepier with the far-out illustrations. Lengthy intros on the authors as well which is always a plus.
otterno11's review
3.0
This was, I believe, my first exposure to a lot of the classic "weird tales," including H.P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood, and M.R. James, courtesy of the high school library. Checked it out around Halloween senior year, and even added it the the list of "best hidden gems in the school library" for the student paper my sister edited circa March 2001. Most of the stories are good, solid choices for a night of eerie reading, including some obscure stuff and a few that felt out of place. On the other hand, there is little to differentiate "Dying of Fright" from any other standard anthology of horror tales, and perhaps unsurprisingly, many contain more than a fair share of those old pulp standbys of casual racism and sexism.
Returning to the anthology more than a decade later, I found I could recall reading only about half of it, really, the older, more "classic" tales from Washington Irving, Poe, Bierce, etc. but having no recollection of the more modern tales included, some of which seemed a little dull, in particular the short biographical sketches describing each of the writers. On the other hand, most of the stories are no more than three or four pages which allows for a good sampling. Still, there are probably better collections available, (and in print!) to get a more contemporary collection of spooky stories, particularly ones that could offer a more diverse collection of authors.
Returning to the anthology more than a decade later, I found I could recall reading only about half of it, really, the older, more "classic" tales from Washington Irving, Poe, Bierce, etc. but having no recollection of the more modern tales included, some of which seemed a little dull, in particular the short biographical sketches describing each of the writers. On the other hand, most of the stories are no more than three or four pages which allows for a good sampling. Still, there are probably better collections available, (and in print!) to get a more contemporary collection of spooky stories, particularly ones that could offer a more diverse collection of authors.
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