It is not that the reader is afraid, but he is made to feel the fear of the characters, and it must be justified. Edmund Wilson, who wrote a couple of essays about these stories, did not really appreciate or understand them, and he recommended works like Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener,” psychologically interesting but quite without scariness, which is the essential attractive element in the best of ghost stories. When ghost stories (to give them a generic name, though ghosts may not be involved) are occasionally considered by critics they always begin by asking what the attractions are, and then they offer various silly answers. Before we’re done, however, I think we’ll find that there’s more of literary interest in the subject than is immediately obvious. My readers will recognize that once again, as when I wrote about Westerns and detective stories, I am writing about a subject beneath the notice of high-minded lovers of literary culture. I could wish for a different selection here and there, but no single anthology can please all tastes. The above title is a title within Modern Library Giant, edited by Herbert Wise and Phyllis Fraser, published in 1944, still in print, and which I, something of a connoisseur in such matters, can recommend as the best such anthology I know. Jigs Gardner writes on literature from the Adirondacks, where he may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. Jigs Gardner is an associate editor of The St. Writers for Conservatives, 61: Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural
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