First published 1995
This collection gathers thirteen supernatural tales from American literature's most skilled practitioners of ghostly fiction. Edgar Allan Poe's tortured narrator becomes obsessed with his cousin's teeth in "Berenice." Ambrose Bierce delivers his signature blend of war and the supernatural in the title story. Willa Cather sets her ghostly encounter at a remote railroad station in "The Affair at Grover Station." Nathaniel Hawthorne's mysterious champion appears to defend colonial New England. Edith Wharton explores a French estate cursed by its violent past in "Kerfol." Each story presents characters confronting forces beyond rational explanation. The narrators face spectral children, vengeful spirits, and supernatural guardians. These tales span decades of American writing, from Poe's psychological horror to later authors who refined the ghost story into an art form. The collection showcases how different writers approached the same fundamental question: what happens when the dead refuse to stay buried?
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, american, horror, ghost-stories, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: supernatural-guardian, unreliable-narrator
Period: Colonial-New-England, French-Estate
218 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Tor Books