Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology

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And the rest of the stories? Dull and mediocre at best. And not in anyway horrific. I feel that the editors idea of what Folk Horror is, is vastly different to mine. Hogy ennek mi köze a folk horrorhoz? Az, hogy a folk horror – ha jól értelmezem – pont ennek a felfogásnak ad egy piszkos nagy pofont, de úgy, hogy a fal adja a másikat. És még csak nem is nyers erőből adja, hanem ügyesen és kiszámítottan. But as this collection shows, writers of uncanny fiction were dabbling in the dark side of folklore long before those films. These 22 stories take the reader beyond the safety and familiarity of the town into the isolated and untamed wilderness. Unholy rites, witches’ curses, sinister village traditions and ancient horrors that lurk within the landscape all combine to remind us that the shiny modern, urban world might not have all the answers…

Over all this book was a disappointment. I went in with such high expectations; I saw it on the shelf in Waterstones (yes brought new which makes it even more disappointing) and did a wee happy jiggy dance. I had never seen a Folk Horror anthology before, and especially one that was so beautifully illustrated. So therefore it had to be mine. Perfect Gothtober reading I thought. This anthology of Folk Horror Tales curated and illustrated by Richard Wells, has the most hauntingly beautiful imagery to accompany diverse and Damnable Tales about the horrors of the ages. All Hallows" - Walter de la Mare. Wandering traveller learns of strange influences at work on a rural church. The author uses powerfully suggestive phrases to create an atmosphere of oppressive dread. remember how the first story was written in an almost-unreadable dialect? well this one is 10 times worse Overall a disappointing collection, just because something is set in the wilderness and maybe has a wee bit of devil worship (hail Satan) does not make it Folk Horror. A fabulous opportunity wasted.Con semejante nómina era difícil que algo saliera más pero hay también otros autores menos conocidos con relatos de mucha calidad. Eso sí, es terror clásico similar al que podriamos encontrar en algún libro de Valdemar gótica y eso es sinonimo de calidad.

The Music on the Hill" - Saki. "She looked on the country as something excellent and wholesome in its way, which was apt to become troublesome if you encouraged it overmuch." Ha! There was none of that eerie foreboding that you get from communities just outside the modern world going balls deep into some old school religion much to the horror of the modern watchers on. There was nothing unexplained and just down right creepy. Blood on Satans Claw these stories ain’t. Un libro fantástico y la primera gran recopilación de horror rural que he tenido el placer de leer.the most memorable part of this story is that the narrator kept calling his wife "p***y" and that made me laugh I had to keep pulling myself away from it so I didn’t finish it in one sitting . . . An incredible book' Annie Kapur, Vocal Media The Lady on the Grey" - John Collier. Playboy proud of his list of conquests tries to catch up with his main competition. This was probably the most fun story in the collection. Man-Size in Marble" - Edith Nesbit. A young couple new to the country learns why they can't "keep good help"! This is a great story, and one of the oldest in the collection- Nesbit was writing at the same time as Arthur Conan Doyle! While her contemporaries were cranking out Victoriana Nesbit delivers her tale in a strikingly modern style that reminded me of Bernard Taylor's best.

This richly illustrated anthology gathers together classic short stories from masters of supernatural fiction including M. R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu and Arthur Machen, alongside lesser-known voices in the field including Eleanor Scott and Margery Lawrence, and popular writers less bound to the horror genre, such as Thomas Hardy and E. F. Benson. As with any anthology, the stories are of mixed quality. There are 23 short stories in this volume, and each is accompanied by its own newly commissioned woodcut style lino print at the beginning of each tale. And while the hustle and bustle of modern life means we often think ourselves far removed from a world haunted by pixies and ghouls… Are we really that far from horror? Trolls have come out from under their bridges and now hide behind keyboards, a merciless plague darkens all of our doorways, and there is senseless division, terror and cruelty occurring all over the world in the name of belief… perhaps sadly, we are the same monsters we have always been.

The stories date from 1872 right up to 1964. They cover witch persecution, hauntings, the pagan gods of old, and the true horror of what humans can inflict on each other as a result of fear. It is a sensational read for dark nights. The tale of ‘Thrawn Janet’ by Robert Louis Stevenson is genuinely terrifying!