My Favourite Horror Stories -- A Few, At Any Rate

I always hesitate to post a list of my favourite horror stories because I tend to overlook too many. At three o'clock in the morning, I will most likely slap myself on the forehead and think, "How the hell could I have missed that one?" Yet all the same, here it is.

Please note that "favourite" does not necessarily imply "best." "Seaton's Aunt" is a much more important story than "The Three Friends"; "The Spook House" and "A Vine on a House" are minor when compared to "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge," but I have reasons of my own for loving these lesser stories. In a similar way, Robert Aickman's work is vastly more important to the field than anything by Charles G. D. Roberts, and yet something about "The Barn in the Marsh" appeals to me. Quite often, too, I can learn more about technique from a certain kind of story than from ones that other people might consider important.

For the sake of simplicity, I've left out novellas, along with stories about fantasy worlds -- otherwise, I'd end up with a sky-high list of titles by Clark Ashton Smith and C. L. Moore. I've also left out stories that might be considered purely fantasy (like E. T. A. Hoffmann's wonderful "Der goldne Topf", or Ludwig Tieck's disturbing "Der blonde Eckbert"), and stories more dreamlike than eerie, like those by Bruno Schulz, or Marcel Brion's "Les Escales de la haute nuit." As much as I love them, I have to draw the line somewhere.

I've also limited myself to stories in languages that I can read (or could read; I haven't studied German in decades). As much as I love stories by Bruno Schulz, I'm painfully aware that I'm not reading Schulz, but a translation.

• Robert Aickman, "The Inner Room"
• E. F. Benson, "Caterpillars"
• E. F. Benson, "The Face"
• E. F. Benson, "The Room in the Tower"
• Ambrose Bierce, "Chickamauga"
• Ambrose Bierce, "The Moonlit Road"
• Ambrose Bierce, "The Spook House"
• Ambrose Bierce, "A Vine on a House"
• Ambrose Bierce, "Visions of the Night"
• Elizabeth Bowen, "The Demon Lover"
• Marjorie Bowen, "The Sign-Painter and the Crystal Fishes"
• Paul Bowles, "Pages From Cold Point"
• A. M. Burrage, "One Who Saw"
• Bernard Capes, "The Green Bottle"
• Robert W. Chambers, "The Yellow Sign"
• Ralph Adams Cram, "The Dead Valley"
• Michel de Ghelderode, "Un crépuscule"
• Walter de la Mare, "All Hallows"
• Walter de la Mare, "The House"
• Walter de la Mare, "The Three Friends"
• Walter de la Mare, "The Tree"
• Guy de Maupassant, "Le Horla" (the 1887 version)
• R. Murray Gilchrist, "The Basilisk"
• M. John Harrison, "The New Rays"
• L. P. Hartley, "A Visitor from Down Under"
• L. P. Hartley, "Podolo"
• L. P. Hartley, "The Travelling Grave"
• W. F. Harvey, "The Clock"
• Shirley Jackson, "The Beautiful Stranger"
• M. R. James, "An Episode of Cathedral History"
• M. R. James, "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book"
• M. R. James, "The Mezzotint"
• M. R. James, "Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad"
• M. R. James, "The Rats"
• M. R. James, "Wailing Well"
• Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "Laura Silver Bell"
• Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "Mr. Justice Harbottle"
• Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, "Schalken the Painter"
• Jean Lorrain, "L'Un d'eux"
• Arthur Machen, "The Inmost Light"
• Arthur Machen, "The White People"
• A. N. L. Munby, "The Tregannet Book of Hours"
• Gerard Prévot, "Le Démon de février"
• Charles G. D. Roberts, "The Barn on the Marsh"
• Joanna Russ, "Come Closer"
• William Sansom, "The Vertical Ladder"
• William Sansom, "A Wedding"
• Marcel Schwob, "Les embaumeuses"
• Marcel Schwob, "Septima incantatrice"
• Clark Ashton Smith, "The Treader of the Dust"
• H. G. Wells, "The Cone"
• Edith Wharton, "Bewitched"
• Edward Lucas White, "The Snout"