The Dark Descent

Disaster! That super-secret hush-hush Project the military was supposed to have under control has torn a rift into another dimension just ten miles from town, and maniacal flesh-hungry monsters are pouring through by the score, tearing their shrieking victims apart and turning the world as you know it into a charnel house. You've got to pack up and get outta Dodge quick---but what to take? Clothes, boots, food, hunting knife, guns and ammo, extra fuel cans, chainsaw---oh, and if you're a horror junkie like me, you've gotta have reading material during the Siege, right? And since you'll be holing up a long time---maybe forever---the tome you choose had better be a good one. Forced to haul one single volume off your horror shelf before you pack everything into the heavily armored civvie Hum-Vee, I would choose David G. Hartwell's masterful compilation "The Dark Descent." This Leviathan of a book is chock-full of more than one-thousand pages of the best horror ever written by some of the Grand-Masters of the genre (H.P. Lovecraft, Poe, Stephen King, M.R. James) and some of their lesser known adepts and apprentices. For such a modest price, having this much shivery, ghoulish goodness stuffed between the covers is nearly an embarrassment of riches. Anthologies are often treacherous ground, and success hinges on an editor's style and judgment. Hartwell demonstrates his impeccable taste and considerable acuity in the selections he makes; best of all he begins the collection with a remarkably astute, entertaining---and mercifully concise---little essay tracing the evolution of the terror and horror tale. Certainly we are treated to the seminal classics of the genre, and a few of the tales are overly represented in many other collections---but as horror crown jewels, they have their place here. H.P. Lovecraft is represented by two ensanguined ambassadors: "The Call of Cthulhu", a sweeping account of global panic, terror and slaughter spread by the resurgence of a primitive cult of an obscure Squid-God, and the Poe-esque "The Rats in the Walls". M.R. James has a less auspicious presence, "The Ash-Tree" being one of his less powerful works and an inadequate introduction to the Master. Hartwell's King selections are slightly puzzling; "The Reach" is too languid for its own good, while "The Monkey" is tacky and underawing---but then Hartwell knocks it out of the ballfield with the relatively rare Lovecraftian "Crouch End" which, serves up a viciously psychedelic and very different side of King, to say nothing of providing a little side-trip to a part of London (thankfully) not on any map. Karl Edward Wagner's "Sticks" presages by a quarter-century the discovery of liches in the woods by "Blair Witch"'s unlucky film students, Clive Barker details an experiment in mortal terror gone horribly awry in "Dread", Joyce Carol Oates proves there is a fate worse than Death in "Night-Side", and Lucy Clifford chronicles what happens to naughty little children in "

One is Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, edited by Cerf and Wagner. The other is The Dark Descent. From Poe and J. Sheridan LeFanu to Stephen King and Shirley Jackson, this anthology covers the horror tradition like few others. The selections in The Dark Descent are a bit more in-your-face than the ones in Cerf and Wagner's elegant anthology--an attribute fans of late twentieth century horror will surely appreciate. At the same time, though, Hartwell has certainly not avoided the classic chillers. Even better, Hartwell has chosen to include some lesser-known tales by some heavy hitters within the genre--so while you won't see Jackson's "The Lottery," you will find two tales by her that you likely haven't read a dozen times before: tales that will hit you with the same force "The Lottery" did the first time you read it. Also not to be missed is Hartwell's introduction, which does a nice job of laying down a critical framework within which to read horror. It doesn't take the place of Danse Macabre or Dreadful Pleasures, but it's a nicely written piece that seems aimed toward readers who wouldn't otherwise read literary criticism.

This sprawling collection will keep the fan of weird fiction (and just plain good fiction) happy and spooked for a long time. The stories are broken into three sections, the boundaries between which are not terribly well explained by the editor (in my opinion, anyway). No matter, the quality of the stories is amazing throughout.This is not just modern gore and sex horror. Victorian stories such as The New Mother show just how frightening a tale told with restraint. Clive Barker's Dread, perhaps his best short work, may have you sleeping with the lights on. The three Stephen King pieces are all career highlights, especially the Lovecraftian Crouch End.I can't tell you how many marvellous writers I discovered in this collection. Robert Aickman, Oliver Onions, Robert W. Chambers, Russell Kirk. In some cases, this is the best source of fiction by these writers, as most of their work is out of print.My edition clocks in at just over 1000 pages. That's 1000 pages of pure enjoyment. Not bad for the price.

The Dark Descent is an anthology of short horror fiction, that spans the full range of the genre from the extremely overt to the quietly subtle. The editor, David Hartwell, has not only ordered the selections in a way that highlights the influences and references inherent in the work, but introduces each story with a brief, but informative foreword. What's most amazing to me about this tome, is that, having been an avid reader of horror short fiction for many years, and having read many such collections of work, this one included so many masterpieces that I'd never encountered before.I believe this to be one of the most, if not THE most, comprehensive collections available, and recommend it to any fan of short fiction, particularly those who appreciate gothic, horror, and psychological thriller genres.

Indispensable reading for fans and scholars of horror, and for anyone who wants to understand what all the fuss is about. Hartwell's lengthy introduction provides the most clear and lucid explanation of horror's primary concepts and terminologies that I have read anywhere, the organization of his material makes clear sense. The book contains some of the standard chestnuts that every good horror collection has to have, but also includes brilliant choices from little-known or little-represented writers. Joanna Russ's dreamy, heartbreaking, shuddering "My Dear Emily" is alone worth the price of the book: if you think you've heard or read every possible variation on the over-worked Vampire theme, this one will tear your head off. Every tale in this hefty collection is similarly disturbing, eerie and beautiful. Hartwell has another collection out on horror novellas, and while also superb, it is hard to top or even match this one. (The only one that might come close is Alberto Manguel's "Black Water," although it has a lot of fantasy in its mix.