Halloween, along with Christmas, I think is one of the best times of year to curl up and read a good horror or ghost story.  When I was a child, with my senses already heightened from the expectation of something devilish happening at midnight, I would turn the pages of my chosen tome slowly and savour every word.  All Hallows Eve added an extra frisson of fear because we were convinced that by reading  about unspeakable beings and tortured souls, somehow, an apparition would be conjured.  My goulish gang and I would bravely read by candlelight, certain that every creak and groan in the house was a message from the undead!  However, these days I read with the light on....

Poe's Tales of Mystery & Imagination is a perennial favourite of mine; Poe's skill and descriptive style still draws the contemporary reader into the narrative.  One devours the tales with a morbid fascination because Poe is able to use human emotions and frailties, like fear,guilt and revenge to capture the reader.  This anthology of 25 short stories, includes well known Gothic horrors like 'The Pit And The Pendulum' and 'The Fall Of The House Of Usher', subsequently made into films in the 1960's and my favourite when I was a child. There are many shorter tales like 'The Premature Burial'; not for the claustrophobic.  Here, Poe exploits the 19th Century fear of being buried alive and uses this theme several times. 'The Tell-tale Heart' pulls you along relentlessly, experiencing the narrator's guilty, murderous madness. The collection is perfect for dipping into when you have a spare moment and suitably scary and supernatural for Halloween.  This old edition, if you can find it, is wonderful to own because of the incredibly fine detailed and grotesque illustrations by Arthur Rackham, which compliment Poe's macabre tales wonderfully.        

                                    '...we can dream of nothing half so hideous in the realms of nethermost Hell.  And thus all narratives

                         upon this topic have an interest profound...'

                                                                                 'The Premature Burial',  E A Poe

Poe, EA (1935), Poe's Tales of Mystery & Imagination, George C Harrap & Co Ltd. London .

Reprinted in 1978

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