For the second best short horror story of 1800-1849 I choose "The Mysterious Mansion" by Honore de Balzac (1799-1850). This horrific story of "entrapment" rises far above Edgar Allan Poe's best tale of a similar nature, "The Cask of Amontillado." You can read the story along with my annotations and story background in The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Horror Anthology.
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