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The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories #4
The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories: Volume Four
Since 2005, Valancourt Books has unearthed and republished almost 500 lost and neglected works from the 1760s through the 2000s, and now for this long-awaited fourth volume of the acclaimed Valancourt Book of Horror Stories series, the editors of Valancourt Books are proud to present 15 more great horror tales — all by Valancourt authors — from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. This volume features five brand new stories that have never appeared elsewhere, two rare foreign stories translated to English for the first time, and eight more scarce and seldom-seen tales.
The stories in this volume will take you inside the vivid dreams of a woman who can kill in her sleep; to the set of a reality show where contestants may be transformed into specimens of beauty—or into freak show monsters; to a hotel where guests are besieged by a powerful hurricane—and by something even more terrible and deadly. You will read of the bizarre and macabre adventures of a man seeking a skeleton in 1960s London as a gift for his medical student cousin—and his quest's shocking outcome. You will learn how a simple grammar mistake can lead to a terrible and untimely end for a traveler in Venice.
These are strange, sinister, and scary stories, by turns suspenseful, horrific, and darkly humorous. Featuring a lineup of rarely reprinted classic tales together with new stories destined to become future classics, this collection is a horror anthology like no other.
Table of Contents
The Family at Fenhouse (1860) by Eliza Lynn Linton
The Gentleman from America (1924) by Michael Arlen
The Coffin Procession (1925; trans. 2020) by Felix Timmermans
Time-Fuse (1931) by John Metcalfe
The Fury (1936) by Robert M. Coates
Rain and Gaslight (1945; trans. 2020) by Hubert Lampo
A Scent of Mimosa (1975) by Francis King
The Other Room (1982) by Lisa Tuttle
'Happy Birthday, Dear Alex' (1965) by John Keir Cross
Vivid Dreams (2020) by Elizabeth Engstrom
Let's Make a Face (2020) by John Peyton Cooke
Conversations with the Departed (2020) by Steve Rasnic Tem
Rain (2020) by Garrett Boatman
The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died (2020) by Stephen Gregory
plus one more story to be announced soon!
The stories in this volume will take you inside the vivid dreams of a woman who can kill in her sleep; to the set of a reality show where contestants may be transformed into specimens of beauty—or into freak show monsters; to a hotel where guests are besieged by a powerful hurricane—and by something even more terrible and deadly. You will read of the bizarre and macabre adventures of a man seeking a skeleton in 1960s London as a gift for his medical student cousin—and his quest's shocking outcome. You will learn how a simple grammar mistake can lead to a terrible and untimely end for a traveler in Venice.
These are strange, sinister, and scary stories, by turns suspenseful, horrific, and darkly humorous. Featuring a lineup of rarely reprinted classic tales together with new stories destined to become future classics, this collection is a horror anthology like no other.
Table of Contents
The Family at Fenhouse (1860) by Eliza Lynn Linton
The Gentleman from America (1924) by Michael Arlen
The Coffin Procession (1925; trans. 2020) by Felix Timmermans
Time-Fuse (1931) by John Metcalfe
The Fury (1936) by Robert M. Coates
Rain and Gaslight (1945; trans. 2020) by Hubert Lampo
A Scent of Mimosa (1975) by Francis King
The Other Room (1982) by Lisa Tuttle
'Happy Birthday, Dear Alex' (1965) by John Keir Cross
Vivid Dreams (2020) by Elizabeth Engstrom
Let's Make a Face (2020) by John Peyton Cooke
Conversations with the Departed (2020) by Steve Rasnic Tem
Rain (2020) by Garrett Boatman
The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died (2020) by Stephen Gregory
plus one more story to be announced soon!
260 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 31, 2020
4.5 rounded up
full post here: https://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/202...
Oh, nicely done, Jay and Ryan!
I read this book over the last two days of October, because it is just not Halloween without The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories. I have looked forward to these anthologies each year since Valancourt started publishing them in 2016, and I have never been disappointed. Not that I expect to -- because of the wide variety of stories presented in each volume, I have found some of the best yet lesser-known gems of my reading life.
What is unique about this series is that all of the authors included in these volumes have been included in some Valancourt book or another. This series also "reflects to a certain degree," as editors James D. Jenkins and Ryan Cagle say in their introduction, what's in the works at Valancourt. In this fourth volume, as they note, "represented in the present book" are authors from their Paperbacks From Hell, Valancourt International, and Monster, She Wrote series, including their first two international authors, Hubert Lampo and Felix Timmermans. There are three stories which are "original contributions" to this volume, and as the intro also states,
"it wouldn't be a Valancourt Book of Horror Stories if it didn't include a selection of rare tales from the 19th and 20th centuries..."
and there are definitely plenty of those.
Strangely enough for me, three of my five favorite stories came from 2020: "Vivid Dreams" by Elizabeth Engstrom, "Conversations With the Departed" by Steve Rasnic Tem, and "The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died," by Stephen Gregory. The final two came from much earlier, "The Gentleman From America" by Michael Arlen (1924) and "The Family at Fenhouse" by Eliza Lynn Linton, published in 1860. The winner of my award for Most Disturbing Story goes to John Peyton Cooke for his "Let's Make a Face," which is so disturbing that it comes with a warning from the editors: "Brace yourself." Trust me, you should take their advice. The only story that I really didn't care for was "Rain," by Garrett Boatman, which came across as a sort of mix of Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" transplanted to the Texas Gulf coast. However, everyone's tastes are different, so the ones I loved may not affect others the same way.
The stories included here range from the suspenseful to the strange, from the horrific to the harrowing, from yesteryear to today, and as is the case with every other Valancourt anthology, there is something for everyone to enjoy. They also make for fun reading, and I can only imagine what a great time James and Ryan must have had while putting this volume together. It's largely because of this series and the Christmas anthologies that my home library of older ghostly, gothic, horror, weird, and strange stories has grown immensely over the years -- all it took was a good story or two to start me on the road to my favorite type of reading, those long-forgotten, obscure, and in many cases, sadly-neglected stories from the past. Here's to many more in the future.
Definitely recommended with no hesitation
full post here: https://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/202...
Oh, nicely done, Jay and Ryan!
I read this book over the last two days of October, because it is just not Halloween without The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories. I have looked forward to these anthologies each year since Valancourt started publishing them in 2016, and I have never been disappointed. Not that I expect to -- because of the wide variety of stories presented in each volume, I have found some of the best yet lesser-known gems of my reading life.
What is unique about this series is that all of the authors included in these volumes have been included in some Valancourt book or another. This series also "reflects to a certain degree," as editors James D. Jenkins and Ryan Cagle say in their introduction, what's in the works at Valancourt. In this fourth volume, as they note, "represented in the present book" are authors from their Paperbacks From Hell, Valancourt International, and Monster, She Wrote series, including their first two international authors, Hubert Lampo and Felix Timmermans. There are three stories which are "original contributions" to this volume, and as the intro also states,
"it wouldn't be a Valancourt Book of Horror Stories if it didn't include a selection of rare tales from the 19th and 20th centuries..."
and there are definitely plenty of those.
Strangely enough for me, three of my five favorite stories came from 2020: "Vivid Dreams" by Elizabeth Engstrom, "Conversations With the Departed" by Steve Rasnic Tem, and "The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died," by Stephen Gregory. The final two came from much earlier, "The Gentleman From America" by Michael Arlen (1924) and "The Family at Fenhouse" by Eliza Lynn Linton, published in 1860. The winner of my award for Most Disturbing Story goes to John Peyton Cooke for his "Let's Make a Face," which is so disturbing that it comes with a warning from the editors: "Brace yourself." Trust me, you should take their advice. The only story that I really didn't care for was "Rain," by Garrett Boatman, which came across as a sort of mix of Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" transplanted to the Texas Gulf coast. However, everyone's tastes are different, so the ones I loved may not affect others the same way.
The stories included here range from the suspenseful to the strange, from the horrific to the harrowing, from yesteryear to today, and as is the case with every other Valancourt anthology, there is something for everyone to enjoy. They also make for fun reading, and I can only imagine what a great time James and Ryan must have had while putting this volume together. It's largely because of this series and the Christmas anthologies that my home library of older ghostly, gothic, horror, weird, and strange stories has grown immensely over the years -- all it took was a good story or two to start me on the road to my favorite type of reading, those long-forgotten, obscure, and in many cases, sadly-neglected stories from the past. Here's to many more in the future.
Definitely recommended with no hesitation
November 1, 2020
It’s Valancourt, it’s horror, it’s full of fantastic authors like Elizabeth Engstrom and Stephen Gregory and Steve Rasnic Tem and Lisa Tuttle, it’s always one of the highlights of the year, it’s a no-brainer.
May 24, 2024
These short stories, most from authors I'm not familiar with, covered a huge range of the horror genre, and each was a satisfying read in its own way. I read it slowly, savoring. Highly recommended!
November 9, 2020
Full disclosure, I have a story in this wonderful anthology (but I'm not going to review that). All else is fair game. I tend to be a generous reviewer, because I'm highly selective in what I choose to read in the first place. I adore all the previous volumes in the Valancourt Book of Horror series, and Vol. 4 is no exception. All of the stories are good, and many are great. Some of the tales were simply morbid or a bid weird, not a lot of genuine scares, but that is fine with me. Nine out of the 15 stories were the real standouts, in my view (see? I'm quite generous):
- "Rain and Gaslight" by Hubert Lampo
- "The Family at Fenhouse" by Eliza Lynn Linton
- "'Happy Birthday, Dear Alex'" by John Keir Cross
- "The Coffin Procession" by Felix Timmermans
- "Time-Fuse" by John Metcalfe
- "A Scent of Mimosa" by Francis King
- "Remember Your Grammar" by Simon Raven
- "The Gentleman From America" by Michael Arlen
- "The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died" by Stephen Gregory
I'm grateful to be among such fine company. This Valancourt series does all us dedicated horror readers a great service in turning up such a fine and eclectic selection of obscure gems. Each book in the series has introduced me to new authors, and to tales I wouldn't have likely run across otherwise. Highly recommended if I do say so myself.
- "Rain and Gaslight" by Hubert Lampo
- "The Family at Fenhouse" by Eliza Lynn Linton
- "'Happy Birthday, Dear Alex'" by John Keir Cross
- "The Coffin Procession" by Felix Timmermans
- "Time-Fuse" by John Metcalfe
- "A Scent of Mimosa" by Francis King
- "Remember Your Grammar" by Simon Raven
- "The Gentleman From America" by Michael Arlen
- "The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died" by Stephen Gregory
I'm grateful to be among such fine company. This Valancourt series does all us dedicated horror readers a great service in turning up such a fine and eclectic selection of obscure gems. Each book in the series has introduced me to new authors, and to tales I wouldn't have likely run across otherwise. Highly recommended if I do say so myself.
January 25, 2026
Another splendid collection of horror stories from indie publisher Valancourt. These collections are so dependable. You can always count on exquisite writing, a variety of themes, a mix of old and new, and a few disturbing or surprising gems. Here were my favorites this time around:
”Vivid Dreams” by Elizabeth Engstrom - Joy, an elderly, bedridden woman living in a nursing home who suffers from chronic pain is given an experimental drug to help her sleep. She is warned that she may experience vivid dreams when taking the drug. But the drug also apparently gives her supernatural power to kill other nursing home patients in her sleep. This is a powerful story with themes that explore aging, chronic pain, the loss of bodily autonomy, and the danger of experimental medical treatments. Great start to the collection.
”Rain and Gaslight” by Hubert Lampo - A Jungian story about a man who is called to someone's home and meets a woman who resembles his terminally ill wife. This off-kilter, atmospheric story emphasizes psychological archetypes and the fantastical elements hidden beneath the material world. It’s a beautiful piece of weird fiction.
”Let’s Make a Face” by John Peyton Cooke - In the future, a woman named Helen is a contestant in a game show in which surgeons remake contestants’ faces. Easily the most disturbing story in the collection, exploring the thin line between beauty aesthetics and horrific obsession.
”’Happy Birthday, Dear Alex’” by John Kerr Cross - To surprise his younger cousin Alex, a medical student, the narrator goes through a circuitous effort to purchase an articulated human skeleton as a birthday gift. The story telegraphs its O. Henry-like twist ending, but it still fooled me completely.
”Rain” by Garret Boatman - Combining natural disaster and supernatural evil, the story is centered on a hotel facing a tropical storm on the Texas Gulf Coast. Vivid and atmospheric, like an H.P. Lovecraft-inspired nightmare.
”The Gentleman from America” by Michael Arlen - Two Englishmen wager against an American that he can’t spend a night in a room in a reportedly haunted house where a murder occurred. This 1925 story features a wonderful gothic story within a story, was adapted to a British movie in 1948 called The Fatal Night, and was adapted for a 1956 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
”The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died” by Stephen Gregory - Gorgeously written story about an English schoolteacher at a boarding school who has his first book of poems published, which leads to wonderfully surreal jaunts to France, where he imagines meeting a beautiful actress Claudette de la Touche, is spurned by her, and subsequently lives an idyll of French country life in a ruined manor house. The typical other-worldly life of an obscure poet, I guess. Not really a horror story, but it’s beautiful, haunting, and surreal nonetheless, and it's a fantastic concluding story to the collection.
”Vivid Dreams” by Elizabeth Engstrom - Joy, an elderly, bedridden woman living in a nursing home who suffers from chronic pain is given an experimental drug to help her sleep. She is warned that she may experience vivid dreams when taking the drug. But the drug also apparently gives her supernatural power to kill other nursing home patients in her sleep. This is a powerful story with themes that explore aging, chronic pain, the loss of bodily autonomy, and the danger of experimental medical treatments. Great start to the collection.
”Rain and Gaslight” by Hubert Lampo - A Jungian story about a man who is called to someone's home and meets a woman who resembles his terminally ill wife. This off-kilter, atmospheric story emphasizes psychological archetypes and the fantastical elements hidden beneath the material world. It’s a beautiful piece of weird fiction.
”Let’s Make a Face” by John Peyton Cooke - In the future, a woman named Helen is a contestant in a game show in which surgeons remake contestants’ faces. Easily the most disturbing story in the collection, exploring the thin line between beauty aesthetics and horrific obsession.
”’Happy Birthday, Dear Alex’” by John Kerr Cross - To surprise his younger cousin Alex, a medical student, the narrator goes through a circuitous effort to purchase an articulated human skeleton as a birthday gift. The story telegraphs its O. Henry-like twist ending, but it still fooled me completely.
”Rain” by Garret Boatman - Combining natural disaster and supernatural evil, the story is centered on a hotel facing a tropical storm on the Texas Gulf Coast. Vivid and atmospheric, like an H.P. Lovecraft-inspired nightmare.
”The Gentleman from America” by Michael Arlen - Two Englishmen wager against an American that he can’t spend a night in a room in a reportedly haunted house where a murder occurred. This 1925 story features a wonderful gothic story within a story, was adapted to a British movie in 1948 called The Fatal Night, and was adapted for a 1956 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
”The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died” by Stephen Gregory - Gorgeously written story about an English schoolteacher at a boarding school who has his first book of poems published, which leads to wonderfully surreal jaunts to France, where he imagines meeting a beautiful actress Claudette de la Touche, is spurned by her, and subsequently lives an idyll of French country life in a ruined manor house. The typical other-worldly life of an obscure poet, I guess. Not really a horror story, but it’s beautiful, haunting, and surreal nonetheless, and it's a fantastic concluding story to the collection.
January 14, 2025
This is sadly the last of the Valancourt Book of Horror Stories anthologies. I have devoured these over the past year and am eager for more if they should ever start publishing them again. (And if you're a horror fan who isn't familiar with the publishing house, I absolutely reccommend getting aquainted with them). Volume 4 is just as good as the previous ones, with many excellent stories.
Highlights include:
Time Fuse by John Metcalfe - Miss Moody thoroughly believes in the seances her friend Eddie performs at her boarding house, even if her sister thinks he's a fraud. After a sitting where he makes flowers appear and disappear, she is convinced of the reality of psychic powers. But what will happen to her if Eddie turns out to be a fraud?
The Fury by Robert M. Coates - This is a really disturbing look into a pedophile's mind as he tries to abduct a little girl. This one's intense but has a satisfying end.
The Other Room by Lisa Tuttle - A boy discovers a hidden room in his gradnather's house, one full of strange, tall, pale, thin people. These people can alleviate the sick child's pain, but at what price? Years later when he is grown and his own daughter is ill, the boy comes back looking for the strange, sinister people. Tuttle writes a good disturbing story.
Let's Make a Face by John Peyton Cooke - In a dystopian future, people's rights are determined by their attractiveness. Our main character auditions to be on a show where plastic surgeons will "remake" someone's looks. This one had a pretty shocking reveal.
Happy Birthday, Dear Alex by John Keir Cross - A "Gift of the Maagi" (O. Henry) inspired story. The narrator wishes to buy a skeleton for his med student cousin to use to study. He finally finds a shop with a creepy proprietor (W. Hare by name) who promises to pecure one for him. The twist wasn't unexpected but it was still juicy.
The Gentleman from America by Michael Arlen - Two English buddies decide to scare their American friend in a haunted house. They run off after the prank goes wrong and they think they've killed him, but they are reunited with him some years later. I can't say I blame the title character for his subsequent actions.
The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died by Stephen Gregory - The horrors of life. Nothing overly supernatural here, just a man who wants to be a poet but has a drinking problem, delusions of grandeur, and an obsession with a French singer killed in a fire. I love Gregory's writing and need to read his more famous works.
Highlights include:
Time Fuse by John Metcalfe - Miss Moody thoroughly believes in the seances her friend Eddie performs at her boarding house, even if her sister thinks he's a fraud. After a sitting where he makes flowers appear and disappear, she is convinced of the reality of psychic powers. But what will happen to her if Eddie turns out to be a fraud?
The Fury by Robert M. Coates - This is a really disturbing look into a pedophile's mind as he tries to abduct a little girl. This one's intense but has a satisfying end.
The Other Room by Lisa Tuttle - A boy discovers a hidden room in his gradnather's house, one full of strange, tall, pale, thin people. These people can alleviate the sick child's pain, but at what price? Years later when he is grown and his own daughter is ill, the boy comes back looking for the strange, sinister people. Tuttle writes a good disturbing story.
Let's Make a Face by John Peyton Cooke - In a dystopian future, people's rights are determined by their attractiveness. Our main character auditions to be on a show where plastic surgeons will "remake" someone's looks. This one had a pretty shocking reveal.
Happy Birthday, Dear Alex by John Keir Cross - A "Gift of the Maagi" (O. Henry) inspired story. The narrator wishes to buy a skeleton for his med student cousin to use to study. He finally finds a shop with a creepy proprietor (W. Hare by name) who promises to pecure one for him. The twist wasn't unexpected but it was still juicy.
The Gentleman from America by Michael Arlen - Two English buddies decide to scare their American friend in a haunted house. They run off after the prank goes wrong and they think they've killed him, but they are reunited with him some years later. I can't say I blame the title character for his subsequent actions.
The Poet Lewis Bowden Has Died by Stephen Gregory - The horrors of life. Nothing overly supernatural here, just a man who wants to be a poet but has a drinking problem, delusions of grandeur, and an obsession with a French singer killed in a fire. I love Gregory's writing and need to read his more famous works.
November 5, 2023
Another terrific and diverse collection of “lost” and under-anthologies weird/scary tales from the guys at Valancourt. Reading their anthologies has become a bit of a Halloween Season tradition for me and this one did not disappoint as they were all uniformly well written. Standouts for me (your mileage may vary) were: Elizabeth Engstrom’s Vivid Dreams, Eliza Lynn Linton’s The Family at Fenhouse; John Peyton Cooke’s Let’s Make a Face; Felix Timmermans’ The Coffin Procession; and Michael Arlen’s The Gentleman from America. Recommended.
June 1, 2025
An outstanding and richly layered horror anthology that blends forgotten classics with modern masterpieces. The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories: Volume Four delivers inventive, spine-chilling tales that linger in the mind long after reading. Whether you're a fan of psychological dread or macabre twists, this volume has something for every horror lover. A must-read for anyone craving truly unique and haunting stories.
June 1, 2025
This book seriously delivers! The concept of a reality show turning people into freaks? That’s nightmare fuel. Every story felt fresh, twisted, and totally original. I love how it mixes past and present horror—it keeps you guessing and makes it super bingeable. Valancourt never disappoints. I’ll be re-reading this one for sure!
June 11, 2024
Valancourt delivers again. Vol. 4 focuses more on contemporary fiction—won’t find an abundance of gothic realism like previous installments—but it’s still an outstanding collection with few misses. Onward to part 5!
July 4, 2021
Yet another solid anthology from Valancourt. Didn’t care much for two of the tales, but the rest were great.
September 15, 2021
"Let's Make a Face" is one of the most genuinely upsetting things I've ever read.
January 26, 2023
A decent set of stories although I don't think I liked them as well as the other volumes.
November 25, 2023
A few gems but definitely the least consistent of the volumes I've read.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews