Best Horror Stories (short fiction and novels)

Cafe Society
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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.”

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If you like morbid wit in your horror stories, try Margaret St. Clair’s “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles.”

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The anthology, “Science Fiction Terror Tales,” 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!)

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Correction: The L.P. Hartley story is “A VISITOR from Down Under.”

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Has no one mentioned Bram Stoker’s Dracula ?

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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. 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).

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For collections, there’s also The Weird (with several horror stories).

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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.

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Came here to say this.

30

I’ll add “The Strange Ride of Morrowby Jukes” by Rudyard Kipling.

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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.

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The Fly–George Langelann

The Birds–Daphne du Maurier

Both are entirely different from the film versions.

Also, Hop Frog, my favorite Poe story.

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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.