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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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 Hawthorne

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