Homefront Horrors

The anxiety and dread of wartime Britain is recaptured in this anthology of horror stories and supernatural fiction dating from 1914 – 18. Rather than taking war as their theme, the tales offer readers escapist fare populated by ghosts, ghouls, and other malevolent spirits. Written amid the golden age of horror fiction — the decades between the turn of the twentieth century and 1940, when tales of terror and the weird flourished — these stories constitute forgotten gems by neglected masters. Seventeen tales include Max Beerbohm's "Enoch Soames," in which an obscure poet makes a deal with the devil and travels forward in time to discover history's verdict of his work; "Laura," by Saki, a witty and moving perspective on death and loss that recounts a dead woman's reincarnation as an animal that plagues her friends; "The Three Sisters," by W. W. Jacobs, author of "The Monkey's Paw," involving a plot to expedite an inheritance by simulating a ghostly visitation; "The Pavilion," by E. Nesbit, in which a pair of romantic rivals challenge each other to spend the night at a haunted pavilion; and "The King Waits," Clemence Dane's account of the final five minutes before Anne Boleyn's execution. Additional stories include the works of Algernon Blackwood, M. R. James, Lord Dunsany, and others.