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82nd out of 168 books
—
250 voters
The Dark Descent (The Dark Descent )
by
David G. Hartwell ,
Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, John Collier, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates
This highly acclaimed anthology traces the evolution of horror, from Nathaniel Hawthorn and Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King. Adopted by colleges across the country to be used in literature courses, The Dark Descent showcases some of the finest horror fiction ever written.
Contents:
pt. 1.
The color of evil. The reach / Stephen King --
Evening primrose / John Collier --
The as...more
Contents:
pt. 1.
The color of evil. The reach / Stephen King --
Evening primrose / John Collier --
The as...more
Paperback, 1011 pages
Published
January 15th 1997
by Tor Books
(first published 1987)
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I am SO looking forward to this tome. I found it in a outlet store for $6 and grabbed it as fast as I could. Stories from some of my favorites (Harlan Ellison's "Whimper of Whipped Dogs" plus a couple from Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, HP Lovecraft and one from Philip K. Dick) as well as from people who I need to read/read more of (Nathaniel Hawthorne, Clive Barker, I think Robert Bloch is also in here). If this is as good as it claims to be, I will be using it when I teach my Horror Short Fict...more
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If you have any interest in horror fiction, The Dark Descent is essential. In fact, if you're new to horror, don't bother with anything else. This compilation will not only introduce some of the best works in short fiction of the last hundred years, but it will do so with a clarity of vision that actually allows you to survey how far we have come and what remains to be explored. Each work in this anthology represents an incredible peak in style and expression that has never been topped regardles...more
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Contains one of PB's All Time Greats :
"The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson (1950)
Old Shirl has got matter-of-fact horror down, she owns matter-of-fact horror, and it's a thing of wonder. Perfectly bland boring people do these ordinary things and it all plods on and plods on and you're looking at your watch and scratching your left ventricle until you realise this routine stuff is now involving immense cruelty and death. Come round to tea any day, Shirley Jackson.
"The Summer People" by Shirley Jackson (1950)
Old Shirl has got matter-of-fact horror down, she owns matter-of-fact horror, and it's a thing of wonder. Perfectly bland boring people do these ordinary things and it all plods on and plods on and you're looking at your watch and scratching your left ventricle until you realise this routine stuff is now involving immense cruelty and death. Come round to tea any day, Shirley Jackson.
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May 05, 2013
Jj
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Jj by:
Indianapolis Public Library
Shelves:
fiction-anthology
I hate horror movies, so I sometimes knee-jerkily shy away from horror writing, but when I saw the authors whose stories were included in this book I took it anyway. This book has all kinds of famous stories in it (The Fall of the House of Usher) and it also has authors I never would have thought wrote "horror" (Edith Nesbit?!). If you think of horror as blood-and-guts, dumb-blonde-girls-getting-slashed-by-creepy-masked-men, these stories won't fit into your idea of horror. These are psychologic...more
I technically should put this book on my “Abandoned” or “Hiatus” shelf, because I didn’t finish it. But I feel I’ve read everything I’m going to from this book (at least, for the time being), so we’ll call it “Read.”
I started out by reading from the beginning (as is the tradition with books, I hear). I went through the introduction and found that the guy who threw this anthology together had a massive boner for Stephen King. I’ve read Pet Sematary and Salem’s Lot, and from those books I’ve decid...more
I started out by reading from the beginning (as is the tradition with books, I hear). I went through the introduction and found that the guy who threw this anthology together had a massive boner for Stephen King. I’ve read Pet Sematary and Salem’s Lot, and from those books I’ve decid...more
What an amazing anthology. Literally a textbook demonstrating the evolution of horror fiction; it is a great introduction to the genera and many authors whom you might not otherwise hear of. Stephen King is in evidence here, Clive Barker and Shirley Jackson (LOVE Shirley Jackson) but so are too many others not so well known. These were the architects of the genera, pulp authors of mostly short fiction. The editor's introspection (and the thesis for the collection) is an interesting meditation on...more
I confess, I approached this collection with a skeptical eye. In my mind, the horror genre is composed of slashers and gore and torture porn--disgusting descriptions that repulse the discriminating reader while scintillating the low-brow Philistine who wants nothing more than to leer eagerly at ever more graphic tales of death and dismemberment. It seems I may have been mistaken. Certainly, every genre has its slums--after all, libraries are full of terrible science fiction, lurid overwrought ro...more
A collection of some of the best horror stories of all time. Hartwell set himself up for a fall, taking a scholarly approach to the genre and selecting what are, for him, the cream of the crop, but I think he does well. There are a lot of unusual stories here, quite a few of them unknown, and it's far from the bland, anthologised-to-death collection I was dreading.
Things inevitably kick off with Stephen King. THE REACH is an atypical piece of writing, a subtle ghost story more about realism than...more
Things inevitably kick off with Stephen King. THE REACH is an atypical piece of writing, a subtle ghost story more about realism than...more
If I may quote Forrest Gump for a moment, I'd like to say that The Dark Descent is like a box of chocolates. Not so much because you "never know what you're gonna get" - because these stories are almost uniformly well written - but because the best way to consume it is a few pieces (stories) at a time, so they don't get overwhelming and start tasting all the same (or make you sick).
The editor, David Hartwell, has divided the story collection into what he calls three "streams": 1) moral allegoric...more
The editor, David Hartwell, has divided the story collection into what he calls three "streams": 1) moral allegoric...more
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What's most interesting to me are the entries in this collection by author's who are not well known for writing horror (William Faulkner! Charles Dickens!). I haven't even finished reading the whole book yet and I feel strongly that it deserves a five star rating. This book is absolutely essential to anyone interested in the genre of horror. If there were going to be a college course on horror, I would highly recommend this book as the text.
If I have a complaint, it would be that the work printe...more
If I have a complaint, it would be that the work printe...more
This may be, along with Kirby Macauley's anthology Dark Forces, one of the most important collections in the genre to be published in the last fifty years. Almost every story included is a knockout. The edition I have is the hardcover first printing, and let me tell you it's an unwieldy sucker. From what I understand, the subsequent paperback edition was divided into three volumes. Highly recommended.
This top-notch collection of stories cover a very large ground in the landscape of horror. There are (too) well-known stories from the old masters and a few pleasantly unpleasant shocks in terms of omissions, there are classics as-well-as bizarre choices from the present big-guys. Overall, a massive collection that has something for all. Recommended.
When I was a teenager this was my favorite horror story anthology (In Mexico "The Dark Descent" was released as "El Gran Libro del Terror" by Martinez Roca publishers). Among many jewels, it includes the best ghost story I've ever read, "Afterward" by Edith Warthon (yes, the same woman who wrote "The Age of Innocence").
I actually read most of these stories before, which is why I was able to breeze through a 1000+ page book so quickly. It's an excellent selection from the history of the genre. Maybe it's a bit too much, but it's definitely a quality anthology. Of the tales I hadn't read before, I think my favorite is Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People."
One of the best summaries of Horror about, in my opinion. Not all stories are necessarily the author's best nor best known, yet as a primer to give a reader something to work at, this is about as good as it gets.
I'm not sure why it took me so long to read this book; it is a great collection of a wide variety of horror writers. I think it was a nefarious combination of coming up to stories I've read before, a lack of time, my (lack of) attention span and the fact that it was huge. Lugging around school books doesn't exactly allow for much room (or arm/back strength) for (not so light) reading. It was a book I preferred to leave at home, but that I read in compulsive bursts when I picked it up. I'd earmar...more
Quando passo un momento brutto e gli incubi notturni si fanno più insistenti, non c'è niente di meglio del genere horror per rimettere a posto gli animi. Peccato che con tutto lo splatter sullo schermo negli ultimi anni, parlare di horror sembri sminuire un romanzo. Questa raccolta di racconti del genere,oltre un secolo di inchiostro illustre su queste pagine, dimostra quanta maestria ci sia nell'opera di chi scrive. Poe, Hawrthone, Dickens, Lovecraft sono solo alcune delle menti geniali, e a tr...more
Excellent collection of Horror short stories. Personal favorites are Ray Bradbury's The Crowd, and Clive Barker's Dread
One of the most comprehensive books on modern horror literature you're likely to find. An excellent read.
This is an excellent collection of horror short stories. One of the best anthologies I've read.
Still the best anthology of horror short fiction available. And that's a deep field.
I didn't even get halfway through it. Some of the stories were just downright BORING. I stopped reading once I got to "The Yellow Wallpaper."
The only good stories I liked were "The Monkey" by Stephen King; "If Damon Comes" by Charles L. Grant; "The New Mother" by Lucy Clifford; "The Crowd" by Ray Bradbury; "Vandy, Vandy" by Manly Wade Wellman; and "Bright Segment" by Theodore Stergeon. All the rest I found either extremely boring and way too discriptive, or completely disgusting.
The only good stories I liked were "The Monkey" by Stephen King; "If Damon Comes" by Charles L. Grant; "The New Mother" by Lucy Clifford; "The Crowd" by Ray Bradbury; "Vandy, Vandy" by Manly Wade Wellman; and "Bright Segment" by Theodore Stergeon. All the rest I found either extremely boring and way too discriptive, or completely disgusting.
A substantial collection of horror fiction that I will definitely re-read.
I still cannot sleep. This book was complied of some of the scariest stories from lots of different authors, including Stephen King. I will say that some of the stories were a little dry and took too long to get to the scary parts, but that could just be my lack of patience.
I would recommend this book to anybody looking for a great (super long!) read and one that will make you get out your old nightlight.
I would recommend this book to anybody looking for a great (super long!) read and one that will make you get out your old nightlight.
This book is simply a must for any horror and supernatural fan.
Excellent mix of old and newer horror stories.
Jun 17, 2013
Patrick
added it
5/20/13: "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" (1943) by Robert Bloch
5/25/13: "The Autopsy" (1980) by Michael Shea
5/28/13: "The Rats in the Walls" (1923) by H.P. Lovecraft (mult. re-read)
6/2/13: "The Ash-Tree" (1904) by M.R. James
6/16/13: "The Willows" (1907) by Algernon Blackwood
5/25/13: "The Autopsy" (1980) by Michael Shea
5/28/13: "The Rats in the Walls" (1923) by H.P. Lovecraft (mult. re-read)
6/2/13: "The Ash-Tree" (1904) by M.R. James
6/16/13: "The Willows" (1907) by Algernon Blackwood
I doubt any of my friends have any interest in this, but if you 're looking for a primer on some of the world's greatest short horror stories, this is the best I've found. The choices are crazy-smart, and it'll catch you up so you'll sound smart at your next horror short story function. I'll be there... actually, it'll just be me. I throw them in my attic. What'll you be wearing so I can recognize you? I'll be the one covered in jizz.
A very good collection spanning the genre from classics (such as Poe and Hawthorne), to contemporary authors (King and Barker), and everything in between.
While certainly not comprehensive, this broad collection is a great addition to any horror collection, or for anyone wanting to get acquainted with the genre.
I only wish the order of stories was chronological, to see the progression of horror.
While certainly not comprehensive, this broad collection is a great addition to any horror collection, or for anyone wanting to get acquainted with the genre.
I only wish the order of stories was chronological, to see the progression of horror.
One of the best collections of horror short-stories! If you're a fan of the genre, this should be a part of your collection as it spans from classics like Poe and Bierce to the contemporaries like King and Barker. Highly recommended.
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David Geddes Hartwell (b. July 10, 1941) is an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He has worked for Signet (1971-1973), Berkley Putnam (1973-1978), Pocket (where he founded the Timescape imprint, 1978-1983, and created the Pocket Books Star Trek publishing line), and Tor (where he spearheaded Tor's Canadian publishing initiative, and was also influential in bringing many Australian wr...more
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