Mistresses Of the Dark: 25 Macabre Tales By Master Storytellers

by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz (Editor), Denise Little (Editor), Robert Weinberg (Editor)

The dark side of life lurks just around the corner from the safe avenues of the familiar. In Mistresses of the Dark, twenty-five leading female writers dare to stray from the path of the ordinary and venture into the shadows. Nadine Gordimer imagines a nightmare relationship between a father and son. Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor conjure grim Gothic visions of private desperation. Specters of loss haunt tales by Alison Lurie and A. S. Byatt, and an atmosphere of unease blows through stories by Shirley Jackson and Doris Lessing. The contributors include a Nobel laureate, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and recipients of the Booker Prize and the National Book Award.

In subtle and sophisticated stories, these authors find moods of menace and tremors of dread in the most unlikely settings: the home, the office, the neighborhood, the bedroom. Unsettling encounters sure to stir the soul await the reader of these uncommon literary masterpieces.

Contents: Death by landscape / Margaret Atwood -- The July ghost / A.S. Byatt -- The bloody chamber / Angela Carter -- Don't look now / Daphne du Maurier -- Fleur / Louise Erdrich -- Up north / Mavis Gallant -- Letter from his father / Nadine Gordimer -- The pond / Patricia Highsmith -- The butler catcher / A.M. Homes -- The summer people / Shirley Jackson -- Ovando / Jamaica Kincaid -- Poor little Saturday / Madeleine L'Engle -- The ones who walk away from omelas / Ursula K. Le Guin -- Plants and girls / Doris Lessing -- Another Halloween / Alison Lurie -- The parallel world / Valerie Martin -- Number 10 / Edna O'Brien -- The river / Flannery O'Connor -- The virgin in the rose-bower, or the tragedy of Glen Mawr Manor / Joyce Carol Oates -- The dreadful day of judgement / Ruth Rendell -- A spiritualist / Jean Rhys -- The dummy / Susan Sontag -- The girl I left behind me / Muriel Spark -- Spirit of the house / Fay Weldon -- Clytie / Eudora Welty.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Short Story Collection, Fantasy

543 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Born in 1957, Stefan Dziemianowicz works for the publisher Barnes & Noble as an editor.

Reviews

[Laura]

An impressively consistent collection which mixes the familiar with the undeservedly forgotten and talent spots a few writers who were (then) up-and-coming. Highlights include Ursula Le Guin's troubling 'what would you do?' fantasy, 'Those Who Walk Away from Omelas', Susan Sontag's 'The Dummy' (a critique of capitalism and the American Dream which has only grown more telling in the forty years since it first appeared), and the beautifully subtle 'Up North' by Mavis Gallant, a ghost story which happens to be moving as well as original. I also loved the garish satirical moments of A.M. Homes's 'The Bullet Catcher', with its entertaining depiction of a 'Touch-the-Truck' contest. Of the classics, Du Maurier's 'Don't Look Now' was even better than I remembered it being, Shirley Jackson's 'The Summer People' was a beautifully nuanced study, and Flannery O'Connor's 'The River' left me shaken and stirred. Despite being organised alphabetically by writer surname (which gives the listing an arbitrary feel) and although I was disappointed by some stories (the Ruth Rendall one is marred by unconvincing dialogue, the Patricia Highsmith is nasty-by-numbers and the Doris Lessing is, well, Doris Lessing), the collection hung together pretty well as a whole. It's been on the shelf for ages and I'm pleased I finally got round to exploring it.

[Pam Baddeley]

Read some years ago - can't recall much except that a large chunk is taken up by a very striking novella by Joyce Carol Oates, "The Virgin in the Rose Bower". My main 'take' from this collection was a determination to follow up other fiction by Oates, which I have, at the time of writing, began to read.

[Katie]

Forced myself to finish this. Very boring... Zzz...

[angelofmine1974]

For my review of this book, visit my Youtube Vlog at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krTKU...

Enjoy!

[William Prystauk]

“Mistresses of the Dark” is quite deceptive because the editors have an intriguing way of defining the macabre. This leads to a book where even if a story proves worthwhile, it doesn’t necessarily fall into anything disturbing or horror laden. More than half the tales are either boring or end poorly.

Granted, there are notables in this anthology that do deliver regardless of genre: Atwood, Carter, Jackson, Le Guin, O’Connor, Sontag, and Spark.

Du Maurier’s “Don’t Look Now” is captivating until it becomes lost in the final scene. The horror film starring Donald Sutherland, has much for weight and intrigue.

Homes, Kincaid, and Lurie penned compelling pieces, but Erdrich’s visceral tale “Fleur” comes with tons of grit and power.

The rest are weak, trite, or languish.

In all sincerity, I cannot recommend this book unless a reader wants to cherry pick the best pieces.

[Katie]

"This collection started off well enough, with an admirable Atwood, an intriguing Byatt. And then I noticed that the stories in this anthology were arranged in _alphabetical_ order. How lazy, I thought to myself. I have strong feelings about anthologies and their editors. It's not enough that there be a strong theme - macabre tales by 20th women writersbut the editor needs to think carefully about the structure of the book, creating an arc that leads the reader from one story eagerly on to the next.
Why place what is practically a novella (a 170-page pastiche of a penny-dreadful by Joyce Carol Oates) in the middle of the book? It really ruins the flow.
In a way, this book is a good introduction to a number of excellent female writers in short-story form. However, not all the stories really belong in the
genre, and seem to have been shoe-horned in. Maybe So maybe postmodern magical realism gothic horror just isn't my genre. I just don't accept Jean Rhys or Doris Lessing as horror writers, as much as I like their work. And although I don't usually have patience for the novels of Joyce Carol Oates, in short form she's quite palatable.
Not all the stories are worth reading, but that's just my opinion.

[Shawn]

PLACEHOLDER REVIEW: reading a bunch of Fay Weldon and while this book is on my "to read" shelf, I thought I'd jump ahead and place the review here.

"Spirit Of The House" by Fay Weldon has an employee at the grand home of one of those landed-gentry-turned-tourist-attraction manors begin to suspect that the young nanny - who her husband lusts after - entrusted with the care of the lord's infant child is actually harming the baby, but no one believes her. Nice little modern Gothic, set in the world of declined nobility, money and what passes for modern "manners" with some pointed things to say about class, privilege, the landed gentry and the public's obsession with them. Solid and effective.

[Bözsi Claussen]

This is almost a five-star (and probably would be if I hadn't already previously read about half of the stories (all top notch ones) by all kinds of excellent authors ("by twenty-five leading female writers [who] dare to stray from the path of the ordinary and venture into the shadows." Great stories for bedtime reading.

[Michaela]

Only marred for me by the false ambiguity of Joyce Carol Oate's The Virgin in the Rose Bower (fans of tv show Lost will know what I mean.) But the terse, spare, and brilliant story that follows would make the entire book worth reading. There are some true gems in this lost of mystery/horror stories by women. Well done.

[Peggy]

An excellent collection of short stories all by women authors. Some are scarier than others and some just make you go "hmmm". Some of my favorite authors are included: Flannery O'Connor, Nadine Gordimer, and Margaret Atwood. Great collection for the scary story reader.

[Monica]

The Tragedy of Glen Mawr Manor was really creepy. The story had a haunted room complete with a huge painting of cherubs. At times, or perhaps cuz of certain people, the images on the painting would come to life to harm the room's occupant.

[Michael R]

A few fantastic stories in this collection, but quite a few duds, including a novella jammed into a book of short stories, and as the other commenters point out, no organization or annotations worthy of the name.

[Brett]

Horror

[Sarah Milne]

3.5

I picked it up for Daphne du Maurier and Shirley Jackson, but thoroughly enjoyed the works of many of the other writers, as well.

[Krissy]

did not finish.

just couldn't get into the stories to feel like finishing it.

[Robert]

Someone should inform the editor of this collection what horror means. There are some good stories here, but...

[Isaac]

I finished all but the long overly-detailed story by Joyce Carol Oates.