Death

by Stuart David Schiff (Editor, Introduction), Lord Dunsany (contributor), Maurice Level (contributor)

DEATH
There are many ways to die. All of them unpleasant. You can be devoured, cursed, poisoned, bedeviled, tortured, drugged, transformed. Which one would you prefer? Not that you have a choice...

Introduction / Stuart David Schiff --
Two bottles of relish / Lord Dunsany --
Deathtracks / Dennis Etchison --
Always together / Hugh B. Cave --
Toilet paper run / Juleen Brantingham --
The green parrot / Joseph Payne Brennan --
Fragment from a charred diary / Davis Grubb --
The scarf / Bernice Balfour --
Sentences / Richard Christian Matheson --
Prickly / David Riley --
The kennel / Maurice Level --
Onawa / Alan Ryan --
Telephone booth / Wade Kenny --
Straw goat / Ken Wisman --
Horrible imaginings / Fritz Leiber --
The blind spot / Saki (H.H. Munro) --
The dust / Al Sarrantonio --
It grows on you / Stephen King --
The copper bowl / Captain George Fielding Eliot

Genres: Horror

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good anthology of horror stories about death and dying... you can't get more horrific than that, right? It's a good mix of classic stories and several that were published here for the first time. The authors range from Saki and Lord Dunsany (Two Bottles of Relish, a classic) to Hugh B. Cave and Davis Grubb all the way up to Dennis Etchison and Richard Christian Matheson. My favorites were Fritz Leiber and Stephen King.

[Shawn]

PLACEHOLDER REVIEWS:

"The Copper Bowl" by George Fielding Eliot - In China, the Legonnaire Fournet is captured by the malevolent Mandarin, Yuan Li, lord of river pirates, for some information he possesses. But when other forms of persuasion fail, and with killing or even physical injury of the Legionnaire not a consideration, the Mandarin defers to the use of the titular object, and a hostage, to gain the information he requires... A late period conte cruel, this has the requisite sadism, as well as some pulpy fighting and theatrics - the gruesome, downer ending, while not unusual, is nicely handled.

[East Bay J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve had this book for quite a while and have finally gotten around to reading it. Some of these stories are great. Lord Dunsany’s “Two Bottles Of Relish” is pretty quality. “Deathtracks” by Dennis Etchison is good and kind of touching. Davis Grubb’s “Fragment From A Charred Diary” was pretty inventive and unique. Another good, old style tale with a twist ending is Maurice Level’s “The Kennel”. Stephen King’s “It Grows On You” is quite good and, not having read King (Eye Of The Dragon notwithstanding) in a while, it was nice to be reacquainted with his writing style. I like Fritz Leiber’s fantasy stuff, what I’ve read at least. I feel like his story, “Horrible Imaginings”, had the most potential out of all these stories but the ending was a little flat. Overall, this is a fun book to read and all the stories are entertaining, if only because they’re short stories and you’re on to the next one before you know it.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled between 3 and 4 stars with this one too. There is some great stuff. "Two Bottles of Relish" is here again. And there is plenty of other good stuff. Other than "Relish," however, nothing really stood out, and there were a few I didn't care for.


There are stories by Matheson (Richard Christian), Saki, King, Etchison, Leiber, and quite a few others.

[Joey Brockert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of this book was the first story, “Two Bottles of Relish” by Lord Dunsany. There were other good stories, but this was the best one. My perception may be skewed by Lord Dunsany's reputation and my previous reading of his “The King of Elfland's Daughter,” but it was a very good story. Some of the other stories seemed to be pushed out of the author's mind by a need to produce something. The story was lame, the people were colorless, etc.

“Two Bottles of Relish” by Lord Dunsany: A sort of Sherlock Holmes mystery story. I remember one of the old Holmes' stories that had Holmes introduced his brother to Watson. Sherlock commented that his brother was smarter then he, Sherlock, was and went on through the story to prove it. This story follows: the fellow who is so very good, solves the mystery without ever going to do any such investigating, he just thinks about what must be the solution, and so he solves the mystery.
The real pleasure is in the writing. You get a consistent and honest feeling of the perspective of the narrator. The result is a very pleasurable reading.

“Deathtracks” by Dennis Etchison: This is a sad story of parents who lost their son in Vietnam and can not get over it. They try to see what was going on back when he died, by watching old television shows. They are trying to get a feeling of what people were thinking back then, but cannot quite grasp it through the medium of television audience reactions. They just keep going over this stuff over and over again, not really getting anywhere. This was one that seemed to be forced.

“Always Together” by Hugh B. Cave: Ahhh, a truly creepy story. It seems to be some sort of murder mystery, but it turns into a true to life ghost story. It was one really good story to read.

“Toilet Paper Run” by Juleen Brantingham: You never know what happens behind the walls of a single sex school, though in adolescent schools you can assume some sexual deviation is there. In this story there is a lot. I was not quite sure of all of it. There was a hint of lesbianism, as well as general sexual antics of bad girls who earned a pass to go to town on Saturday. The school was for uncontrollable girl, in the end the narrator and her roommate learned that it was better to get out and stay out, so they became good girls. Another really good story.

“The Green Parrot” by Joseph Payne Brennan: This story larks back to H. P. Lovecraft and it does it very well. It is not so horrendous, but still the placement in New England and the subject is really quite Lovecraftian. It is a simple enough story, but it is well told and you realize you have heard it before when you finish. Pretty wonderful reading.

“Fragment From a Charred Diary” by Davis Grubb: The protagonist of this is the only character and he is bad. He talks of 'greasers' and other domestic help derogatorily, so you get the feeling that the author is not going to be kind to him in the end, and so it goes. It is one of the only voodoo doll stories I have come across. It was good reading.

“The Scarf” by Bernice Balfour: A very sad story of good people gone bad. A sister and her brother have lived together for years. Since he came back from the Vietnam War blind he has lived with her. She was injured in a car accident and was ashamed of her face, but, being blind, her brother never saw it. She wore a scarf to cover the scars and all. The surprise is who is bad and why, though this style of story has been written of before in elsewhere (“Twilight Zone”), this is a new take on the notion, and sadder.

“Sentences” by Richard Christian Matheson: This is an odd story of how our life can be turned upside down. The hero finds that he can get his life rewritten by some hack in some nondescript apartment,m so he does. But even the writer does not foresee the results. It is really good to read to the end and enjoy the surprise.

“Prickly” by David Riley: The comes for a visit in this story.

[Jacs Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this collection surprisingly really solid!! I had never heard of most of these authors and was very impressed. There were two stories I just skipped through after not really enjoying their starts but otherwise I had a really good time!!!

[[on hiatus, probably forever] The rockabilly werewolf from Mars · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good stories by King, Etchison, Leiber, and Dunsany. Unfortunately, I had already read all of them. The Saki piece was clever enough, although not terribly horrific, and the Cave and Brennan pieces had decent atmosphere, even though they weren't terribly memorable, but the rest ranged from mediocre to poor. Given that all of the good stories are more easily available elsewhere, I'd skip this one.