Product Description

Welcome to a land Ray Bradbury calls "the Undiscovered Country" of his imagination--that vast territory of ideas, concepts, notions and conceits where the stories you now hold were born. America's premier living author of short fiction, Bradbury has spent many lifetimes in this remarkable place--strolling through empty, shadow-washed fields at midnight; exploring long-forgotten rooms gathering dust behind doors bolted years ago to keep strangers locked out.. and secrets locked in. The nights are longer in this country. The cold hours of darkness move like autumn mists deeper and deeper toward winter. But the moonlight reveals great magic here--and a breathtaking vista.

The October Country is many places: a picturesque Mexican village where death is a tourist attraction; a city beneath the city where drowned lovers are silently reunited; a carnival midway where a tiny man's most cherished fantasy can be fulfilled night after night. The October Country's inhabitants live, dream, work, die--and sometimes live again--discovering, often too late, the high price of citizenship. Here a glass jar can hold memories and nightmares; a woman's newborn child can plot murder; and a man's skeleton can war against him. Here there is no escaping the dark stranger who lives upstairs...or the reaper who wields the world. Each of these stories is a wonder, imagined by an acclaimed tale-teller writing from a place shadows. But there is astonishing beauty in these shadows, born from a prose that enchants and enthralls. Ray Bradbury's The October Country is a land of metaphors that can chill like a long-after-midnight wind...as they lift the reader high above a sleeping Earth on the strange wings of Uncle Einar.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308149 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-01
• Released on: 1999-09-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Amazon.com Review
Ray Bradbury's first short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are also on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss. This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his "Theater of Morning Voices," and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself. And has any writer anywhere ever made such good use of exclamation marks!?

From the Publisher
7 1.5-hour cassettes

From the Inside Flap
Haunting, harrowing, and downright horrifying, this classic collection from the modern master of the fantastic features:
THE SMALL ASSASSIN: a fine, healthy baby boy was the new mother's dream come true -- or her nightmare . . .
THE EMISSARY: the faithful dog was the sick boy's only connectioin with the world outside -- and beyond . . .
THE WONDERFUL DEATH OF DUDLEY STONE: a most remarkable case of murder -- the deceased was delighted!
And more!

Customer Reviews

A chill in the air
This is a collection of nineteen classic stories (1943-1955) all under the very general theme that they take place in autumn. Most have a supernatural element, while some are more psychological, but almost all have a darker edge to them.

A lonely dwarf finds a personal use for the mirrors in a carnival funhouse, until someone makes a cruel practical joke out of it. A man becomes obsessed with the bones beneath his skin. A new mother is convinced that her child is trying to kill her. A poor family inherits a farmland and a terrible duty as well. An obstinate old woman simply refuses to die. A neurotic man fears the wind.

With all the modern horror I read I find it refreshing to pick up Mr. Bradbury's work from time to time and travel back to a quieter, simpler era, and this anthology satisfies. The stories are no less chilling for being over fifty years old. If you like tales in the vein of 'The Twilight Zone' this is just the sort of thing you will like.

This edition contains an introduction by the author in which he talks about the origins of some of the stories, and illustrations by Joe Mugnaini.

Essential Short Story Collection by an Essential Author!
Ray Bradbury's name is synonymous with imagination and in this collection of short stories he proves that beyond a reasonable doubt. I know, I used to cringe at his name. That is before I learned that he didn't just write science fiction (a genre of which I am not too fond). These stories range from a bizarre account of one couple's visit to a Mexican town and the mummies that reside there (The Next In Line), a loyal dog that brings its young bed-ridden owner things from out in the world, even things from cemeteries (The Emissary), a baby born with an evil intelligence (The Small Assassin), a man who is the heir to Death's job (The Scythe), and an observant boy who deals with a tenant vampire in a very unique way (The Man Upstairs). The stories I have listed are of particualr impact and my favorites of the collection, but overall word for word, page for page each story is priceless. If you are a fan of horror fiction or just plain old imaginative writing in general invest in the works of Ray Bradbury, you won't regret it.

Happy Hallowe'en!
Every year just before I reread The Homecoming. It was the first Bradbury story I ever read, way back in 5th grade, and I fell in love with it immediately. When Bradbury writes about an apple pie, in a few quick words you smell it. I love this collection, as I love Farenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and The Illustrated Man. The stories in here range from the odd to the silly to the chilling, the kind of stories you want to tell in a tent by a flashlight on a camping trip with your old buddies. They are for the child and the terror in us all. May you all fly with Uncle Einar!