Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) has made early and often appearances on this countdown of the Top 40 scary short stories from 1800-1849. Tomorrow I will post a link to his next story that uses a household pet in an ingenious fashion.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Andrew's Thoughts on The Story of the Greek Slave by Captain Frederick Marryat
In my view The Story of the Greek Slave is the best scary short story by Captain Frederick Marryat (1791-1848) given its dark themes and high-level of writing. Wine from the casks taste better after a corpse has been sitting in it? To which the master replies "It certainly has more body . . .." This tale wasn't originally published as a short horror story. It has been extracted from Chapter II of The Pacha of Many Tales that was published by Marryat in the Metropolitan Magazine from 1831-1835. It was presented as a series of tales that drew strong parallels to the New Arabian Nights. Marryat was no stranger to horror and the supernatural. He would later pen the haunting novel called The Phantom Ship. The high writing and horror the reader experiences as the people drink from the corpse caskets places "The Story of the Greek Slave" as the 19th best scary short story published from 1800-1849.
Friday, May 14, 2010
The 19th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849 is The Greek Slave by Captain Frederick Marryat
I pick The Greek Slave by Captain Frederick Marryat as the 19th best scary short story from the first half of the nineteenth century. Enjoy it over the weekend and I will give some background on Marryat's best horror story early next week. Thanks!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Author of the 19th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849 is Captain Frederick Marryat
Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) is the next author to appear on my countdown of the best scary short stories from 1800-1849. He last appeared at 29 on the countdown with his chilling short story called The Legend of the Bell Rock. I have provided the link if you missed it the first time.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Andrew's Thoughts on the Scary Short Story A Scots Mummy by James Hogg
A Scots Mummy first appeared in the August 1823 issue of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. Questions remain as to how much of the scary short story was fact and how much was fiction--or at least Hogg's exaggeration of the truth. "A Scots Mummy" is based on the suicide of a boy in Scotland. When Hogg sent it to William Blackwood for consideration in the magazine in a letter dated August 7th, he called it "a curious incident that has excited great interest . . .." James Hogg, like Edgar Allan Poe and others of this period, were no strangers to literary hoaxes. Some believe that the event of the story never happened and was a figment of Hogg's imagination. Evidence of this is the shepard who appears in the horror story and is supposed to be Hogg (the Ettrick Sheppard) himself. He would later publish "A Scots Mummy" in the pages of his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. As further evidence consider the described fashion in which the suicide hangs himself:
[T]he unfortunate young man had hanged himself after the man with the lambs came in view. He was, however, quite dead when he cut him down. He had fastened two of the old hay ropes at the bottom of the rick on one side, (indeed they are all fastened so when first laid on,) so that he had nothing to do but to loosen two of the ends on the other side; and these he tied in a knot round his neck, and then, slackening his knees, and letting himself lean down gradually till the hay rope bore all his weight, he contrived to put an end to his existence in that way. Now the fact is, that if you try all the ropes that are thrown over all the outfield hay ricks in Scotland, there is not one among a thousand of them will hang a colley dog—so that the manner of this wretch's death was rather a singular circumstance.
One hundred and five years later, when the suicide is dug up, his body is almost perfectly preserved. The lack of gruesomeness in the corpse is somehow gruesome in itself. Hogg published "A Scots Mummy" at the time when reanimation was taking center stage on the Gothic-romantic literary scene. The only fault of this story is that it lacks a certain complexity that would have placed it higher on my countdown of the best scary shortsstories from 1800-1849.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The 20th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849 is A Scots Mummy by James Hogg
This is a link to A Scots Mummy by James Hogg. I have picked it as the 20th best scary short story for the first half of the nineteenth century. Enjoy!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Author of the 20th Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849 is James Hogg
James Hogg (1770-1835) is no stranger to this countdown of the Top 40 scary short stories for the first half of the nineteenth century. He appeared at week 32 with his excellent scary story titled The Fords of Callum. Tomorrow I will post a link to an even better tale by the Ettrick Shepard.
Friday, May 7, 2010
List of Scary Short Stories 40 Thru 21 from 1800-1849
Below is a rundown of scary short stories 40 through 21 that I have posted so far in my countdown of the Top 40 scary short stories from 1800 to 1849. You will notice some familiar names and some that may be new. With so many fine scary short stories that have appeared on the countdown already, it is hard to believe that much better ones await. I will start early next week with a post of the 20 best scary short story from 1800-1849. If you want to read any of these stories, simply scroll back through my blog. Have a great weekend!
40. 1839 Running the Gauntlet by Anonymous
39. 1823 The Mutiny by William Harrison Ainsworth
38. 1836 The Wedding Knell by Nathaniel Hawthorne
37. 1842 Ben Blower's Story; or How to Relish a Julep by Charles Feno Hoffman
36. 1827 The Bohemian by Anonymous
35. 1831 Singular Passage in the Life of the Late Henry Harris, Doctor in Divinity by Richard Harris Barham
34. 1830 Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman by William Carleton
33. 1820 The Field of Terror by Baron Friedrich Heinrich Karl De la Motte Fouquâe
32. 1837 Cousin Mattie by James Hogg
31. 1844 Rappaccini’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
30. 1821 The Man in the Bell by William Maginn
29. 1836 The Legend of the Bell Rock by Captain Frederick Marryat
28. 1849 Hop-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe
27. 1832 Gabriel Lindsay by William Mudford
26. 1835 The Fiery Vault by Reithra
25. 1837 The Involuntary Experimentalist by Samuel Ferguson
24. 1831 The Lonely Man of the Ocean by Anonymous
23. 1843 Ko-rea-ran-neh-neh; or, The Flying Head by Charles Feno Hoffman
22. 1846 The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
21. 1837 Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment by Nathaniel HawthorneTuesday, May 4, 2010
What the Top 40 Scary Short Story Countdown is Not
I am half way through my countdown of the Top 40 Scary Short Stories from 1800-1849. If you have liked the stories so far, you are going to love the rest. Please keep in mind, however, that the Top 12 will be published in my forthcoming book: The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Horror Anthology. Because of this, there are 8 stories left for posting on the blog.
If you have been following this scary short story blog, you have a good idea of what it is about. Here is a list of what it is not . . . or rather the types of short stories I have not considered: werewolf short stories, vampire short stories, witch short stories, and ghost short stories. I will countdown the best of those stories in the future. For right now I am concentrating on horror in the narrow sense of the word. Tomorrow I will list stories 40-21 that I have included so far.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Andrew's Thoughts on Dr. Heidegger's Experiment the 21st Best Scary Short Story 1800-1849
Let's take a look at "[t]hat very singular man, old Dr. Heidegger" and his horrific experiment that proved the only thing worse than getting old is to be young again and then to quickly turn old once more. Dr. Heidegger's Experiment was published in 1837. In the scary short story Dr. Heidegger invites "four venerable friends" over to his place. The doctor has obtained water from the Fountain of Youth. They have a sip and their ailments due to old age begin to go away. They demand more and drink until they are young again. The effects of youth are short lived.
His guests shivered again. A strange chillness, whether of the body or spirit they could not tell, was creeping gradually over them all. They gazed at one another, and fancied that each fleeting moment snatched away a charm, and left a deepen-ing furrow where none had been before. Was it an illusion? Had the changes of a lifetime been crowded into so brief a space, and were they now four aged people, sitting with their old friend, Dr. Heidegger?"Are we grown old again, so soon?" cried they, dolefully.In truth, they had. The Water of Youth possessed merely a virtue more transient than that of wine. The delirium which, it created had effervesced away. Yes! they were old again. With a shuddering impulse, that showed her a woman still, the widow clasped her skinny hands before her face, and wished that the coffin-lid were over it, since it could be no longer beautiful.
Edgar Allan Poe enjoyed "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." In his review of Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales in Graham's Magazine, Vol. XX, 1842, he said that it was "exceedingly well imagined, and executed with surpassing ability. The artist breathes in every line of it." The story is well written, yet lacks a building of terror throughout that would have placed it higher on my countdown of the Top 40 scary short stories from 1800-1849.
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