David G. Hartwell (editor).
The Dark Descent. Tor Press (October 1987). 1011 pp.
"The Reach"
By Stephen King
Rating: 8/10
Quote: "Do you love?"
Comments: Stella Flanders lived on Goat Island her entire life, never going to the mainland. It’s very interesting what finally made her decide to make the trip.
"Evening Primrose"
By John Collier
Rating: 8/10
Quote: "Then they send for the others, the Dark Men."
Comments: I never knew so many people lived in Department Stores. Getting over that shock is the least of Charles’ worries though…
"The Ash-Tree"
By M. R. James
Rating: 9/10
Quote: "Thou shalt seek me in the morning, and I shall not be."
Comments: This is a classic story from James. In it, a woman accused of being a witch gets revenge…and then some!
"The New Mother"
By Lucy Clifford
Rating: 6/10
Quote: "I don’t know how to be naughty; no one ever taught me."
Comments: This was a decent Victorian moral allegory, where, as editor Hartwell notes, “the allegory may be awry, but the horror is real.”
"There’s a Long, Long Trail A-Winding"
By Russell Kirk
Rating: 9/10
Quote: "All heads off but mine!"
Comments: Old Frank gets a chance to atone for his perceived sins, and makes the most of that chance.
“The Call of Cthulhu”
By H.P. Lovecraft
Rating: 9/10
Quote: “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.”
Comments: I’m relatively new to Lovecraft, but I’ve read and enjoyed this one several times. I’ve always loved the way HPL has narrators who are about to die for their knowledge, or whose knowledge is hidden away for someone to find. In this way the world is warned of the Great Old Ones.
“The Summer People”
By Shirley Jackson
Rating: 7/10
Quote: “Thought you folks’d be leaving.”
Comments: Apparently the summer people are supposed to leave by Labor Day…or else!
“The Whimper of Whipped Dogs”
By Harlan Ellison
Rating: 9/10
Quote: “Him! Take him! Not me! I’m yours, I love you, I’m yours!”
Comments: Beth mistakes worship for apathy in this interesting and excellent Ellison tale.
“Young Goodman Brown”
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Rating: 10/10
Quote: “Lo, there ye stand, my children.”
Comments: Was it all a dream? If it wasn’t, what delicious irony and massive hypocrisy this story contains! I’ve loved the story of Young Goodman Brown since I first read it in grade school. I highly recommend this one to anyone who hasn’t yet had the pleasure of experiencing it.
“Mr. Justice Harbottle”
By J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Rating: 8/10
Quote: “One end locks. The other is welded.”
Comments: Mr. Justice Harbottle always got his way in court…until he was the one on trial.
“The Crowd”
By Ray Bradbury
Rating: 9/10
Quote: “No, not yet, but he will be dead before the ambulance arrives.”
Comments: Ever wonder why a crowd gathers so quickly at an accident? Mr. Spallner does, and it costs him.
“The Autopsy”
By Michael Shea
Rating: 10/10
Quote: “He is writing a translation of Marcus Aurelius—he was, I mean, in his free time….”
Comments: Wow. This was an excellent story; one of the best I’ve ever read. The evil being in this story picked the wrong guy to mess with!
“John Charrington’s Wedding”
By Edith Nesbitt
Rating: 9/10
Quote: “Alive or dead I mean to be married!”
Comments: John Charrington always gets his way, including this time, his last.
“Sticks”
By Karl Edward Wagner
Rating: 8/10
Quote: “We’ve got to destroy them.”
Comments: If you find an old house in the woods and you get the heebie-jeebies, DON’T go down into the cellar. You might find more than you bargained for.
“Larger Than Oneself”
By Robert Aickman
Rating: 5/10
Quote: “If only one could find some all-embracing pattern to guide one.”
Comments: I didn’t particularly care for this one, and never quite knew just what was going on.
“Belsen Express”
By Fritz Leiber
Rating: 9/10
Quote: “I heard you.”
Comments: This was an excellent story, involving one man’s irrational fear of the Gestapo while living in 1950’s America.
“Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper”
By Robert Bloch
Rating: 10/10
Quote: “But that’s not a gun. That’s a knife!”
Comments: A British gentleman has an idea that the Ripper is still killing people in 1945, and his search has led him to Chicago. I managed to guess how this would end, but it’s still a very good and entertaining story.
“If Damon Comes”
By Charles L. Grant
Rating: 7/10
Quote: “You’ve been a bad boy daddy.”
Comments: Man I hope I don’t have a kid like this later in life!
“Vandy, Vandy”
By Manly Wade Wellman
Rating: 7/10
Quote: “And you want to lead her down into hell.”
Comments: I’ve never seen the Father of Our Country (sorry to you non-Americans out there) used in quite this way.
“The Swords”
By Robert Aickman
Rating: 6/10
Quote: “We’ll meet again. Don’t worry.”
Comments: I guess I don’t understand Aickman, at least not the first time I’m reading his short stories. I’ve read that this story is about the fear of having sex for the first time, but I just don’t relate to it at all.
“The Roaches”
By Thomas M. Disch
Rating: 7/10
Quote: “I love you too.”
Comments: We all hate cockroaches, the filthy little buggers. But what would you do if you had the power to control them?
“Bright Segment”
By Theodore Sturgeon
Rating: 9/10
Quote: “I fix everything.”
Comments: A semi-retarded man saves a woman’s life, but not in the way you’d expect.
“Dread”
By Clive Barker
Rating: 10/10
Quote: “I’ve got some wonderful photographs.”
Comments: Quaid wants to know the true meaning of dread, and how to overcome it. The irony in this story is delicious.
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
By Edgar Allan Poe
Rating: 9/10
Quote: “Now hear it?—yes, I hear it, and have heard it.”
Comments: This is a tale about the House of Usher, a term with two meanings: both the actual dwelling in which the Ushers lived and their family, whose madness is observed close up by the narrator.
“The Monkey”
By Stephen King
Rating: 10/10
Quote: “Who’s dead Hal? Is it you?”
Comments: Hal has been tormented by a death-dealing toy monkey since he was a child. Can he rid himself of it before anyone close to him dies?
“Within the Walls of Tyre”
By Michael Bishop
Rating: 7/10
Quote: “Anson, God damn you! God damn you!”
Comments: Don’t let anyone discover your dark little secret. Especially not THIS anyone…