In this International Book Awards anthology finalist, the best vampire short stories from the first half of the 19th century are unearthed from long forgotten journals and magazines. They are collected for the first time in this groundbreaking book on the origins of vampire lore. Watch the book trailer: www.AndrewBarger.com/bestvampirestories1800.html The cradle of all vampire short stories in the English language is the first half of the 19th century. Andrew Barger combed forgotten journals and mysterious texts to collect the very best vintage vampire stories from this crucial period in vampire literature. In doing so, Andrew found the second and third vampire stories originally published in the English language, neither printed since their first publication nearly 200 years ago. Also included is the first vampire story originally written in English by John Polidori after a dare with Lord Byron and Mary Shelley. The book contains the first vampire story by an American who was a graduate of Columbia Law School. The book further includes the first vampire stories by an Englishman and German, including the only vampire stories by such renowned authors as Alexander Dumas, Théophile Gautier and Joseph le Fanu. As readers have come to expect from Andrew, he has added his scholarly touch to this collection by including story backgrounds, author photos and a foreword titled "With Teeth." The ground-breaking stories are: 1819 The Vampyre - John Polidori (1795-1821) 1823 Wake Not the Dead - Ernst Raupach 1848 The Vampire of the Carpathian Mountains - Alexander Dumas (1802-1870) 1839 Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter - Joseph Sheridan le Fanu (1814-1873) 1826 Pepopukin in Corsica - Arthur Young (1741-1820) 1819 The Black Vampyre: A Legend of Saint Domingo - Robert Sands (1799-1832) 1836 Clarimonde - Théophile Gautier (1811-1872)

Before there were lovable hobbits and Game of Thrones and kid wizards named Harry Potter, there were the 10 best fantasy short stories published in English during the first half of the nineteenth century. These excellent stories have been uncovered by Andrew Barger, awarding winning editor of 6a66le: The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849 and BlooDeath: The Best Vampire Short Stories 1800-1849. In old magazines and forgotten journals, Andrew read well over 100 fantasy short stories and settled on the very best for this fantasy anthology. He provides a list, at the back of the collection, of the stories considered along with the author and year of publication. Andrew further includes background introductions to each story and author photos, where available. But his treatment of some of the earliest stories in the genre gets even better with annotations of the stories, which allow readers to peek behind the stories. Middle Unearthed, an Introduction — Andrew Barger 1836 “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton” — Charles Dickens 1839 “The Kelpie Rock” — Joseph Holt Ingraham 1831 “Transformation” — Mary Shelley 1819 “Rip Van Winkle” — Washington Irving 1824 “Lilian of the Vale” — George Darley 1835 “The Doom of Soulis” — John MacKay Wilson 1827 “The Dwarf Nose” — Wilhelm Hauff 1829 “Seddik Ben Saad the Magician” — D.C. 1845 “The Witch Caprusche” — Elizabeth F. Ellet 1837 “The Pale Lady” — George Soane Fantasy Short Stories Andrew Considered Take a wondrous journey into the early unknown and read the 10 best fantasy stories from 1800-1849 today.

This book was a finalist in the USA Book Awards anthology category. Thanks to Edgar Allan Poe, Honore de Balzac, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others, the half century from 1800-1849 is the cradle of all modern horror short stories. Andrew Barger, the editor of this book as well as "Edgar Allan Poe Annotated and Illustrated Entire Stories and Poems," read over 300 horror short stories to compile the 12 best. At the back of the book he includes a list of all horror short stories he considered along with their dates of publication and author, when available. He even includes background for each of the stories, author photos and annotations for difficult terminology. A number of the stories were published in leading periodicals of the day such as Blackwood's and Atkinson's Casket. Read The Best Horror Short Stories 1800-1849 today!

Ghost stories became very popular in the first half of the 19th century and this collection by Andrew Barger contains the very scariest of them all. Some stories thought too horrific were published anonymously like "A Night in a Haunted House" and "The Deaf and Dumb Girl." The later story is collected for the first time in any anthology since its original publication in 1839. The other ghost stories in this fine collection are by famous authors. "The Mask of the Red Death," by Edgar Allan Poe; "A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family," by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu; "The Spectral Ship," by Wilhelm Hauff; "The Old Maid in the Winding Sheet," by Nathaniel Hawthorne; "The Adventure of the German Student," and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," by Washington Irving; as well as "The Tapestried Chamber," by Sir Walter Scott. As he has done with a number of other books, Andrew Barger has added his scholarly touch to this collection by including story backgrounds, annotations, author photos and a foreword titled "All Ghosts Are Gray." Buy the book today and be ready to be scared reading the best ghost stories of the first half of the 19th century.

"Then with the agility of a cat she sprang on his shoulders, struck him in the side with a broom, and he began to run like a race-horse, carrying her on his shoulders." Nikolai Gogol, Viy The cradle of modern witch short stories began in the first half of the 19th century. This anthology unearths the very best of these stories. Andrew Barger (www.AndrewBarger.com), a leading voice in the Gothic literature space, searched forgotten magazines, newspapers, journals and scholarly articles, to uncover the best witch stories written in the English language over one hundred years after the horrific events of the Salem Witch Trials. They had a lasting effect in both the U.S. and Europe, as these publications reflect from the many authors who penned witch stories in this genre. Andrew even includes in his introduction to the collection, actual text from the Salem Witch Trials. The classic witch stories he has uncovered are unmatched. One is a humorous tale that stands, in the grand Irish tradition of great storytelling, shoulder to shoulder with Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1819) and Charles Dickens’s “The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton” (1836), as that rare combination of humor and horror that is so difficult to find. It is published for the first time in over a century and a half. What Andrew calls America's "first great witch short story" is also published for the first time in nearly two hundred years. As readers have come to expect from Andrew, he includes his scholarly touch to the anthology by providing introductions to each story and a foreword titled "Hags! Hags! Hags!" There are also illustrations for each story. Last, Andrew provides a list of stories considered at the end of the anthology. Read these witchcraft classics tonight! Hags! Hags! Hags! (2023) by Andrew Barger The Hollow of the Three Hills (1830) by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Marvelous Legend of Tom Connor’s Cat (1847) by Samuel Lover The Witch Caprusche (1845) by Elizabeth Ellet The Brownie of the Black Haggs (1827) by James Hogg Lydia Ashbaugh, the Witch (1836) by William Darby Young Goodman Brown (1835) by Nathaniel Hawthorne Viy (1835) by Nikolai Gogol Witch Short Stories Considered

WARNING! Contains moderate bloody violence against slavers and plantation owners!This pioneer vampire tale from 1819 spills revenge-cold blood as its narrator leads us through high gothic terror to radical outrage on the subject of slavery, reaching a blood-soaked conclusion dripping with 'biting' polemic vilifying the bankers who caused the economic recession of that same year.An anti-capitalist horror fable from 200 years ago, The Black Vampyre vilified the worst financial predation the capitalist world would ever see, decades before Karl Marx ― the enslavement of Africans in the New World.One dead man said no! And this is his story.The Black Vampyre; A Legend of St. Domingo tells the affrighting tale of a slave who is resurrected as a vampire after being killed by his owner; the slave seeks revenge by stealing the owner's son and marrying the owner's wife. The anonymous writer D'Arcy sets the story against the conditions that led to the Haitian Revolution.First published in chapbook form in New York in 1819, this emancipatory tale from literary New York in the 1810s arguably dates the birth of horror as know it!This edition features a new introduction as well as extensive notes and a guide to literary allusions.

Best Ghost Short Stories 1850-1899: A Phantasmal Ghost Anthology contains the best ghost stories from the last half of the 19th century. It includes shocking tales from popular American and Victorian authors including: Bram Stoker, M. R. James, Joseph Le Fanu, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Nesbit, and Francis Marion Crawford. Andrew Barger, award-winning author and editor of Phantasmal: Best Ghost Short Stories 1800-1849, Best Horror Short Stories 1850-1899, and The Divine Dantes trilogy, has now researched the finest ghost stories for the last half of the nineteenth century and combined them in one haunting collection. He has added his familiar scholarly touch by annotating the stories, providing story background information, author photos and a list of ghost stories considered to settle on the most frightening and well-written tales. Victorians: Victors of the Ghost Story (2016) by Andrew Barger - Andrew sets the stage for this haunting ghost anthology. The Upper Berth (1886) by Francis Marion Crawford - You will never think of cruising on a ship the same way after reading "The Upper Berth". In Kropfsberg Keep (1895) by Ralph Adams Cram - A gothic setting yields a nightmare for a couple of "ghost hunters". Lost Hearts (1895) by M. R. James - This early M. R. James classic ghost story is one of his best. The Familiar (1872) by Joseph Le Fanu - Ever feel like you are being watched? The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly (1886) by Rosa Mulholland - You will never view an organ the same way again. No. 1 Branch Line: The Signal Man (1865) by Charles Dickens - Are the nervous habits of a train tracks operator all in his mind? Hurst of Hurstcote (1893) by Edith Nesbit - A moldering house and--of course--ghosts. The Judge’s House (1891) by Bram Stoker - The author of Dracula never disappoints. The Yellow Sign (1895) by Robert Chambers - A painter sees someone watching him from a busy New York street. The Haunted and the Haunters (1859) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton - The oldest and most haunting ghost short story in the anthology. I am deeply and horribly convinced, that there does exist beyond this a spiritual world—a system whose workings are generally in mercy hidden from us—a system which may be, and which is sometimes, partially and terribly revealed. “The Familiar” 1872 by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu