The Dark: New Ghost Stories - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765304449 ISBN 13: 9780765304445

Publisher: Tor Books, 2003

Synopsis

Ghosts are among us. On the other side of death, the spirits of departed souls have been part of human myths and beliefs as long as anyone can recall. Some of the most powerful and affecting images in fiction are of ghosts, spirits, visitations from beyond the veil of death.
Ellen Datlow, an editor whose stellar career has garnered her World Fantasy Awards, a Stoker Award, and a Hugo Award, has long been fascinated by ghosts. Now she has brought together an array of all-new, original ghost stories for the shivering delight of readers who are ready to be frightened.
And that's no idle threat. These are not friendly ghost stories. This book is called The Dark because the editor asked her favorite authors specifically for stories that would provoke fear or disquietude, tales that would cause shivers down the spine and make readers want to keep a light on when they retire to bed for the night. The authors who answered her call compose an all-star cast of brilliant storytellers, including such award-winning, certifiably masterful authors as Ramsey Campbell, Jeffrey Ford, Charles L. Grant, Glen Hirshberg, Kathe Koja, Tanith Lee, Kelly Link, Sharyn McCrumb, Joyce Carol Oates, Lucius Shepard, and Gahan Wilson. Frighteningly good writers. Each has penned a unique tale unlike any of the others. All have cast dark spells that are sure to inspire fear or unease in the hardiest of readers.

About this title

From the Author:

Adapted from the Introduction:

Ghost stories have been a popular and powerful tradition in fiction for centuries, and have inspired writers of many literary traditions, including such luminaries as William Faulkner, Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde, Kate Chopin, Muriel Spark, and John Masefield.

From the ghost of Hamlet’s father and Banquo’s ghost’s unexpected dinner appearance in Macbeth through disturbing hauntings as in the classic novella, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Faulkner’s "A Rose for Emily," and short stories by M.R. James up to eerie imaginings such as Graham Greene's terrifying, "A Little Place Off the Edgware Road," Robert Aickman’s disturbing short stories, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, ghost stories have continued to maintain their hold on the literary imagination. Although ghost stories fell out of fashion during the 1980s (with exceptions like Peter Straub’s Ghost Story), with horror moving toward the psychological and more realistic terror tales of serial killers and dysfunctional families, there is no doubt that ghost stories have made a comeback. I think this is because when done well, they are frightening. They're about something we humans cannot avoid—death.

I hope these stories will unnerve you so that when you put down the book you'll spend the rest of the night nervous of the slightest noise, of the creak of a board or the tapping of a twig against a window.

About the Author:

Ellen Datlow is a winner of seven World Fantasy Awards, two Hugo Awards for Best Editor, two Bram Stoker Awards, and the International Horror Guild Award. In a career spanning more than twenty-five years, she has been the long-time fiction editor of Omni and more recently the fiction editor of SCIFI.COM. She has edited many successful anthologies, including Blood Is Not Enough, A Whisper of Blood, and, with Terri Windling, Snow White, Blood Red and five other titles in their adult Fairy Tales anthology series; The Green Man and The Faery Reel for young adults; and, for younger readers, A Wolf at the Door and Swan Sister. She also co-edits the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series. Ellen Datlow lives in Manhattan.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0765304449
• ISBN 13: 9780765304445
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Datlow Ellen