Andrew T Lyman

experimentalist

2011

The Best Short Horror Stories I’ve Found

Having had considerable trouble hunting down a list of similar design, and in celebration of the moving into my favorite month (October for those of you who haven’t come out of your holes for a while) I have decided to compile, with minimal effort, a list of my favorite short horror fiction.

Now some of you may chide my inability to find top ten lists on the internet, but I maintain that horror novels abound, but lists of short stories are scant, and in my finding, unsatisfactory. So, being no sort of authority on the matter, but a self-avowed enthusiast, here is my list of the most interesting, the most affecting, the most chilling horror fiction I have read to date. Absent are descriptions of the stories, for it has been my experience that even rudimentary outlines of plots for short horror fiction take a great deal away from the reading of them, and after ten goes around, any effort on my part to convey the individual scariness or effect would grow redundant and tiresome. So, with all that air cleared, let us now begin.

Le Liste:

1. “Oh Whistle My Lad and I will Come to You” -M.R. James
2. “What Was It?” -Fitz-James O’ Brien
3. “The Thing on the Doorstep” -H.P. Lovecraft
4. “Dreams in the Witch House” -H.P. Lovecraft
5. “The Dunwich Horror” -H.P. Lovecraft
6. “Caterpillars” -E.F. Benson
7. “On Moonlit Road” -Ambrose Bierce
8. “Guests from Gibbet Island” -Washington Irving
9. “The Open Window” -H.H. Munro
10. “The Beckoning Fair One” -Oliver Onions

It must be said that I have quite a specific taste for horror. I prefer supernatural horror, I have read a great deal Victorian era ghost stories for I enjoy their simple structure and quaint air, but seek out, and hold above all else, horror where reason breaks down, and the events or creatures described will unravel the strongest of nerves. Happy reading.

If anyone else comes across some good lists or anthologies for stuff like this, by all means, bring it to my attention. I will say that the best anthology I’ve found is the Modern Library’s excellent Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, an indispensable piece of my collection. I have also read nearly everything by H.P. Lovecraft at this point, and have found nothing but enjoyment (via horror) in nearly all of his tales. The only fault of his I can report is a certain tenacity of structure which pervades nearly all of his stories.

So there it is. Enjoy sleeping with the lights on and cover drawn tight, but you should know you are least safe there, for these are phantasms of the mind. Enjoy the coming on of fall.

ADDENDUM: I would like to add, as number 11 to the list, “The Last Traveler” by Jean Ray. An excellent little tale which I just read last night.

ADDENDUM 2: add also, “How Fear Left the Long Gallery” by E.F. Benson. An absolutely wonderfully frightful tale indeed. I have only just finished reading it. One of my favorites I must say.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.