The Scary Short Stories Blog by award-winning author Andrew Barger where I discuss the scariest stories in the various supernatural genres. I emphasize classic scary short stories and provide insight into the origins of the stories and the authors behind them. Visit AndrewBarger.com to check out my books and to be scared.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Best Ghost Story 15 from 1800-1849 is "The Collier's Family" by Friedrich Motte Fouque
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Best Ghost Story 16 from 1800-1849 Lady Eleanor's Mantle by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Best Ghost Story 17 from 1800-1849 is "The Mines of Falun" by Ernst Hoffmann
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Best Ghost Story 18 from 1800-1849 is "Monos and Daimonos"
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Best Ghost Story 19 from 1800-1849 is Albert Werdendorff; or, The Midnight Embrace by Sarah Wilkinson
Friday, September 2, 2011
Best Ghost Stories Anthology for $.99
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Best Ghost Story 20 from 1800-1849 is "The Ghost with the Golden Casket" by Allan Cunningham
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Best Ghost Story 21 from 1800-1849 is The Haunted Manor-House of Paddington by Charles Ollier
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Best Ghost Story 22 from 1800-1849 is "Allan M'Tavish" by Caroline Norton
Monday, August 8, 2011
Best Ghost Story 23 from 1800-1849
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Best Ghost Story 24 from 1800-1849 is "The Water Spirit"
Monday, July 25, 2011
Best Ghost Story 25 from 1800-1849
Friday, July 22, 2011
Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Ghost Anthology Published!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Best Ghost Story 26 from 1800-1849: "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton" by Charles Dickens
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Best Ghost Story 27 from 1800-1849: The Chase
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849: Story 28 is Solange by Alexander Dumas
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849; Mary Burnet by James Hogg
Thursday, June 2, 2011
"Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849" Finalist Award Winner in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards
The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849 is a book for anyone who loves a classic horror story.
Thanks to Edgar Allan Poe, Honoré de Balzac, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others, the first half of the nineteenth century is the cradle of all modern horror short stories. I read over 300 horror short stories and compiled the dozen best. A few have never been republished since they were first published in leading periodicals of the day such as Blackwood’s and Atkinson’s Casket.
At the back of the book I include a list of all short stories I considered along with their dates of publication and the author, when available. I even include background for each of the stories, author photos and annotations for difficult terminology.
‘The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849’ will likely become a best seller . . .What makes this collection (of truly terrifying tales!) so satisfying is the presence of a brief introduction before each story, sharing some comments about the writer and elements of the tale. Barger has once again whetted our appetites for fright, spent countless hours making these twelve stories accessible and available, and has provided in one book the best of the best of horror short stories. It is a winner.
GRADY HARP - AMAZON TOP TEN REVIEWER
Through his introduction and footnotes, Barger aims for readers both scholarly and casual, ensuring that the authors get their due while making the work accessible overall to the mainstream.
BOOKGASM
[a] top to bottom pick for anyone who appreciates where the best of horror came from.
MIDWEST BOOK REVIEWMonday, May 23, 2011
Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849 Scary Story 30 is All Souls Eve by Joseph Stowe
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849 - Scary Story 31 is An Adventure Near Granville
Friday, May 6, 2011
Best Scary Ghost Story 33 from 1800-1849 Posted
The next tale in my countdown of the Top 40 ghost stories for the first half of the nineteenth century is an anonymous story titled The Legend of Marseilles. This scary ghost story was first published in 1826 and was subsequently reprinted in a number of ghost anthologies. Without giving away too much, let's suffice it say that it proves not knowing when you are going to die is best.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Best Werewolf Stories 1800-1849 Book eBook Price Drop
I've been feeling beastly as of late and as a result I've decided to drop the price of The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Werewolf Anthology to $.99. Buy this transformation of the werewolf book for a buck while you can. I hope you enjoy it!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849, 33rd Best Scary Story
I place The Death's Head in spot 33 of my countdown of the Top 40 ghost stories for the first half of the nineteenth century. Published anonymously in 1827, "The Death's Head"--this particular "species of phantasmagoria"--is perhaps the first short story that contains a talking skull. It also the only scary story in this countdown that involves ventriloquy. The scene where spirits are conjured is heart pounding horrific. I hope you enjoy it.
Best Horror Stories 1800-1849 ebook Price Dropped to $.99 for a Limited Time
I am in a horrific mood of late and as a result have just dropped the price of The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Horror Anthology to $.99 on: Best Horror Stories on Kindle Enjoy!
Best Ghost Stories 1800-1850 Scary Story 34 of the Countdown
Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849 Countdown - Scary Story 35 Link
As the author of the fictional Edgar Allan Poe biography Coffee with Poe and editor of Edgar Allan Poe Annotated Short Stories and Poems, I am sometimes asked if Poe had a favorite ghost story. Truth be told, Poe was quiet clear on his favorite ghost story--or at least his favorite by an American, which I believe is a dig at Charles Dickens and his bias toward British literature. It is by William Gilmore Simms and is titled: Murder Will Out. I don't, however, agree with Poe since I have placed it in spot 35 in my Top 40 countdown of the scariest ghost stories from 1800-1849. This is what Poe had to say about it in his review (published posthumously in 1850) of Simm's collection of short stories: "The Wigwam and the Cabin."
William Gilmore Simms - Author of the 35th Best Ghost Story 1800-1849
William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870) is little read today, but was known in the first half of the nineteenth century as the leading novelist of the Southern United States. His novels include the all but forgotten "The Vision of Cortez" (1829), "The Tricolor" (1830), and "Atlantis, a Story of the Sea" (1852). But he penned an excellent ghost story that Edgar Allan Poe called "the best ghost story ever written by an American. . . ." Tomorrow I will post a link to it as I continue counting down the Top 40 scary ghost stories from 1800-1849.
The 36th Best Ghost Story 1800-1849 Posted
Some of the scariest ghost stories are found at sea and the 36th best ghost story of 1800-1849 is no different. The Strange Sail is its title and it is very strange indeed. In the first paragraph readers are greeted with a wave crashing over the deck of the ship and it only gets scarier from there. When a white sail is seen during the storm, the sailors witness something supernatural that they will never forget. "The Strange Sail" was published anonymously in Atkinson's Casket of1839. It is one of best ghost stories of the sea during the first half of the nineteenth century. I hope you enjoy it along with the rest of my countdown of the Top 40 ghost stories from 1800-1849.
Edgar Allan Poe Biography Novel "Coffee with Poe" Interview by Author Andrew Barger
A1: There’s a funny story behind that because I don’t drink coffee, but I love the smell. My wife, who did the great cover photography for the novel, tells me that doesn’t count. She has an entire kitchen cabinet devoted to her coffee paraphernalia. I’m banned from looking inside because of my jokes about all the sifters, grinders, roasters, and foamers. Anyway, I could think of no better coupling than books and coffee … well, actually I can. In truth, the title is derived from a letter that Sarah Helen Whitman (one of Poe's fiancées) wrote to John Ingram on December 13, 1874, which speaks of Poe's penchant for coffee: "Mr. Bartlett has never seen him inspired by any more dangerous stimulant than strong coffee, of which he was very fond & of which [he] drank freely. MacIntosh says that the measure of a man’s brain is the amount of coffee he can drink with impunity."
A2: I wanted readers to get inside the head (however frightening that may be) of one of America’s best-loved and most mysterious writers. I wanted readers to live Poe’s life instead of learn about it. That’s the only way you can truly understand his horror stories and where he’s coming from. There are so many boring biographies out there.
A3: In researching Coffee with Poe I was surprised to learn that there were so many conflicting accounts of his life, so I went straight to the letters and used these as a framework to construct the novel. I was able to incorporate many of the people mentioned in the letters as characters. The novel to me is more compelling when you read Poe’s letters from his pen after experiencing the events that prompted the letter.
A4: Poe got around!
A5: It was difficult to capture the personalities of both of these great writers as they would have interacted at this point in their careers, but it was a lot of fun to try. When they met in Philadelphia, Dickens was finishing a trip to the U.S. He was as popular across The Pond as he was in England. Poe, on the other hand, had yet to write The Raven and was not nearly as well known. Poe solicited Dickens at this time to get his works published in England but it never panned out. Poe thought any author as popular as Dickens could easily get him published in Europe. Poe thought Dickens never really tried and Poe held a grudge against Dickens until his death. Poe lampooned Dickens in his short story Thou Art the Man.
A6: Many think it was from Dickens’s use of a talking raven in Barnaby Rudge. Poe felt the bird should have had a much larger role and I imagined Poe gently telling him such in Philadelphia. Dickens’s in turn based the raven in Barnaby Rudge off his own pet raven named Grip. There is a hilarious account of Grip’s death that Dickens gave in a letter to a friend and I included that statement as he retells it to Poe.
A7: It’s doubtful. Even Poe’s bitter literary enemies—and he had quiet a few—never accused him of taking drugs. Many of these enemies were also medical doctors, so they would have detected this state. I believe people over the years have confused narrators in Poe’s tales, many of whom are crazed or tripping on drugs, to be Poe himself. What these people are doing is taking credit away from a highly talented author and assuming he could only have experienced these states to write about them. Poe also wrote about being buried alive, but that never happened either!
A8: Poe most certainly drank, but a medical condition caused him to have a sensitivity to alcohol. One or two drinks a day in our society, which is acceptable in certain circles and even claimed as good for the heart by the medical community, would have branded Poe as being prone to excess over a hundred and fifty years ago. As you know, I have my own theory regarding Poe’s drinking problem in Coffee with Poe and how this sensitivity came about.
A9: Because he could and because he was the best. I recently edited The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849 and Poe wrote one third of them. It is amazing at how Poe towered above all other writers in this genre for those fifty years. There is a fine art to scaring people to death and Poe took it to levels unseen. The time was ripe for his tales. Snake oil salesmen roamed the country. Prominent doctors of the day routinely practiced bloodletting and people were buried alive because their faint pulse could not be detected. Then you have everyone frightened of reanimation by galvanic batteries thanks to Mary Shelley. Poe thoroughly enjoyed getting a rise out of people. This was evidenced by his many pranks as a child, his biting reviews of the "Literati of New York," and, of course, his horror tales. Poe had a very humorous side despite his circumstances and many people don’t realize this.
A10: Okay, but I’m about to turn into a pumpkin and orange is not my color.
A11: In order of appearance: Edgar Allan Poe. H. P. Lovecraft. Stephen King. The problem is that the first two died in abject poverty and Stephen King has made slightly less money than God. Not that I’m taking anything away from King, but the other two should also have been rewarded handsomely for their work. Poe only made $15 off the entire publication history of The Raven. There are injustices in this world, and then there are outright tragedies.
A12: Poe is actually the inventor of the mystery genre, or at least the closed room murder mysteries. Many people overlook this and focus only on his horror. His fmystery stories were The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, and The mystery of Marie Roget. Sir Conan Doyle got his idea for Sherlock Holmes based partly off Poe’s mysteries. Thou Art the Man is another fine mystery of his and the only one where he satired another writer (see the previous Dickens discussion).
A13: Color-Black; Drink-Strong coffee; Song-"Come Rest in this Bosom"; Animal-Cat (Poe had one named Catterina with his wife Virginia and also had a black cat that he wrote about); Poem-He had many. Orion by Richard Horne was his favorite epic poem. A few years ago I edited a new edition since is had been out of print for 80 years. In it I included Poe's fine review of Orion; Place-the South in general.
A15: That is some last question. I believe that he did. In the Kindle edition of Coffee with Poe I added a number of sections that include their relationship. There are simply too many references in Poe's Ulalume and the poetry of Frances Osgood to not believe that Fanny Fay Osgood, Fances's third child, was fathered by Edgar Allan Poe. In Edgar Allan Poe Annotated and Illustrated Entire Stories and Poems I included, in chronological order, all of the poems with a lot of background information.
Author of the 37th Best Ghost Story 1800-1849
Just like a number of early stories in my countdown of the Top 40 ghost stories from 1800-1849, the 37th best ghost story in the list was published anonymously. To whet your appetite, here is the illustration that was included with the story. It is one of the oldest pickax murder stories I have found in my research. Tomorrow I will provide a free link to it.
Edgar Allan Poe Biography - "Coffee with Poe" by Andrew Barger - Receives USA Best Book Awards Historical Biography Finalist Award
The 38th Best Ghost Story 1800-1849
Let's get on with my countdown of the Top 40 best ghost stories published in the English language from 1800-1849. I am still early in the countdown, but some solid ghost stories have already made the list. The classic ghost story filling slot 38 is no exception. As you know from my last post it was published anonymously. If you like ghost stories on the sea, this is the ghost tale for you. Without giving any too much of the story, it centers around The Flying Dutchman--the infamous ghost ship that is doomed to continually round the Cape of Good Hope in a storm with Vanderdecken as its captain. I found the story in the May 1821 issue of Blackwood's. The awkward title of the story (Vanderdecken's Message Home; or, the Tenacity of Natural Affection) does not diminish the strong storyline and "creep factor." It is perhaps the first ghost story that focuses on the futility of the dead when trying to contact the living and deserves to be remembered. As late as 1860 horror author brothers, William and Robert Chambers, included this story in their collection titled: Shipwrecks and Tales of the Sea. Enjoy!
Author for the 38th Best Ghost Story 1800-1849
We are told that all cats are grey and I am convinced that all ghosts are grey, too . . . even ghosts on the sea. The author for the 38th best ghost story 1800-1849 is anonymous. Tomorrow I will post a link to the story online. If my hint about ghosts on the sea was not enough, this illustration from the nineteenth century should give you a clue as to what the next story in the countdown is about.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The 39th Best Ghost Story 1800-1849
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Author of the 39th Best Ghost Story 1800-1849
Just like the like the author for the 40th best ghost story of 1800-1849, the next author is anonymous. I found a number of these stories in various magazines and periodicals of the day. This one comes from the Literary Magnet and I will post a free link to it in my next post. For now, enjoy the creepy illustration I found from the same time period.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The 40th Best Ghost Story 1800-1849
Welcome to my countdown of the Top 40 ghost stories from 1800-1849. These are not just any ghost stories, mind you. They are the scariest ghost stories, ones that will keep you up at night. So let's get started. The first story was published anonymously. Little happens in the first ten pages, but then it gets wild (and a bit gruesome if you are squeamish). It is a ghost story set on the sea, as a lot of them were during this nautical period. It is called The Bloody Bread Bag. The ghost story is chapter VIII of "The-Man-of-War's-Man" published in Blackwood's during 1823. Enjoy.
Monday, February 21, 2011
First Post in My Countdown of the Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849
In 2010 I counted down the Top 40 horror stories from 1800-1849 and published The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Horror Anthology. A lot of people were interested in the countdown so I've decided to countdown the best ghost stories for this time period in 2011. There will be a few surprises along the way, too. So sit back, relax, and get ready to experience some scary ghost stories.
Posted via email from Best Classic Horror Short Stories Blog
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Price Drop on the eBook Version of The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849
Posted via email from Best Classic Horror Short Stories Blog
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Werewolf and Horror Anthology Smackdown
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Saturday, January 1, 2011
Werewolves for the New Year
To get 2011 kicked off in a shapeshifting way, I'm offering a free signed copy of The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Werewolf Anthology. I will randomly pick one winner from anyone who "Likes" my Facebook page (Andrew Barger's Official Facebook Page) during the month of January 2011. Happy New Year, Andrew.
Website: www.AndrewBarger.comPosted via email from Best Classic Horror Short Stories Blog