The Book of the Living Dead

by John Richard Stephens (Editor)

Overview

From Poe to Lovecraft-a unique zombiethology of the literary undead.

Corpses rise in a variety of frightening ways in this collection of classic stories by an impressive lineup of authors including:

Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, H.P. Lovecraft, Guy de Maupassant, Mark Twain, Jack London, William Wyman Jacobs, Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, John H. Knox, Sir Hugh Clifford, Thomas Burke, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, F. Marion Crawford, F.G. Loring, William Butler Yeats, Douglas Hyde, E.F. Benson, Lafcadio Hearn, Perceval Landon, E. and H. Heron, Amy Lowell, G.W. Hutter, and Sir Walter Scott.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101444016
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/05/2010
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	845,799
File size:	567 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Richard Stephens is a full-time writer and anthologist. He lives in Cambria, California.

Editorial Reviews

This solid collection of classic gothic horror stories from the 19th and early 20th centuries relies heavily on highly anthologized workhorses such as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Facts of M. Valdemar's Case," an excerpt from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and H.P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West: Reanimator." Stevens also includes a few lesser-known pieces from authors famous for more than horror, such as Jack London's "A Thousand Deaths" and Mark Twain's "A Curious Dream," along with obscurities such as an 1888 newspaper article about a hanged man dancing by reflex after the body was cut down, and imagist poet Amy Lowell's polyphonic "The Cross-Roads." More retrospective than groundbreaking, this anthology is tailor-made for academia and will also interest horror fans curious about the ancestors of modern-day supernatural tales. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Stephens, an editor whose credentials mostly include thematic collections of previously published material for Barnes & Noble (e.g., Mysterious Cat Stories), does the same here. All of the contents are from the past, between 1818 and 1940, with a concentration on the Romantics and the pulps. Poe, Twain, and Goethe rub shoulders with unknowns, hacks, and one newspaper story from 1888. There are some gems, especially Poe's "The Facts of M. Valdemar's Case," H.P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West: Reanimator," and W.W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw," but all of these are available elsewhere, and in much better company. BZG Who knew Jack London wrote a zombie story?

Library Journal