Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology

Product Information

As these stories occur early in the book, it would be advised perhaps not to read cover to cover but to dip in and out randomly, or even start at the last story and work widdershins back to the beginning.

They stalk the moors at night, the deep forests, cornered fields and dusky churchyards, the narrow lanes and old ways of these ancient places, drawing upon the haunted landscapes of folk-horror. It is notable, however, that the majority of stories in this book do have a British or Irish origin, with Shirley Jackson’s 1950 tale ‘The Summer People’ notably bringing an odd slice of Wyrd Americana to the table. Historias que nos recuerdan al hombre de mimbre y es que aquí se hayan probablemente todos los cuentos que dieron lugar al subgénero del folk horror. If we accept that it often means isolated, often rural communities with their own rites, rituals and folklore, and often a malign relationship with nature, then that gives you some idea of the kinds of stories collected here. These twenty-two stories take the reader beyond the safety and familiarity of the town into the isolated and untamed wilderness.While her contemporaries were cranking out Victoriana Nesbit delivers her tale in a strikingly modern style that reminded me of Bernard Taylor's best. As much as I enjoyed the ghoulish elements to these stories, I also loved the nature writing in nearly every story that went hand-in-hand with them - the pearls of beauty that made the horror so much the sweeter. Lots of the stories were completely new to me, which is great: a personal favourite now has to be Man-Size in Marble by Edith Nesbit, a ferociously economical, chilling little tale of history intruding upon newcomers who don't know how to play by the rules. How Pan Came to Little Ingleton' by Margery Lawrence wasn't exactly 'horror' but quite a funny, heart warming tale of a young man coming to understand that there is wisdom in the old ways.

My biggest struggle was, of course, the story written completely in an English dialect that was just really hard to understand, but alongside that you've got some fabulous Shirley Jackson so why dwell on the difficulty of the earlier story? There was none of that eerie foreboding that you get from communities just outside the modern world going balls deep into some old school religion much to the horror of the modern watchers on. A lot of the stories picked up the theme of Christianity coming into conflict with the pagan gods, and I enjoyed how sometimes they came to an easy truce. Also interesting seeing past centuries' perception of Halloween, and some folklore/practices I was not aware of such as sin eating.A richly illustrated anthology which gathers classic short stories from masters of supernatural fiction including M. Primarily working in the television industry, he has provided graphic props for the likes of Poldark, Sherlock, Doctor Who, and the 2020 BBC adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. And yes some of the stories where indeed good, but these where all stories I had read before so this anthology was not bringing me anything new and exciting.