# Best Horror Stories (short fiction and novels) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2016, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844 "2016-11-23T22:06:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/21 "2016-11-29T01:42:04Z")
I agree with **Miss Mapp**. “Count Magnus” is my favorite M.R. James story, too. Lord Dunsany; “The Hoard of the Gibbelins” and “The Walk to Lingham” Oliver Onions; “The Beckoning Fair One” Algernon Blackwood; “Ancient Lights” Perceval Landon; “Thurnley Abbey” Michael Arlen; “The Gentleman from America” L.P. Hartley; “The Man from Down Under” Roald Dahl; “Man from the South” Jan Mark; “Who’s a Pretty Boy, Then?” These are all pretty well-known and easily available, except for the last. Which is an absolutely chilling tale about…haunted budgies. The Hartley story is in a two-way tie with Theodore Sturgeon’s “It” for “Spookiest Damn Last Line in Story.” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/22 "2016-11-29T01:45:46Z")
If you like morbid wit in your horror stories, try Margaret St. Clair’s “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles.” ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/23 "2016-11-29T01:55:45Z")
The anthology, “[Science Fiction Terror Tales](https://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Terror-Conklin-Paperback/dp/B007VFP2M8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1480384461&sr=8-4&keywords=science+fiction+terror+tales+groff+conklin),” edited by Groff Conklin. (Hm… Alas, overpriced right now on Amazon. Bummer. Beautiful collection of REALLY creepy stories. You might find them more “creepy” than “horror” anyway. But, gaw, these are great stories!) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/24 "2016-11-29T02:18:21Z")
Correction: The L.P. Hartley story is “A VISITOR from Down Under.” ---
**Author:** ![appleaday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@appleaday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleaday)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/25 "2016-11-29T03:49:35Z")
Has no one mentioned Bram Stoker’s _Dracula_ ? ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/26 "2016-12-01T00:26:21Z")
I’m thrilled to see so many titles I’ve never read, or even heard of! I agree that “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” is a contender for my favorite M.R. James story, and “Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad” and “Canon Alberich’s Scrapbook” are great too. “Count Magnus” is no slouch either. Also of note, “The Entrance” by Gerald Durrell is supposed to be great, but I’ve owned the book containing it for years and not yet got up the courage to read it. (It evidently deals with mirrors, which freak me out enough already.) FYI, if you enjoy short weird fiction, I cannot recommend enough the [HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast](http://hppodcraft.com/). They’ve covered all of Lovecraft’s fiction and now do related and similar works, with themes like “Blochtober,” “Werewolf History Month,” and “Poe-vember.” They have excellent readers do excerpts, and then they analyze (and they’re funny as heck). ---
**Author:** ![ralfy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ralfy/32/600_2.png) [@ralfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralfy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/27 "2016-12-01T02:33:56Z")
For collections, there’s also _The Weird_ (with several horror stories). ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/28 "2016-12-01T02:38:38Z")
Look into some of Richard Matheson’s short stories. He wrote on the boundary between SF and Horror, while dabbling in both. If you like Stephen King, give F. Paul Wilson a try. Start with either “The Keep” or “The Tomb”, if you like there’s more, lots more. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/29 "2016-12-01T02:52:03Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > “Who Goes There?” by John Campbell, Jr, writing as Don Stuart, in 1938 Came here to say this. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/30 "2016-12-01T04:30:38Z")
I’ll add “The Strange Ride of Morrowby Jukes” by Rudyard Kipling. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/31 "2016-12-01T04:32:10Z")
A couple that haven’t been mentioned: _The Beckoning Fair One_, a longer short story by Oliver Onions – absolutely chilling. _Call First_, a short story by Ramsey Campbell. I remember reading it on the bus home from work one night, and being so startled by the final lines that I slammed the book (Campbell’s best-of compilation _Alone With the Horrors_) shut. ETA: I see now that _The Beckoning Fair One_ was listed up thread, so a second vote for that. ---
**Author:** ![Magicicada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@Magicicada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magicicada)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/32 "2016-12-01T06:40:40Z")
The Fly–George Langelann The Birds–Daphne du Maurier Both are entirely different from the film versions. Also, Hop Frog, my favorite Poe story. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844/33 "2016-12-01T09:22:16Z")
I’ve always had a fondness for King’s Quitters, Inc. and Caine Rose Up. Extra creepy because they’re totally plausible, nothing supernatural about 'em. Poe, The Mask of the Red Death. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-horror-stories-short-fiction-and-novels/772844.md?page=1)