Despite being almost put off reading the book by the snobbish and pompous introduction from Mike Ashley (Good and bad horror? Really? Well written and badly written yes, but to label whole styles of horror as 'bad' because they don't meet your self-created standards of 'literature'? I don't know who you are and, frankly, I don't care. You're wrong.) I am now reading the stories, many of which are, of course, classics by classic horror writers, some I'm very familiar with, others less so. Been good so far - you know, in the end I've got these stories in other collections and I'd rather read them there than in a book with such a nauseating introduction. Sorry but I give up. ( )

This collection is very good indeed! If you're starting to read old ghost and horror short stories, that's the best beginning. Here you can find the best writers from the past with some very exciting tales. I didn't read all of them, but there are some that I would like to recommend, they are:

- The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling: This is a very creep story in certain moments. The tale is held in India and shows the story of a man who played with the local religion and got a terrible curse.

- The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs: One of the most creeping tales ever existed. The tale is about a queer relic capable to delivery 3 wishes to the owner, however it carries a very powerful and evil spell on it.

- The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce: A short action horror tale. It talks about an unknown deadly creature which some men encountered in a forest.

- The White People by Arthur Machen: Lovecraft said it was his second favorite horror tale (If I'm not wrong, the The Willows by Algernon Blackwood is his favorite and it's also here in this collection). The tale talks about a book written by a young girls who was introduced to the black magic by her nurse and she describes a lot of queer places, tales and spells that she's known during her youth.

- The Colour Out of Space by Lovecraft: He's my favorite writer, nevertheless is my favorite story. But Lovecraft has a lot of great stories, and this is one of his great ones. Lovecraft fills this tale with his cosmic horror, introducing a strange alien force which lives in a queer forest next to a small old village.

Besides these, the book also include:

'Sredni Vashtar' by Saki (H. H. Munro)
'The Willows' by Algernon Blackwood
'A Tale of Three Who Were Blind' by Izumi Kyoka
'Dracula's Guest' by Bram Stoker
'The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar' by Poe,
'The Beast With Five Fingers' by W. F. Harvey,
'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson,
'The Derelict' by William Hope Hodgson
'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' by M. R. James ( )