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Book cover of The Penguin Book of Horror Stories

The Penguin Book of Horror Stories

+41 more
1999560 pagesViking

Synopsis

This collection gathers chilling tales from masters of the macabre. Explore stories of the uncanny, the terrifying, and the downright disturbing, featuring classic horror from renowned authors. Prepare for a journey into the darkest corners of the human psyche and beyond.

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Authors

J. A. Cuddon was a writer and editor who specialized in horror anthologies and literary reference books. He is best known for editing The Penguin Book of Horror Stories and writing

James Hogg was a Scottish author who specialized in Gothic fiction and supernatural tales. His work is featured in The Penguin Book of Horror Stories and often explores dark themes of folklore and psychology.

Prosper Mérimée was a nineteenth-century French author who helped shape the short story and novella. He wrote influential works of supernatural fiction and realism, including Colomba and La Venus D'Ille. His stories are frequently featured in classic horror collections for their tense and direct style.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.[1] He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in...

Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815. ([Source][1].) [1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_de_Balzac

Henry James, was an American writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James. ([Source][1].) [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_James

Guy de Maupassant, né le 5 août 1850 au château de Miromesnil près de Tourville-sur-Arques (France) et mort le 6 juillet 1893 dans le 16e arrondissement de Paris, est un écrivain et journaliste littéraire français. Lié à Gustave Flaubert et à Émile Zola, Maupassant a marqué la littérature française par ses six romans, dont Une vie en 1883, Bel-Ami en 1885, Pierre et Jean en 1887-1888, et surtout par ses nouvelles (parfois intitulées contes) comme Boule de Suif en 1880, les *Contes de la...

Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses.

Emile Zola was a French journalist and novelist known for his series of 20 novels known collectively as Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-93). Zola's style was called literary naturalism; his novels were attacked and even banned for their frankness and sordid detail, and caused quite a bit of controversy in their day. The same traits made him a best-selling author and a star of French literature in his day. In 1898 he then further incurred the wrath of French officials when he published the open letter...

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist.

Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–18), and of Eton College (1918–36). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1913–15). Though James's work as a medievalist and scholar is still highly regarded, he is best remembered for his ghost stories, which some regard as among the best in the genre. James redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the forma...

Herbert George Wells was an English author, best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary.

William Hope Hodgson (15 November 1877 – 19 April 1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction, and science fiction. Hodgson used his experiences at sea to lend authentic detail to his short horror stories, many of which are set on the ocean, including his series of linked tales forming the "Sargasso Sea Stories". His novels, such as *The House on the Borderl...

Perceval Landon was an English journalist and author who wrote several classic ghost stories. He is most often recognized for his work in The Penguin Book of Horror Stories, specifically the tale Thurnley Abbey

John Russell is the author of Great Short Tales of Mystery and Terror. He's a writer who knows how to spin a good yarn in the mystery and terror genres. If you like a good scare, his stories are worth checking out.

Franz Kafka (gelegentlich tschechisch František Kafka, 3. Juli 1883, Prag, Österreich-Ungarn-3. Juni 1924, Kierling, Österreich) war ein österreichisch-tschechoslowakischer Schriftsteller. Er gilt als einer der bedeutendsten Vertreter der Prager deutschen Literatur und der deutschsprachigen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Seine Werke – darunter die drei Romanfragmente Der Process, Das Schloss und Der Verschollene sowie zahlreiche Erzählungen – gehören zum Kanon der Weltliteratur. Kafkas Werk...

Alfred McLelland Burrage was a British writer. He was noted in his time as an author of fiction for boys which he published under the pseudonym Frank Lelland, including a popular series called "Tufty". After his death, however, Burrage became best known for his ghost stories. - Wikipedia

Edward Frederic Benson was a prolific English author

Augustus Muir (full name Charles Augustus Carlow Muir [1892-1982]) graduated from the University of Edinburgh and followed a career in letters, working as a novelist, historian, biographer, journalist, and editor. Following World War I, he became the editor of the World newspaper. He wrote a biography of Charles White, the anecdotal Scotland's Road of Romance: Travels in the Footsteps of Prince Charlie (1934), and several histories of industrial firms. In 1953, he edited *How to Choose and E...

John Metcalfe was a British writer who specialized in supernatural fiction and psychological horror. He is best known for his unsettling short stories, many of which are featured in The Penguin Book of Horror Stories. His work focuses on building a sense of quiet dread and the unexplained.

William Fryer Harvey was an English author who specialized in ghost stories and psychological horror. He is best remembered for his story The Beast with Five Fingers and his work in The Penguin Book of Horror Stories. His writing focuses on building a sense of unease within ordinary settings.

William Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter. ([Source][1].) [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner

Oxford University history graduate Dorothy Kathleen Broster used her academic knowledge to good effect in the creation of a series of historical novels which gained a considerable reputation for their accurate evocation of past times. Particularly highly regarded were a series of tales set in Scotland at the time of the Jacobite Rebellion. The convincing authenticity of her writing is the result of painstaking research, a skill developed during the author's time at university and which serv...

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett was born in Ireland, the first son of John William Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor Ernle-Erle-Drax. He spent his childhood at several family properties, including Dunstall Priory in Shoreham, Kent, Dunsany Castle in County Meath, as wells as other family homes such as in London. His schooling was at Cheam, Eton and finally Sandhurst, which he entered in 1896. He became the 18th Baron of Dunsany when his father died in 1...

Evelyn Waugh is the author of Antología de la literatura fantástica, a collection that explores the world of fantasy literature. This anthology showcases Waugh's interest in imaginative and speculative storytelling.

Geoffrey Edward West Household was a prolific British novelist who specialized in thrillers. He is best known for his novel Rogue Male (1939).

L.P. Hartley was a British author who wrote novels and short stories, including the famous book The Go-Between. He was also a master of the ghost story, with his work appearing

Gerald Kersh wrote The Light Fantastic. He's known for his sharp, often darkly humorous stories. You'll find his work in the fantasy genre.

Carl Stephenson is the author behind Prentice Hall Literature -- Platinum. He's a familiar name in educational literature, bringing his expertise to students.

Yvor Winters was an American poet and literary critic who edited the collection The Penguin Book of Horror Stories. He spent much of his career teaching at Stanford University and is known for his direct approach to

Monica Enid Dickens was a writer. Dickens was the great-granddaughter of the author Charles Dickens, and was born into the upper-middle class. She became disillusioned her privilege and became a domestic servant. Her experiences as a servant and cook were the subject of her first book, "One Pair of Hands," published in 1939. Her second book, "One Pair of Feet," was about her experiences as a nurse. She also worked in an aircraft factory and on a local newspaper. Dickens then married a U.S....

Robert Graves is the author behind the popular "Heroic War Stories" series. He's known for his straightforward accounts of conflict and courage.

Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think. His more than five hundred published works -- short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse -- exemplify the American imagination at its most creative. Once read, his words are never forgotten. His best-known and most beloved books, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes, are masterworks that readers carry wi...

Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer, and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate, the Ingersoll Foundation TS Eliot Award in 1992 and the David Cohen Prize in 1997. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993, in recognition of her services to literature. In 1998, she was awarded the...

John Winston Ono Lennon MBE was an English singer, songwriter and peace activist who co-founded the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music.

Dawn Muscillo is an editor and writer known for her work on The Penguin Book of Horror Stories. She focuses on the horror genre, curating collections that highlight the best of dark and macabre

Dorothy K. Haynes was a Scottish writer who specialized in short stories about the supernatural and the macabre. Her work is featured in The Penguin Book of Horror Stories and often explores the

Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular mora...

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Born in north Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent. He rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and became one of the world's bestselling authors. His short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, often very dark h...

Murray Leinster was a pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins (June 16, 1896 – June 8, 1975), an American writer of genre fiction, particularly of science fiction. He wrote and published more than 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.

J.N. Allan is the editor of The Penguin Book of Horror Stories. Their work centers on the horror genre, bringing together classic tales of the supernatural and dark fiction.

Vilas Sarang was an Indian author and translator who wrote in both Marathi and English. He is best known for editing The Penguin Book of Horror Stories and for his own surrealist fiction. His work often deals with the absurd and the macabre.

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