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And the Darkness Falls
Classic anthology of stories picked by Karloff and which in his words include "fables, truly nightmarish tales, and an outright shocker or two!" Very Scarey Book. Huge collection of 72 weird, horror, mystery tales and one of the best such collections ever done. General Introduction and very good notes on each story and author by Karloff. Authors range from classic authors (e.g. J. Conrad, R. Browning, N. Gogol, Baudelaire, Tennyson, Turgenev) to the great horror/supernatural authors and many stories not commonly reprinted. Contains: Perchance to Dream [short fiction] by Michael Joyce; Where the Tides Ebb and Flow [short story] by Lord Dunsany; Ulalume [poem] by Edgar Allan Poe.
Other authors: Ambrose Bierce (Contributor), Algernon Blackwood (Contributor), John Buchan (Contributor), A.M. Burrage (Contributor), John Collier (Contributor), Joseph Conrad (Contributor), Arthur Conan Doyle (Contributor), Lord Dunsany (Contributor), W.W. Jacobs (Contributor), H.P. Lovecraft (Contributor), W. Somerset Maugham (Contributor), Guy de Maupassant (Contributor), Oliver Onions (Contributor), Edgar Allan Poe (Contributor), Clark Ashton Smith (Contributor), Alfred Tennyson (Contributor), Hugh Walpole (Contributor), Cornell Woolrich (Contributor), W.B. Yeats (Contributor)
Other authors: Ambrose Bierce (Contributor), Algernon Blackwood (Contributor), John Buchan (Contributor), A.M. Burrage (Contributor), John Collier (Contributor), Joseph Conrad (Contributor), Arthur Conan Doyle (Contributor), Lord Dunsany (Contributor), W.W. Jacobs (Contributor), H.P. Lovecraft (Contributor), W. Somerset Maugham (Contributor), Guy de Maupassant (Contributor), Oliver Onions (Contributor), Edgar Allan Poe (Contributor), Clark Ashton Smith (Contributor), Alfred Tennyson (Contributor), Hugh Walpole (Contributor), Cornell Woolrich (Contributor), W.B. Yeats (Contributor)
631 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1946
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128 people want to read
About the author
Boris Karloff
88 books16 followersBoris Karloff was an English actor who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein, 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, and 1939 film Son of Frankenstein. His popularity following Frankenstein in the early 1930s was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or, on some movie posters, "Karloff the Uncanny".
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 8, 2024
Ok, let me just say this right up front. AND THE DARKNESS FALLS is the best collection of short stories I've ever read.
In 1943, The World Publishing Company had an unexpected "hit" with TALES OF TERROR, a collection of 14 chilling tales personally selected by Boris Karloff. The volume included a nice Introduction from him and included three stories that I had read and enjoyed previously ("The Judge's House," "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Beast With Five Fingers"). The "hook" to this collection was that unlike many volumes from other celebrities who licensed their names, but contained stories that were selected by an editorial staff, Karloff actually chose all of the ones in the book. (Many were read by him between appearances on Broadway for the theatrical run of "Arsenic and Old Lace.")
Following that success, the publishing house approached Karloff for a second collection, this time under the title AND THE DARKNESS FALLS. Once again, Karloff personally selected each story and poem. But, this time, he wrote a personal introduction to each story (although, not to the poems). There was one other major difference. This collection was increased from 14 in the previous one to a whopping 72!
This time, there were four that I had read before and thoroughly enjoyed ("Richard Cory," "Ulalume," "A Modest Proposal" and "The Thing on the Doorstep"). However, I am accustomed to other collections that contain perhaps 15% of material that I think is great, 40% that is okay, and the remainder that might as well be "filler." In AND THE DARKNESS FALLS, there were four entries that I thought were okay (two of them poems) ... and the remainder were terrific. I was (and am) truly astonished!
Karloff had very broad tastes in literature, so this collection is from international sources. The tone spans from "you don't want to read this alone late at night" to wickedly amusing. If a work from a writer is one that is frequently "collected," he states in his introduction why he has chosen a less well-known one that can still tingle the spine (choosing "The Well" from W. W. Jacobs instead of "The Monkey's Paw"). He featured many writers who were new to me, and also some very famous ones who I would not have thought belonged in such a collection (John Buchan, Dorothy L. Sayers, W. Somerset Maugham, Algernon C. Swinburne, Jonathan Swift, Sir Frederick Treves, William B. Yeats, Stephen Crane and Joseph Conrad among others), although they certainly found a home here.
How do I know that these stories were actually read and chosen by Boris Karloff instead of by an editorial staff without his input? Specifically, there are so many personal asides in the Introductions. Consider this one for "Out of the Deep" by Walter de la Mare:
"Of two possible stories of De la Mare's which I considered for this anthology, 'Seaton's Aunt,' the first, I finally rejected in spite of the fact that that fine American critic, Edmund Wilson, thinks it a masterpiece of horror. Its extreme fancifulness makes it a little beyond the comprehension of the average reader, or at any rate my comprehension. I chose 'Out of the Deep' because it possesses all of its author's concentrated writing, his sensitiveness and eery charm, and is easily understood. It certainly grows on one! And what a nightmarish journey one takes here through the fever-stricken stretches of a tortured mind."
AND THE DARKNESS FALLS has been long out-of-print, but I did find an excellent used copy at Abebooks. (Perhaps some public libraries still have a copy.) It has taken its place on my most cherished book shelf for easy revisiting. I can't recommend it highly enough!
In 1943, The World Publishing Company had an unexpected "hit" with TALES OF TERROR, a collection of 14 chilling tales personally selected by Boris Karloff. The volume included a nice Introduction from him and included three stories that I had read and enjoyed previously ("The Judge's House," "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Beast With Five Fingers"). The "hook" to this collection was that unlike many volumes from other celebrities who licensed their names, but contained stories that were selected by an editorial staff, Karloff actually chose all of the ones in the book. (Many were read by him between appearances on Broadway for the theatrical run of "Arsenic and Old Lace.")
Following that success, the publishing house approached Karloff for a second collection, this time under the title AND THE DARKNESS FALLS. Once again, Karloff personally selected each story and poem. But, this time, he wrote a personal introduction to each story (although, not to the poems). There was one other major difference. This collection was increased from 14 in the previous one to a whopping 72!
This time, there were four that I had read before and thoroughly enjoyed ("Richard Cory," "Ulalume," "A Modest Proposal" and "The Thing on the Doorstep"). However, I am accustomed to other collections that contain perhaps 15% of material that I think is great, 40% that is okay, and the remainder that might as well be "filler." In AND THE DARKNESS FALLS, there were four entries that I thought were okay (two of them poems) ... and the remainder were terrific. I was (and am) truly astonished!
Karloff had very broad tastes in literature, so this collection is from international sources. The tone spans from "you don't want to read this alone late at night" to wickedly amusing. If a work from a writer is one that is frequently "collected," he states in his introduction why he has chosen a less well-known one that can still tingle the spine (choosing "The Well" from W. W. Jacobs instead of "The Monkey's Paw"). He featured many writers who were new to me, and also some very famous ones who I would not have thought belonged in such a collection (John Buchan, Dorothy L. Sayers, W. Somerset Maugham, Algernon C. Swinburne, Jonathan Swift, Sir Frederick Treves, William B. Yeats, Stephen Crane and Joseph Conrad among others), although they certainly found a home here.
How do I know that these stories were actually read and chosen by Boris Karloff instead of by an editorial staff without his input? Specifically, there are so many personal asides in the Introductions. Consider this one for "Out of the Deep" by Walter de la Mare:
"Of two possible stories of De la Mare's which I considered for this anthology, 'Seaton's Aunt,' the first, I finally rejected in spite of the fact that that fine American critic, Edmund Wilson, thinks it a masterpiece of horror. Its extreme fancifulness makes it a little beyond the comprehension of the average reader, or at any rate my comprehension. I chose 'Out of the Deep' because it possesses all of its author's concentrated writing, his sensitiveness and eery charm, and is easily understood. It certainly grows on one! And what a nightmarish journey one takes here through the fever-stricken stretches of a tortured mind."
AND THE DARKNESS FALLS has been long out-of-print, but I did find an excellent used copy at Abebooks. (Perhaps some public libraries still have a copy.) It has taken its place on my most cherished book shelf for easy revisiting. I can't recommend it highly enough!
January 19, 2012
In 1943, Boris Karloff was induced by his old friend Edmund Speare, an English professor and book editor, to assist in putting together an anthology of horror stories; as Speare put it, "a collection of bogey stories selected by a professional bogey man." The resulting volume, "Tales of Terror," consisted of a six-page introduction by Karloff and 14 stories, ran to 317 pages, and was a popular release with the public. On the strength of that book's sales, the two tried their luck again with an even more ambitious project. The result was 1946's "And the Darkness Falls," a whopping volume running to 631 pages and containing 59 short stories, each with an introduction from Karloff (!), in addition to 10 short, eerie poems scattered throughout. An impressively wide-ranging survey of the horror story, this staggeringly generous volume presents tales from as far back as the 8th century A.D. all the way up to modern times, and its roster of authors is a nicely multinational one (25 are British, 12 are American, 5 Irish, 2 French, 2 Russian, plus 1 Pole, 1 Greek, 1 Scotch, 1 Welsh, 1 Chinese and 1 anonymous). The title of the collection is an ambiguous one. Of course, it can connote the coming of night, when many of these chilling tales take place, but it can just as easily suggest the approaching end of life; of the 59 stories in the book, death is a looming factor in the overwhelming majority. Not that the accumulated impact of these stories is a depressing one; the tales vary too greatly in both subject matter and theme for the reader to become worn out with 600+ pages of such fare.
Many of the authors whom one would expect to find in a volume of this nature are present. H.P. Lovecraft is represented with his great tale "The Thing on the Doorstep"; Algernon Blackwood is twice represented, by the beautifully mystical "The Stranger" and the straightforward spook tale "The Woman's Ghost Story"; Ambrose Bierce offers us the darkly humorous "My Favorite Murder"; August Derleth shows us the horrors contained in "The Panelled Room"; Hugh Walpole tells us a tale of unease in "The Silver Mask"; and Oliver Onions offers us the haunting story "John Gladwin Says...." But then there are some fairly well-known authors whom one would NOT necessarily expect to find in a horror collection. Ivan Turgenev is represented by the very strange tale "The Adventure of Second Lieutenant Bubnov"; Guy de Maupassant gives us two tales, "The Madman" and "Little Louise Roque" (the latter being one of the best tales in the collection); Lafcadio Hearn provides the beautifully written "L'Amour Apres La Mort"; Arthur Conan Doyle writes of grotesque mutilation in "The Case of Lady Sannox"; Somerset Maugham tells a story of Devil's Island in "An Official Position"; the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats is represented by the very odd story "The Crucifixion of the Outcast"; Nikolai Gogol is shown to great effect with his wonderful horror tale "Viy"; and Joseph Conrad tells us of a monstrously nasty sea vessel, "The Brute." And then there are the dozens of other writers that I had never previously encountered, but whose work here will surely prompt me to seek out more. As I said, this is a staggeringly good collection, with nary a clinker in the bunch.
The 59 stories in the volume can be grouped into a good dozen types. I suppose tales dealing with Murder as their subject predominate, with Frederick S. Greene's "The Black Pool," Tennyson Jesse's "The Mask," Violet Hunt's "The Witness" and Richard M. Hallet's "The Razor of Pedro Dutel" being standouts. Haunted House stories are of course present, best exemplified by Henry R. Wakefield's "The Red Lodge" and A.M. Burrage's "Browdean Farm." Tales with Ghosts include Edward F. Benson's "The Hanging of Alfred Wadham," Richard Hughes' "The Ghost" and Selma Robinson's wonderful "The Departure," while tales of other Supernatural Doings include John Buchan's "The Grove of Ashtaroth," Dorothy L. Sayers' "The Cyprian Cat" and that anonymous tale, "The Sutor of Selkirk." And then there are stories of Insanity, such as the truly disorienting tale by Walter de la Mare, "Out of the Deep"; Elizabeth Bowen's "Telling"; and L.A.G. Strong's very surprising "Breakdown." The anthology also gives the reader numerous tales of Suspense, including McKnight Malmar's "The Storm"; Thomas Burke's "The Horrible God"; Michael Joyce's gripping "Perchance to Dream"; and perhaps my favorite story in the entire collection, William Irish's "Three O'Clock." (Given how terrific this tale is, it should perhaps come as no surprise that Irish was a pen name for the great Cornell Woolrich!)
And there are still more categories represented herein. Tales of Poetic Horror include Lord Dunsany's "Where the Tides Ebb and Flow," while Comedic Horror stories are best represented by John Collier's "Another American Tragedy" and "The Chaser." Besides Gogol's "Viy," stories featuring Female Monsters include Shen Chi-chi's "Jenshih, or the Fox Lady" and William B. Seabrook's "The Caged White Werewolf of the Saraban." There is a beautiful yet horrifying tale of the Afterlife, May Sinclair's "Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched"; an Essay, Jonathan Swift's notorious treatise on the necessity of cannibalism, "A Modest Proposal"; and any number of stories that must be deemed Unclassifiable. Some of the finest of this last group include John Galsworthy's "The Black Godmother"; Eileen Verrinder's "Footsteps"; Maurice Level's (who is represented by four grisly short tales in this volume) "A Maniac"; and Dorothy Richardson's deliciously downbeat "Death."
Yes, it is quite an overwhelming collection, and the intros written by Uncle Boris for each story demonstrate what an erudite, well-read and sophisticated gentleman he was. The man turns out to have a way with the pen himself, and makes for a wonderful guide throughout this lengthy, fascinating and at times horrific journey. He not only gives the reader a compact biography of each author, but also tells us why he has chosen each tale for his volume, and what exactly he likes about each story. He is as well spoken as Frankenstein was inarticulate; no surprise there, really. I might also add here that "And the Darkness Falls" was selected by editor David G. Hartwell for inclusion in Newman & Jones' excellent overview volume "Horror: 100 Best Books," and I have no hesitation in agreeing with that inclusion. As Hartwell says in his article: "Never has 'star making" been used more effectively in the horror field, with ingenuity and broad-ranging taste: the result is a great anthology." I could not agree more.
Many of the authors whom one would expect to find in a volume of this nature are present. H.P. Lovecraft is represented with his great tale "The Thing on the Doorstep"; Algernon Blackwood is twice represented, by the beautifully mystical "The Stranger" and the straightforward spook tale "The Woman's Ghost Story"; Ambrose Bierce offers us the darkly humorous "My Favorite Murder"; August Derleth shows us the horrors contained in "The Panelled Room"; Hugh Walpole tells us a tale of unease in "The Silver Mask"; and Oliver Onions offers us the haunting story "John Gladwin Says...." But then there are some fairly well-known authors whom one would NOT necessarily expect to find in a horror collection. Ivan Turgenev is represented by the very strange tale "The Adventure of Second Lieutenant Bubnov"; Guy de Maupassant gives us two tales, "The Madman" and "Little Louise Roque" (the latter being one of the best tales in the collection); Lafcadio Hearn provides the beautifully written "L'Amour Apres La Mort"; Arthur Conan Doyle writes of grotesque mutilation in "The Case of Lady Sannox"; Somerset Maugham tells a story of Devil's Island in "An Official Position"; the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats is represented by the very odd story "The Crucifixion of the Outcast"; Nikolai Gogol is shown to great effect with his wonderful horror tale "Viy"; and Joseph Conrad tells us of a monstrously nasty sea vessel, "The Brute." And then there are the dozens of other writers that I had never previously encountered, but whose work here will surely prompt me to seek out more. As I said, this is a staggeringly good collection, with nary a clinker in the bunch.
The 59 stories in the volume can be grouped into a good dozen types. I suppose tales dealing with Murder as their subject predominate, with Frederick S. Greene's "The Black Pool," Tennyson Jesse's "The Mask," Violet Hunt's "The Witness" and Richard M. Hallet's "The Razor of Pedro Dutel" being standouts. Haunted House stories are of course present, best exemplified by Henry R. Wakefield's "The Red Lodge" and A.M. Burrage's "Browdean Farm." Tales with Ghosts include Edward F. Benson's "The Hanging of Alfred Wadham," Richard Hughes' "The Ghost" and Selma Robinson's wonderful "The Departure," while tales of other Supernatural Doings include John Buchan's "The Grove of Ashtaroth," Dorothy L. Sayers' "The Cyprian Cat" and that anonymous tale, "The Sutor of Selkirk." And then there are stories of Insanity, such as the truly disorienting tale by Walter de la Mare, "Out of the Deep"; Elizabeth Bowen's "Telling"; and L.A.G. Strong's very surprising "Breakdown." The anthology also gives the reader numerous tales of Suspense, including McKnight Malmar's "The Storm"; Thomas Burke's "The Horrible God"; Michael Joyce's gripping "Perchance to Dream"; and perhaps my favorite story in the entire collection, William Irish's "Three O'Clock." (Given how terrific this tale is, it should perhaps come as no surprise that Irish was a pen name for the great Cornell Woolrich!)
And there are still more categories represented herein. Tales of Poetic Horror include Lord Dunsany's "Where the Tides Ebb and Flow," while Comedic Horror stories are best represented by John Collier's "Another American Tragedy" and "The Chaser." Besides Gogol's "Viy," stories featuring Female Monsters include Shen Chi-chi's "Jenshih, or the Fox Lady" and William B. Seabrook's "The Caged White Werewolf of the Saraban." There is a beautiful yet horrifying tale of the Afterlife, May Sinclair's "Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched"; an Essay, Jonathan Swift's notorious treatise on the necessity of cannibalism, "A Modest Proposal"; and any number of stories that must be deemed Unclassifiable. Some of the finest of this last group include John Galsworthy's "The Black Godmother"; Eileen Verrinder's "Footsteps"; Maurice Level's (who is represented by four grisly short tales in this volume) "A Maniac"; and Dorothy Richardson's deliciously downbeat "Death."
Yes, it is quite an overwhelming collection, and the intros written by Uncle Boris for each story demonstrate what an erudite, well-read and sophisticated gentleman he was. The man turns out to have a way with the pen himself, and makes for a wonderful guide throughout this lengthy, fascinating and at times horrific journey. He not only gives the reader a compact biography of each author, but also tells us why he has chosen each tale for his volume, and what exactly he likes about each story. He is as well spoken as Frankenstein was inarticulate; no surprise there, really. I might also add here that "And the Darkness Falls" was selected by editor David G. Hartwell for inclusion in Newman & Jones' excellent overview volume "Horror: 100 Best Books," and I have no hesitation in agreeing with that inclusion. As Hartwell says in his article: "Never has 'star making" been used more effectively in the horror field, with ingenuity and broad-ranging taste: the result is a great anthology." I could not agree more.
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October 21, 2024The Witness is also printed in the Big Book of the Masters of Horror
February 12, 2017
As with almost every anthology, there are a number of weak stories here. Of the seventy or so stories here, I had only read six before. There were only several stories I skipped totally, largely because of unforgivable lapses of style. I found several stories in this book I would place among my favorite horror short stories:
"The Madman" by Maupassant. A brilliant idea, chillingly done.
"The Storm" by McKnight Malmar. One of my favorite stories in here. One of the best things about this anthology is the extent to which it includes stories by a number of minor, obscure writers.
"One Who Saw" by Ex Private-X. A deceptively simple story about a strange woman in a dark courtyard.
"Footsteps" by Eileen Verrinder. Interesting story about a blind man whose sense of hearing becomes maddeningly acute.
"The Red Lodge" by Henry Wakefield. One of the best haunted house stories I've encountered.
"An Official Position" by Maugham. I've encountered this one before, but it is a brilliant and artfully told story. A masterclass in suspense.
"Telling" by Elizabeth Bowen. A Robert Aickman-esque nightmare. As one would expect from Bowen, impeccably written.
"The Chaser" by John Collier. A small, witty tale.
"The Wierd of Avoosl Wuthoqquan" by Clark Smith. I enjoy this type of story (Jack Vance later did it very well), and this story breaks up a run of mediocre ghost stories quite well.
"The Madman" by Maupassant. A brilliant idea, chillingly done.
"The Storm" by McKnight Malmar. One of my favorite stories in here. One of the best things about this anthology is the extent to which it includes stories by a number of minor, obscure writers.
"One Who Saw" by Ex Private-X. A deceptively simple story about a strange woman in a dark courtyard.
"Footsteps" by Eileen Verrinder. Interesting story about a blind man whose sense of hearing becomes maddeningly acute.
"The Red Lodge" by Henry Wakefield. One of the best haunted house stories I've encountered.
"An Official Position" by Maugham. I've encountered this one before, but it is a brilliant and artfully told story. A masterclass in suspense.
"Telling" by Elizabeth Bowen. A Robert Aickman-esque nightmare. As one would expect from Bowen, impeccably written.
"The Chaser" by John Collier. A small, witty tale.
"The Wierd of Avoosl Wuthoqquan" by Clark Smith. I enjoy this type of story (Jack Vance later did it very well), and this story breaks up a run of mediocre ghost stories quite well.
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