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These 2002 discount editions are reprints of the 1936 Odhams Press titles The Mammoth Book of Thrillers, Ghosts and Mysteries and The Great Book of Thrillers. Indeed a number of these large horror anthologies were published in the 30s, collecting much of the best British (and some American), horror, mystery and thriller fiction of the late-Victorian and Edwardian eras. Hutchinson, for example, published the massive (1000+ pages) The Evening Standard Book of Strange Stories, A Century of Creepy Stories, and A Century of Ghost Stories. Montague Summers edited his famous The Supernatural Omnibus (1931), Dorothy L. Sayers her Great Short Stories of Detection Mystery and Horror, and John Gawsworth his Creeps series. What can I say, they don't write them like they used to.

These two books, totalling close to 1300 pages, certainly give you your money's worth. A number of tales are from well-known 19th century authors like James Hogg, Sir Walter Scott, Wilkie Collins, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Honoré de Balzac, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, etc. Another large group are from the superb British atmospheric horror writers of the early 20th century: E.F. Benson, Algernon Blackwood, Walter De La Mare, W.H. Hodgson, M.R. James, Oliver Onions, L.P. Hartley, etc. Looking down the list of authors gives one a good idea of the quality of the writers presented. Even so, there are some stories by lesser known authors which are also very good. My personal favourite, A.J. Alan's "The Diver," a tale of a haunted diving board at the pool in a men's club, isn't particularly atmospheric or well written, but is interesting for its unique venue and the skeptical character who tells it.

Georges Dodds is a research scientist in vegetable crop physiology, who for close to 25 years has read and collected close to 2000 titles of predominantly pre-1950 science-fiction and fantasy, both in English and French. He writes columns on early imaginative literature for WARP, the newsletter/fanzine of the Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association and maintains a site reflecting his tastes in imaginative literature.