Gothic Short Stories

Gothic Short Stories, published as a Wordsworth Classics in 2002, is a literary compilation that ranges from early anonymous tales to stories by noted authors like Sir Walter Scott, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, J. S. Le Fanu, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ambrose Bierce, and M. R. James. The twenty stories are arranged chronologically from 1773 to 1912. Nearly all stories were new to me; I had only previously encountered Berenice (Poe, 1835), The Body Snatcher (Stevenson, 1885), and Canon Alberic's Scrapbook (M. R. James, 1894). Many early Gothic stories were published as though they were fragments of lost works. The first five tales in this collection are more interesting from a historical perspective than for their literary value. However, innovative writers continue to explore language, plots, and settings appropriate to this new genre. For example, while The Spectre Bride (1822, anonymous) is not entirely convincing, it does chill the reader as a young woman is seduced by a demon lover. Within a few decades this new genre began attracting established authors. Sir Walter Scott was near the end of his remarkable career when he wrote The Tapestried Chamber in 1829. The three stories in this collection by Poe, Dickens, and Le Fanu were published in the next decade. Le Fanu's intriguing story, Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter (1839), illustrates the rapid maturing of the Gothic tale. I was most surprised by The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), a disturbing tale of obsession by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an author unfamiliar to me. I also liked The Lame Priest (1901) by S. Carleton, Luella Miller (1902) by Mary Wilkins Freeman, and The Room in the Tower (1912) by E. F. Benson. The introduction by David Blair provides a lengthy examination of the historical development of Gothic short stories. I initially scanned the introduction. Later, after I was better acquainted with these stories, I read the Blair's introduction more carefully as well as his brief comments on the various authors in a short appendix.