Tales Of Supernatural Terror

by Guy de Maupassant, Arnold Kellett (Translator)

Sixteen tales of the dark powers that haunt the borders of madness by the acknowledged master of the realistic short story.From the withered hand chained to the wall, to the furniture which marched on crutches of wood over its desperate owner, these stories reveal not only the torment of the night's untruth but portray, even more frighteningly, the all-too-human terror felt when flesh and blood encounters the supernatural.The first selection of its kind to appear in English.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer. He is one of the fathers of the modern short story. A protege of Flaubert, Maupassant's short stories are characterized by their economy of style and their efficient effortless dénouement. He also wrote six short novels. A number of his stories often denote the futility of war and the innocent civilians who get crushed in it - many are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s.

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive collection of haunting tales from an author probably best known for his work outside of the genre.

These stories explore the fine line between psychological and supernatural horror with the reader left, in most cases, to ponder the question of whether the protagonists have experienced genuine supernatural phenomena or are merely going insane. The best example of this can be seen in "The Horla", probably his most well-known contribution to the genre.

There were many other great tales, the sublime "On the River", the tragic "The Drowned Man", the anguish in "The Dead Girl" and the terrifying "The Wolf". Many of the stories were concerned with the nature of true fear. Often featured a narrative within a narrative as a character relayed some deeply strange and fearful experience they had had. Most of the stories are very short and the prose is spare allowing the reader to breeze through the book in no time.

Not all of the stories I found effective but there is enough quality here for fans of classic horror to enjoy although there are more extensive collections of his contributions to the genre around for the completists out there. Now I just need to perfect my French and read these in their original language for the ultimate Maupassant experience.

[Yoshita Sood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't spooked per se. The supernatural element is rooted in unfamiliar elements of real life which is not my preferred subgenre of horror. The stories were also too short for me to get invested in them.

[Robert (NurseBob) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice selection and translation of Guy de Maupassant's more macabre short stories. Lying somewhere between Poe and Saki they go from almost whimsical to outright bizarre, often with an ironic little barb at the end. Many of them also involve people slipping into madness and paranoia (is this really happening?!) which is interesting to note when you consider the author himself was suffering through end-stage syphilis in real life.

[Bryan Stubbles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. Definitely worth a read, but I would call it Tales of PTSD Terror since most of the stories feature a protagonist who seems to be suffering from PTSD than from actual supernatural phenomena.