It could be read after dark without concern-I didn't end up in bed with the covers over my head. This collection didn't set my nerves on edge. I am a cautious horror reader, having an active imagination and being easily spooked. It was far too moralistic for my taste, although I appreciated that it is now back in print. Unfortunately I didn't really care for the story (The Swine Gods by Regina Miriam Bloch). This made me happy, as I finished out my career as a special collections cataloguer at a university library. I was also pleased to read that the anthologists photographed one story from a Special Collections volume in a university library's collection. There are some other well known names: Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Gilman Perkins, Frances Hodgson Burnett, for example. In my opinion, it is one of the most enjoyable offerings in the book. I forget where I read that Louisa May Alcott wrote supernatural stories, but now I have read one of them.

Like the Bronte women, they often used pseudonyms or went by their initials to disguise their femininity. As the editors point out in their introduction, writing was a way that women could earn the cash to support themselves and their dependents if there was no man in their lives. This was an interesting anthology, suitable for people who are intrigued by the history of horror fiction and/or the role of women as authors. Curated by Klinger and Morton with an aim to presenting work that has languished in the shadows, all of these exceptional supernatural stories are sure to surprise, delight, and frighten today’s readers.

This anthology includes ghost stories and tales of haunted houses, as well as mad scientists, werewolves, ancient curses, mummies, psychological terrors, demonic dimensions, and even weird westerns. Klinger, collects some of the finest tales of terror by authors as legendary as Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Charlotte Gilman-Perkins, alongside works of writers who were the bestsellers and critical favorites of their time-Marie Corelli, Ellen Glasgow, Charlotte Riddell-and lesser known authors who are deserving of contemporary recognition.Īs railroads, industry, cities, and technology flourished in the mid-nineteenth century, so did stories exploring the horrors they unleashed.

Weird Women, edited by award-winning anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. While the nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley may be hailed as the first modern writer of horror, the success of her immortal Frankenstein undoubtedly inspired dozens of female authors who wrote their own evocative, chilling tales.

Weird Stories by Charlotte Riddell