Product Description

A collection of more than forty tales of horror and suspense begins with such nineteenth-century writers as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne and and includes the works of Flannery O'Connor, Stephen King, Anne Rice, William Faulkner, E. B. White, and others.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108448 in Books
• Published on: 1996-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780452274891
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Amazon.com Review
"Many of the writers in this volume are not 'gothic' writers but simply--writers. Their inclusion here is meant to suggest the richness and magnitude of the gothic-grotesque vision and the inadequacy of genre labels if by 'genre' is meant mere formula." So writes Joyce Carol Oates in a historical introduction to this anthology of 46 tales--tales that span a range from the Puritan paranoia of Charles Brockden Brown (1798) to the biological surrealism of Nicholson Baker (1994). Some critics have written that the gothic sensibility has no relevance in contemporary literature: by showing how gothic tales portray the all-too-current phenomenon of "assaults on individual identity and autonomy," Oates proves them wrong. I predict this will in time be considered a classic and influential anthology.

From Publishers Weekly
In compiling 40 short stories that represent the 200-year history of "gothic" fiction in America, from Washington Irving's classic "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" to Stephen King's "The Reach," Oates employs a eclectic and elastic definition of the genre. In her cogent introduction, she writes that she sought "the range, depth, audacity and fantastical extravagance of the human imagination." The result is a tad confusing, straying as far as science fiction and surrealism, but Oates's taste in the quality of stories is always impeccable. The pieces also all share a certain darkness. Entries range from Edgar Allen Poe's sadistic "The Black Cat" to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's classic psychological horror story, "The Yellow Wallpaper." Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice and Katherine Dunn are also represented. Among the more idiosyncratic selections are Herman Melville's "The Tartarus of Maids"; Don DeLillo's beautiful tale of astronauts floating above the earth in "Human Moments in World War III"; and Paul Bowles's strange and powerful "Allal," about a Moroccan orphan boy who so identifies with a snake that they mysteriously change bodies-and meet gory fates. Fright-seekers and those with a taste for the frankly macabre might be won over by Oates's more artistic, subtle and compelling take on the gothic, where the "essential subject is the human psyche in confrontation with something (divine? demonic?) beyond human comprehension and control."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A thoughtful and compelling collection of dark fiction that ranges from the beginnings of American literature to its most modern practitioners, American Gothic Tales is quite possibly one of the finest anthologies of its kind. The early writers (Irving, Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Bierce, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Henry James) give a particularly New England point of view, while later writers (Ray Bradbury, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Harlan Ellison, and Anne Rice) fill out more of the American literary landscape. The time line of the book parallels the timeline of America, from the colonies to the Westward expansion and on. Besides great stories from acclaimed authors (Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, E.L. Doctorow, William Faulkner, Sylvia Plath, Shirley Jackson, and editor Oates herself), outstanding pieces from lesser-known writers are also included, e.g., John Crowley's lyrical and poignant "Snow" and Nancy Etchemendy's taut thriller "Cat in Glass." This diverse collection is truly a "greatest hits" of the horror/fantasy genre and essential for every fiction section. Order one for yourself, too.
Ali Lemer, New York
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The dark side of the American psyche
American Gothic Stories ed. and with an introduction by Joyce Carol Oates. Highly recommended.

In this 1996 anthology, noted American author Joyce Carol Oates collects American tales of horror and/or the supernatural, from an excerpt from Wieland, or the Transformation (1798) by Charles Brockden Brown, to "Subsoil" (1994) by Nicholson Baker, so that the 50 stories here represent nearly 200 years of the darker side of the American psyche.

The stories, arranged in chronological order, show some clear trends. In early stories, by Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and even Edgar Allan Poe, religion plays a prominent role. Interestingly, God and his creation are seen as at odds with one another. For example, in Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," the forest and the darkness are where Satan meets humanity. "The Tartarus of Maids," an industrial creation of Herman Melville's, is set in a remote rural location, contrasted to another Melville story (not included here), "The Paradise of Bachelors," set in a London gentlemen's club. Perhaps this conviction that nature is a place of mystery, evil, and fear, explains the early (and current) American drive to conquer it.

Another theme is denial of responsibility for one's own terrible actions. When called to account for committing some of the most heinous crimes possible, Wieland's defense is inarguable: He has proved his faith in God by doing that which God desired of him. (Unlike Wieland, the reader will recognise that the "shrill voice" expressing God's bloody will from behind a "fiery stream" is more likely that of the fallen angel Lucifer.)

A second example is the famous Poe story, "The Black Cat," in which the narrator, noted from infancy for his "docility and humanity," becomes a cold-blooded maimer and killer of that which he loves most. To what does he attribute his violence and subsequent fall in fortunes? Not to himself, but to the "Fiend Intemperance," saying, "for what disease is like Alcohol!" While Poe, a self-medicating alcoholic and bipolar sufferer, seems to have had an early understanding that alcoholism is not a moral deficiency but a disease, his narrator's choice of scapegoat does not explain the obvious: Most alcoholics do not maim and murder.

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman also beats the medical establishment in recognising a pathological condition rather than a purely emotional one: Postpartum depression. Gilman gets her digs in at the predominantly male medical profession-the narrator's own husband, who makes every misstep conceivable in his attempts to "help" her, is a physician. Feminism and the gothic meet.

As the collection progresses in time, the stores become less religious and psychotic in tone, and some, such as "Snow" by John Crowley and "The Girl Who Loved Animals" by Bruce McAllister, are more science fiction than gothic. "Exchange Value" by Charles Johnson translates the tradition of psychological horror into inner-city terms. "Replacements" by Lisa Tuttle is telling commentary on the battle of the sexes; a literal vampire is preferable as an object of affection, attention, and obsession to the emotional vampire the human male of the story represents.

Other highlights include "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury, which combines gothic sensibilities with science fiction; the unforgettable "Cat in Glass" by Nancy Etchemendy, in which the narrator's implausible reality is the only one that makes sense; and "In the Icebound Hothouse" by William Goyen, where erotic elements predominate.

A personal favourite, "The Lovely House" by Shirley Jackson, succeeds in evoking the surrealism of that most tangible and ordinary of places-a home.

In some cases, I wish Oates selected more obscure works of equal quality by the same author; for example, I wonder if there are any H. P. Lovecraft short-story alternatives to the oft-anthologised "The Outsider." Still, it is innovative of Oates to include "The Enormous Radio" by John Cheever, who is not traditionally seen as a gothic writer-although "The Swimmer" might have been an even better choice.

With the exception of a handful of selections (most notably Oates' own "The Temple," which is unoriginal and uninteresting), this is a rich, diverse collection. In the end, it does leave one wondering, What exactly is gothic? As helpful as some of the information Oates provides in the introduction may be, she offers few if any insights into the nature or history of the American gothic or the authors whose works are found here.

One quibble: I would like to have seen each story's year of publication included at its end, as is the case with many anthologies. Although the authors' birth and death dates are part of the contents page, some dates are mentioned in the introduction, and there is a permissions page with copyright dates, there is neither a comprehensive nor an elegant way for the interested reader to place each tale in its historical context-a serious deficiency in an otherwise excellent collection.

Diane L. Schirf, 13 May 2003.

A Better Name Would Be American Tales of the Weird
I don't necesarily agree with Joyce Carol Oates' defintion of Gothic literature in her introduction or that all of the stories in this collection are Gothic. The editor does a good job on the back cover, in her biographic section, and in the final page, of trying to advertise herself as being not only a "genius" but "rank[ing] on the spine-tingling chart with the masters". I beg to disagree.

Traditionally, Gothic literature deals with the dark and mysterious and with the tortured soul. I had great difficulty seeing some of these stories as being gothic at all. Some of these stories would better fit the category of "tales of the weird", but some don't even fit in that category. For example, there's a two-page story of a man leaving his wife and trying to wrest the baby from her arms in the dark. There's another with two men in a spaceship contemplating life. Another is merely a story of someone tripping on drugs.

Granted, there are some good gothic and weird stories here. The stories are placed in the book chronologically. Many of the earlier stories are anti-climatic with endings that are little more than a tiny "Boo!" (if that). Such a story is Oates' own attempt at a gothic story, "The Temple". Others are page-turners. In trying to put in some more obscure stories, she's left out better ones by the same author. For example, "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" would have been a better Gothic literature choice for displaying Nathaniel Hawthorne's talents. And authors like H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, who greatly inspired writers of this genre, should have more inclusions in the book.

If this book were to truly be a book of good gothic literature, the following stories would remain (favorites starred): *Brown's exerpt from Wieland, *Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Hawthorne's "The Man of Adamant" and "Young Goodman Brown", Poe's "The Black Cat", Perkin's "The Yellow Wallpaper", James' The Romance of Certain Old Clothes", Bierce's "The Damned Thing", *Wharton's "Afterward", Anderson's "Death in the Woods", *Lovecraft's "The Outsider", Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", Derleth's "The Lonesome Place", *Jackson's "The Lovely House", *Cheever's "The Enormous Radio" (more twilight zone than gothic), *Bradbury's "The Veldt" (more science fiction than gothic), Doctorow's "The Waterworks", *L'Heureux's "The Anatomy of Desire", Oates' "The Temple", *Rice's "Freniere", Millhauser's "In the Penny Arcade", *King's "The Reach", Johnson's "Exchange Value" (good but not really gothic), *Crowley's "Snow", *Ligotti's "The Last Feast of the Harlequin" (a wonderful story in memory of Lovecraft), *Tuttle's "The Replacements", *Etchemendy's "Cat in Glass", and Baker's "Subsoil".

Even though I felt that some of the selections for this anthology were poor choices, the good selections makes this a worthwhile read. Had she replaced the non-gothic and anti-climatic stories with more good stories by the above authors, the book would have been perfect. I will definitely be looking more into works by some of the authors like Ligotti and Wharton. I will not, on the other hand, be seeking out works by the editor. Her self-advertisement has fallen upon deaf ears.

High literary quality and diversity of content
No doubt because one of America's finest writers of literary fiction edited it, American Gothic Tales contains stories that not only frighten and disturb in their content, but delight in their style as well. Although some of the writers represented here are associated with the gothic/horror genre (Poe, Bierce, Anne Rice, Stephen King, to name a few), many others are celebrated mainstream writers. Of the oldies but goodies, I enjoyed re-reading (after an interim of thirty years or so) Poe's "The Black Cat," a story much more subtle than my younger self appreciated. Several of the stories suggest meanings that go far beyond mere horror. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and Shirley Jackson's "The Lovely House," for example, deal with the confining roles of women. In the first story, a woman who would write and enjoy stimulating company is relegated by her husband to a "nursery" where her every desire is belittled and dismissed. In the second--ostensibly a ghost story--the upkeep required of a fabulous but vampiric house keeps its family prisoners of never-ending housework. Lisa Tuttle's "Replacements" uses an ugly, hairless, helpless, mewling alien creature, rescued and doted on by women, as a droll analogy to a newborn replacing a husband in the life of his wife. Breece D'J Pancake's "Time and Again," told in the voice of a serial killer, provides horror aplenty, but--often missing in this genre--character, motivation, and a pervading sense of tragedy and loss. Bruce McAllister's "The Girl Who Loved Animals" presents a near-future,environmentally-devastated dystopia where a mentally retarded young woman consents to carry in her uterus a gorilla child. In this not-so-alien world of drug addiction and elective surgery run amok, the bonds between mother and child remain intact and poignant. In spite of its searing vision of the future, "The Girl Who Loved Animals" must be an anomaly in the gothic/horror genre--a story with a happy ending.