Horror story 1

Horror story
The horror story (also known as horror story or scary story , and in certain South American countries, suspense story
), considered in the strict sense, is any short literary composition, generally of a fantastic nature, whose main objective
seems to be provoke chills, concern or uneasiness in the reader, a definition that does not exclude other artistic and
literary pretensions in the author.

Introduction

Context
A horror story would, therefore, be a literary story and not an oral one, since, although there is a wide and ancient
tradition of stories with such content, probably because they are stories transmitted by word of mouth, they have
never received any other name than that of simple stories or legends . Not even children's stories, although of a
terrifying nature (and inscribed in oral tradition at the time), such as " Cinderella " , by Charles Perrault , or " Little
Red Riding Hood " and " Snow White " , by the Brothers Grimm , are called horror stories , which seems to have
been coined expressly for the major works of the genre that appeared between the 19th and 20th centuries.

The traditional story

The broader definition confuses, however, in many cases the horror
story (rather the scary story ) with the traditional story . Scary stories
have been known since ancient times: "The horror story is as old as
human thought and speech," said H. Q. Lovecraft . This type of stories
or legends is primarily fueled by the various natural fears of man: death,
diseases and epidemics, crimes and misfortunes of all kinds, natural
catastrophes... Told by the local elders to the love of fire on auspicious
" Snow White in her Coffin " , Theodor
nights, the scary story is a typical element of the folklore of the towns, Hosemann, 1867. Fairy tale or scary?
and has been one of the first cultural forms of humanity, as old, without
a doubt, as the epic . magic and religion , from which he also nourished himself. Let us think about the gods and
demons, the good and bad spirits, the monsters, leviathans, magicians and fortune tellers who, through myths ,
legends , epics and mythological epics , have frightened man throughout all of Antiquity , in cultures as disparate as
those of India , Japan , Mesopotamia , South America , Greece , Nordic and Celtic peoples...

In the literature of classical Greece , for example, we find elements that seem to already prefigure some aspects of the
horror story. The last song of the Iliad , which deals with the rescue of Hector 's corpse, is permeated with an almost
supernatural atmosphere, very close to the ghost story, in which the god Hermes behaves like a powerful, omnipresent
and protective specter. In the central part of the Odyssey we enter an imaginary world and geography, sometimes
ghostly, with threats such as that of the goddess Circe (whose description coincides with that of the archetypal
witches of all later literature), and man-eating monsters such as Scylla , Charybdis and Polyphemus .
Throughout his capital work, The Golden Bough , Scottish anthropologist James George Frazer collects hundreds of
stories and legends, with special attention to taboos of all kinds, from all parts of the world and from all times. One of
the oldest myths in this sense is what Fraser calls the externalized soul , linked to death and resurrection.
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Fables of this kind are widely spread in the world, and from the number and variety of incidents and details that cover
the main idea we can deduce that the idea of an externalized soul is one of those that have had the strongest roots in
the mentality. of men in a primitive historical stage. Folk tales are a faithful reflection of the world as it appeared to
the primitive mind, and we can be sure that an idea commonly found in them, however absurd it may seem to us, must
once have been an article of common faith. This conviction, as regards the supposed power of separating the soul
from the body for a more or less long time, is amply corroborated by a comparison of the folk tales in question with
the present beliefs and practices of the savages.
The Golden Bough , by J. g. Frazer
In the popular fear story, Evil is somehow put in quotes, seeking to frighten good people with it, in order to exorcise
it, or perhaps just to warn of its dangers. Thus, the scary story comes to be confused in many aspects in form and
substance with the aforementioned original expressions of the collective spirit (isn't the Bible itself a good sample of
terrifying stories?), which is not surprising, given the subtle emotional springs that tend to stir up its thorny contents
in the reader or audience.
In the Middle Ages, the official and unofficial chronicles and annals appear
peppered with all kinds of data, superstitions and advice that deal with ogres ,
ghosts , witches , elves , vampires , werewolves and other cursed beings and
animals. In all countries, children have always been scared with the respective
indigenous demons , and more specifically in Spanish-speaking countries, with
the different variants of El Coco , the Boogeyman , the Chupacabras and the
Sacamantecas . The ancient heresies , the long tradition of alchemy , the occult
sciences and the forbidden sects , also inspired a multitude of fables and oral
and written narratives, long and short, some tending towards the didactic and
benevolent and others directly towards the terrible; genuine and deformed
stories in infinite versions, and aimed at an audience in which ages did not
differ.

Whether they rose through the air on brooms or goats, flying could be
A Scandinavian troll . (Theodor
Kittelsen, 1911).
dangerous for witches... since the ringing of a church bell could bring down
their aerial vehicle. A witch named Lucrezia was burned after confessing that,
as she was returning from the Sabbath , her demon unceremoniously cast her out upon hearing the ringing of the
Angelus.
History of Witchcraft (1971), by Frank Donovan
In relation to the literary derivation of popular horror, the American critic Edmund Wilson , at the end of World War
II , spoke of what he called "homeopathic horror":
So what is the reason — in these days when a lonely country house is probably equipped with electric lights, radio
and telephone — for our return to those old-fashioned tales? Two reasons are enough, I believe: first, the longing for
mystical experiences that always seem to manifest themselves during periods of social confusion, when political
progress is blocked: as soon as we feel that our own world has failed us, we try to find evidence of other worlds;
second, the instinct to inoculate ourselves against the panic of real horrors unleashed on earth — Gestapo and GPU,
tank attacks and aerial bombardments, houses equipped with traps — by means of injections of imaginary horror,
which calms us with the passing illusion that the forces of crime and madness can be tamed and forced to provide us
with simple dramatic entertainment. We even tried to make them pleasant and fun, as in Arsenic Out of Compassion ,
which could hardly have become popular or even been staged during any other period in our history.
From “ A Treatise on Horror Stories ” (1944)
Regarding this literary terror (and sticking at all times to Western literature), it is difficult to understand the fact that,
despite being a modality with such venerable precedents and that has counted among its cultivators some of the best
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writers, both in West as in the East , of all times, today the object of this article is treated with a certain distance,
undoubtedly derogatory, as vulgar genre literature, a phenomenon perhaps due to the negative connotations acquired
by contact, in recent years, with certain types of cinema and other audiovisual manifestations of low quality and
worse taste (the subgenre known as gore , of Anglo-Saxon origin).

Technique
Leaving aside the traditional sources, nourished by the culture and history of the people, the literary horror story tries
to deal with and echo those much more personal horrors that haunt us and overwhelm us through nightmares. A
horror story is, in reality, nothing more than an attempt to recreate such dream worlds for cathartic purposes (although
there are some who claim they are sadistic), with all the bizarre and sinister things they contain, although always
abiding by certain rules. There is only one caveat: in the end, when the need arises, one does not have the option of
waking up.
As an artistic product, the horror story is therefore constrained by a characteristic procedural regulation. Adolfo Bioy
Casares , in the prologue to the Anthology of Fantastic Literature , cites general laws, on the one hand, and special
laws (for each specific story), on the other, but there are three fundamental elements or requirements that are
commonly accepted as requirements to achieve. Firstly, very special care must be taken in the design of the climate,
the atmosphere that surrounds the sinister events in question, an aspect in which great authors often prove to be true
virtuosos. «The atmosphere is always the most important element, since the final criterion of authenticity does not lie
in weaving the plot, but in the creation of a specific impression.» (Lovecraft, op. cit .)
The storyteller also usually works in great detail on the narrative development, the gradation of effects, that is, the
sequential structure of the story, so that it contributes as much as possible to the reader's suspension of disbelief , to
verisimilitude (so appreciated or more than Poe's own originality); What is intended to arouse in the reader is fear, and
it has been amply demonstrated that slow and gradual mechanics prevail for this purpose.
In the story itself — where there is no room for character development or for great incidental profusion and variety —
mere construction is required much more imperatively than in the novel. In the latter, a defective plot can escape
observation, something that will never happen in a story. However, the majority of our storytellers disdain the
distinction. They seem to begin their stories without knowing how they will end; and, in general, their endings - like
so many other Trinculo governments - seem to have forgotten their beginnings.
from Marginalia , by Edgar A. Poe
Every horror story, finally, as has been said, results in a small treatise on Evil in one of its infinite faces and forms, so,
in principle, it is advisable to ignore all other considerations, moralistic or sensitive, when it comes to address its
execution or reading.
Bioy Casares, although referring to fantastic literature, adds another fundamental obvious factor: surprise , which, in
addition to plot, can be verbal (due to the terminology used), and even punctuation.

Characterization and types

True macabre tales have more than just a mysterious killer, bloody bones, or ghosts shaking their chains according to
the old rule. Well, a certain atmosphere of expectation and inexplicable fear of the unknown and the beyond must be
breathed in them; unknown forces must be present (...) the evil and specific suspension or defeat of the always valid
laws of Nature, which represent our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the demons of unfathomable
space.
Supernatural horror in literature , by H. Q. Lovecraft
The Spanish doctor and scholar Rafael Llopis , responsible for some of the, today, most important anthologies that
have appeared in the Spanish language ( The Cthulhu Mythos , Anthology of Horror Stories ...), seems to have been
inspired by Lovecraft for his definition:
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What characterizes the true scary story is the appearance of a supernatural and inexplicable element, totally
irreducible to the known universe, which breaks the current conceptual schemes and hints at the existence of laws and
dimensions that we cannot even try to understand, under penalty of suffering serious consequences. brain short
circuits.
Prologue to The Cthulhu Mythos
Here is a clear reference to the literary horror story, although it seems rather to be restricted to the model and spirit of
Lovecraft himself. But what should undoubtedly be highlighted is the supernatural element, today also known as
paranormal .
Llopis, on the other hand, makes the genre oscillate from the long novel to the short story, from the unreal to realism,
from realism to oneirism, from the short story to the technical report, from the technical report to science fiction, from
the latter to mysticism, etc. ., in successive waves.
The British writer and specialist L. Q. Hartley described one of its varieties, the ghost story , as "the most demanding
form of literary art."
Compilers Michael Cox and R. TO. Gilbert ( Ghost Stories of English Literature , Edhasa), about this same variety,
maintain that
Ghostly protagonists must act with intentionality; Their actions, or the consequences of their actions, should be the
central theme of the story, rather than the actions of the living. And, most importantly, every ghost, whether human,
animal, or reanimated corpse, must be indisputably dead .
Prologue to Ghost Stories of English Literature
The American writer Edith Wharton wrote in the prologue to an edition of her stories:
Specters, to manifest, require two conditions contrary to modern mentality: silence and continuity. [...] It is more
fortunate for a specter to be vividly imagined than poorly perceived; and no one knows better than him how difficult it
is to put it into imprecise, yet sufficiently transparent, words. [...] but we must not allow morality to intervene in the
appreciation of a ghost story. For its effect, it must depend solely on what we could call its thermometric quality; If it
sends a cold shiver down our spine, it has accomplished its mission, and it has done it well. But there is no fixed rule
as to the means of producing this shudder.
Prologue to Ghost Stories (1937)
The American anthologist David G. Hartwell (responsible, among other contributions, for the anthology The dark
descent , published as The Big Book of Terror by Ed. Martínez Roca) states that at the end of a horror story, the reader
is left with a new perception of the nature of reality, and divides horror literature into three currents: 1. Moral allegory
(supernatural stories). 2. The psychological metaphor (various psychopathologies), and 3. The fantastic (the modern
mix of both).
The writer and short story scholar Enrique Anderson Imbert ( Theory and Technique of the Short Story , 1979)
complains about the usual classifications:
Some classifications are too abstract. Roger Caillois has proposed that a theoretical table be prepared and from there
the current and possible themes be deduced and predicted, in the same way that hitherto unknown elements could be
predicted from Mendeliev's table of chemical properties. Other classifications are too specific. They list all the
thematic variants that come to mind. If in the general table we talk about non-existent beings , in the specific
enumeration we talk about gods, angels, fairies, goblins, giants, monsters, witches, ghosts, vampires, werewolves,
skeletons, larvae and so on ad nauseam . (...) no matter how long the lists of
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themes there are always stories that cannot be classified. Those from the science fiction subgenre are the ones who
resist the most.
Previously, the Argentine writers and compilers Jorge Luis Borges , Silvina Ocampo and Adolfo Bioy Casares ,
judging by the principle of selection that seemed to encourage them when gathering the materials for their famous
Anthology of Fantastic Literature (1940), had coincided to a large extent the fantastic story with the horror story,
which does not exactly help as a guide for those with a classification vocation. Bioy Casares stated in the prologue of
the aforementioned work that there is not one type of fantastic story, but many. The same can apply to the horror
story. It seems so absurd to divide it into tales of vampires, ghosts, the living dead, etc., as it is to attend to purely
technical or structural criteria for its study. The degree of literary sophistication in this specific field (as in any other
artistic manifestation, at the turn of the 20th century , what in music is known as miscegenation ) has reached such a
point that another selection criterion will hardly be credible — merely productive . than the merely historical.

Background
The immediate antecedents of the short format, as such, must be sought, however, in the long one, more specifically
in the so-called Gothic novel (see Gothic horror literature ), which flourished in the second half of the 18th century
and the first half of the 19th century. , in no man's land between rationalism and romanticism . The great Gothic
novelists, inspired mainly by German romanticism and authors such as Daniel Defoe , S. T. Coleridge , the Marquis
de Sade , as well as in Goethe 's demons and Shakespeare 's ghosts, understood the supernatural to be a gloomy
underworld populated by atrabiliary nobles, howling specters and bloodied nuns, preferably swarming through
gloomy catacombs of medieval castles marked by some dark curse. , conveniently underlined at every step by
lightning, thunder and storm flashes.
The Englishman Horace Walpole was the father of the successful series ( The Castle of Otranto , 1764). Years later,
his notable successors were William Beckford ( Vathek , 1786), the writer Ann Radcliffe ( The Mysteries of Udolpho ,
1794), Matthew G. Lewis ( The Monk , 1796) and Charles Maturin (
Melmoth the Wanderer , 1820), without forgetting the precursor of
science fiction Mary Shelley ( Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus ,
1817). It is also worth mentioning here the novel Manuscript found in
Zaragoza (1805), by the Polish Jan Potocki . (For more information, see
the corresponding article: Horror novel .)

The lower part of the castle was covered by several intricate cloisters,
and it was not easy for someone so eager to find the door that opened to
the cavern. A terrible silence reigned in those subterranean regions,
except, from time to time, some currents of air that hit the doors that she
had crossed, and whose hinges, when creaking, projected their echo
through that long labyrinth of darkness. Each murmur produced new
terror in her, but she feared even more to hear Manfred's angry voice
urging his servants to pursue her.
Horace Walpole , pioneer of the Gothic novel
The Castle of Otranto , by Horace Walpole .
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First samples
Among the first true storytellers, it is necessary to name the German ETA Hoffmann (1776-1822), whom Lovecraft
came to call light and extravagant, but whose pioneering talent anticipated many of the themes and forms that would
dominate in later years, including science fiction , through titles such as “ The Magnetizer ” , “ The Sandman ” or “ The
Automata ” .
The Frenchman Charles Nodier (1780-1844), a librarian of enormous prestige in his time, as well as a philosopher,
scientist and political troublemaker, as a result of his devotion to Hoffmann, left posterity a large bouquet of works
full of witches, vampires and various specters, half culled from popular tradition and their own harvest. They combine
the simplicity of design and the delicious sing-song of the old ghost story: “ The Vampire Arnold-Paul ” , “ The
Specter of Olivier ” , “ The Adventures of Thibaud de la Jacquière ” , “ The Devil's Treasure ” .
The infernal guests then began to move the tables, to howl, to look through the windows, assuming the shapes of
bears, wolves, cats, and terrible men, in whose hands were glasses full of wine, fish, and cooked and roasted meat.
“ History of an apparition of demons and ghosts in 1609 ” , by Charles Nodier
Purely romantic writers such as Théophile Gautier ( “ La morte en amor ” ),
Prosper Mérimée ( “ La venus de Ille ” ), Walter Scott ( “ The tapestry room
”). ), Victor Hugo ( " Hans of Iceland " ), Washington Irving ( " The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow " ) and Baron de la Motte-Fouqué ( " Ondine " , short novel),
were soon attracted to the new trend, contributing in one way or another and
with unequal success, although none of them assiduously cultivated the horror
story itself.

Somewhat later, in Spain, the late romantic Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-
1870) was highly acclaimed for his Legends which contain some scary stories
of extraordinary merit ( " El monte de las Ánimas " , " El miserere " , " Maese
Pérez the organist " ...).

...said horrible things. Among others, he claims that he saw the skeletons of the
ancient Templars and the nobles of Soria buried in the atrium of the chapel rise Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, author of
the Legends .
at the point of prayer with a horrible noise, and, knights on the bones of steeds,
chase like a wild beast. to a beautiful woman, pale and disheveled, who, with bare and bloody feet, and uttering cries
of horror, was circling around Alonso's tomb.
“ The Mountain of Souls ” , by Gustavo A. Becquer

The great classics

The North American Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and the Irish Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1818-1873) are commonly
considered the two authors who paved the way in the genre. Le Fanu is said to be the founder of the modern ghost
story in Great Britain ( " The Ghost of Mrs. Crowl " , " Green Tea " , " The Watcher " , " Dickon the Devil " ...) , a
modality that would later have such an impact in the Victorian era. But what makes him similar to Poe is the novel
treatment he gives to the evil phenomenon. The easy rational explanation, and even more so, the positive moralistic
outcome (the hand of Divine Providence emerging in one way or another at the end to put things, the monster, the
good and the bad, in their place) will be definitively banished by these authors. Both, in addition, will inaugurate the
so-called psychological terror , more attentive to the atmosphere of the story and to measuring the emotional effects
than to mere scares.
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With Poe, the horror story will reach its highest peaks very soon, around the
1930s , a period that saw the birth of the story as an autonomous genre,
according to Cortázar (introduction to Essays and Criticisms by E. TO. Poe ).
The North American is an absolute master of the genre because, first of all,
following Cortázar himself, he is a master of the technique of the short story
itself. On the one hand, his great narrative instinct (which his detractor R. L.
Stevenson ) and on the other his great poetic background, led him to
incorporate into a field that he determined to be very demanding and
specialized, elements that were, however, very disparate, coming from the
plastic arts, music, and poetry itself, to which he incorporated even the
distorting effects of hallucinogens.

Image of Edgar Allan Poe.

He decided at the same time that it was necessary to strip the story of any
accessory narrative element, distancing it from novelistic prolixity. Everything
that did not contribute to the desired specific effect was superfluous; Thus, to begin with, the aforementioned social,
moral, and religious considerations have no place in his stories ("He understood that the effectiveness of a story
depends on its intensity as a pure event, that is, that any comment on the event itself (... ) must be radically
suppressed»: Cortazar, op. cit. p. 3. 4). In his powerful phantasmagorias nothing is revealed other than a prodigious
imagination and intelligence rigidly at the service of an artistic design. Poe did not rely on a specific tradition. Faced
with accusations of trying to imitate the Germans, he stated: "That terror does not come from Germany, but from the
soul" (prologue to Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque , a statement that has been corroborated by a large part of
the critics). ). No other author, before or after, has known how to evoke an unhealthy and nightmarish atmosphere like
him, to string together the scenes with such infernal skill, to culminate the stories with such sonorous consistency;
portray “the effects of damnation,” according to Van Wyck Brooks.

His follower Lovecraft said of Poe: "He accomplished what no one had accomplished or could have accomplished,
and to him we owe the modern horror story in its final and perfect state." (Title: “ The Black Cat ,” “ The Fall of the
House of Usher , ” “ The Cask of Amontillado , ” “ The Tell-Tale Heart . ” )
During a whole dreary, dark, silent autumn day, when the clouds hung low and heavy in the sky, I crossed alone, on
horseback, a singularly gloomy region of the country; and at last, as the shadows of night approached, I found myself
in sight of the melancholy House of Usher. I don't know how it was, but the first look I took at the building, a feeling
of unbearable sadness invaded my spirit.
“ The Fall of the House of Usher ” by Edgar
A. Poe Like Herman Melville , Poe himself praised his contemporary and compatriot Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-
1864) as a man of genius (review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales ). This author, although a great stylist, was very
burdened by the rigid Puritanism in which he was trained (a relative of his was a judge in the witchcraft trials held in
Salem), and he did not know how or did not want to convey to his stories either the strength or the artistic tear that
they admire in that one. (Title: “ Wakefield ,” “ The Preacher's Black Veil, ” “ Dr. Heidegger's Experiment. ” ) In
France, the Alsatians Erckmann and Chatrian , born in 1822 and 1826, respectively, cultivated a very effective folksy
style, with great German influences ( “ Hugo the Wolf ” , “ The Bottled Burgomaster ” ).
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But it is to the also Frenchman Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), a disciple of

Flaubert and admirer of Poe, to whom European horror literature owes some of
its best pieces. His deep naturalistic convictions probably generated the strong
emotional overtones present in his best stories. Its themes were panic,
loneliness, madness, loss. (Title: “ El Horla ” , “ Who Knows? ” , “ The Hair ” , “
Crazy? ” )

Terror recovered with the American journalist Ambrose Bierc e (1842-1914?)

all the drive and intensity that Poe had developed in its origins. In his
captivating fantasies, many of them set in the American Civil War , panic
terror always lurks nearby, and at the moment it is unleashed it seems
determined to literally devour the characters alive. (Title: “ The Cursed Thing ”
, “ The Death of Halpin Frayser ” , “ An Inhabitant of Carcosa ” , “ The Boarded
Up Window ” …).
Guy de Maupassant
I noticed with astonishment that nothing seemed familiar to me. around me
It stretched out an immense desert plain, swept by the wind, covered with tall,
withered grasses that waved and whistled under the autumn breeze, the messenger of God knows what mysteries and
concerns. At long intervals, he saw rocks emerging from the ground with strange shapes and funereal colors.
“ An Inhabitant of Carcosa ” by Ambrose Bierce

Full development
Starting from Poe's contemporary, Charles Dickens , who contributed gems such as " The Haunted House " or " The
Signalman " , in the second half of the 19th century , terror found a group of worthy cultivators among the most
important novelists of the time: Robert Louis Stevenson ( “ Markheim ” ), Rudyard Kipling ( “ The Ghost Rickshaw
” ), Arthur Conan Doyle ( “ The Parasite ” ), H. g. Wells ( “ The Late Mr. Elvesham ” ), Henry James ( “ Friends of
Friends ” ), Bram Stoker ( “ The Burial of the Rats ” )…
What I had heard when Chartie screamed — I mean the other, even more tragic scream — was it the cry of despair of
the unfortunate woman as she received the blow, or the articulate sob (it was like a gust of a great storm) of the
exorcised spirit? and appeased? Possibly the latter, because that was, mercifully, the last of Sir Edmund Orme's
appearances.
“ Sir Edmund Orme ” by Henry James
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The ghost story itself would experience its heyday in the Victorian era and at
the beginning of the 20th century, reaching never-before-seen levels of quality
and sophistication. The list of English representatives is endless: Saki ( “ The
Teller of Fables ” ), Margaret Oliphant ( “ The Open Door, ” novella), Vernon
Lee ( “ A Perverse Voice ” ), E. F. Benson ( “ The Tower Room ” ), Richard
Middleton ( “ On the Brighton Road ” ), L. Q. Hartley ( " Three or Four to
Dinner " ), H. Russell Wakefield ( " The Triumph of Death " ), M. Q. Shiel ( “
The Mansion of Noises ” ), Hugh Walpole ( “ The Little Ghost ” )…

From this period it is necessary to highlight four authors: M. R. James , Arthur

Machen , Algernon Blackwood and Walter de la Mare , with whom the
Victorian ghost story culminates.
M. R. James (1862-1936), scholar and university professor, was a great lover
of the work of Le Fanu, whom he considered the greatest writer of the
supernatural. Their specters, always strange and unexpected creatures that
Hector Hugh Munro, "Saki."
sometimes escape from deep hiding places dug in cemeteries and cathedrals
and other times are confused with daylight and the most familiar objects,
prefigure many of the everyday horrors that later generations would make fashionable. (Title: “ The choir seat ” , “
Whistle and I will come ” , “ The album of Canon Alberico ” .)

The Welshman Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was the author who definitively buried the exhausted Gothic horrors. He
found his main source of inspiration in the ancient Roman and Celtic legends of his land. By attempting a kind of neo-
paganism, he anticipated the macabre theogony developed by his most notable follower, H. Q. Lovecraft. (Title: “ The
Burning Pyramid ,” “ The White Village, ” “ The Three Impostors. ” )
Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) is a great cultivator of the phantasmagoric mystery, but sometimes he brings to the
genre an element unknown until now, such as horror framed in majestic places of virgin nature, adorned with pagan
connotations (in this it will be equated to Machen). (Title: “ The Wendigo ” , “ The Willows ” , “ The Empty House ” ,
“ Secret Cult ” .)
As far as Simpson can remember, it was a violent movement, like something crawling inside the store, that woke him
up and made him realize that his companion was sitting very stiffly next to him. I was shaking. Several hours must
have passed, because the pale glow of dawn outlined his silhouette against the fabric of the tent.
“ The Wendigo ” by Algernon Blackwood
Walter de la Mare (1873-1956), also a prestigious poet and anthologist, was one of the best stylists of the genre, a
master of psychological terror and a creator of strange and subtle plots starring dreams, anxiety and a quiet
desperation. (Title: “ Seaton's Aunt, ” “ The Orgy: An Idyll, ” “ All Saints, ” “ The Trumpet. ” )
Edmund Wilson includes at this stage Franz Kafka , whose stories "are at once satires of the bourgeoisie and visions
of moral horror; narratives that are logical and command our attention and fantasies that send more chills than
Algernon Blackwood and M combined. R. James together. A teacher can make it seem more horrible to be chased by
two little balls than by the spirit of an evil Knight Templar, and more natural to turn into a cockroach than to be bitten
by a diabolical spider" ( op. cit. ).
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Lovecraft and company

H. Q. Lovecraft (1890-1937), an American from Providence, is recognized by critics, along with Poe, as the greatest
exponent of the horror story. His most important contribution was the so-called materialist horror story . Mixing
horror with science fiction, it is a cosmic horror narrative that proposes a new mythology full of chilling archetypal
gods and monstrosities; It has been said that this is the last mythology that the West has known: the Cthulhu Mythos .
A devotee of Poe, his other known sources are the fantastic and enigmatic world of dreams, the history and landscape
of New England, his land, and a select group of authors of his predilection: William Hope Hodgson ( " A Voice in the
Night " ), Lord Dunsany ( " Poor Bill " ), Arthur Machen , Algernon Blackwood , et alii . (Title: “ The Dunwich
Horror ” , “ The Shadow Over Innsmouth ” , “ In the Mists of Time ” , “ The Evil Clergyman ” …).
Robert Suydam had achieved his goal and his victory in a final effort that tore his tendons, causing his nauseating
body to collapse. The impulse had been tremendous, but his strength resisted until the end; and as it fell into a muddy
pustule of corruption, the pedestal tottered, toppled, and finally plummeted from its onyx base into the thick waters,
giving off one last flash of carved gold as it sank heavily into the black abysses of Tartarus below.
“ The Red Hook Horror ” by H. Q. Lovecraft
Despite his saturnine habits and idiosyncrasies, Lovecraft met in life a large clique of imitators and followers who
formed with him the so-called Lovecraft Circle . Among these are some of the strongest short story writers of that
generation: Robert Bloch ( “ The Star Vampire ” ), Fritz Leiber ( “ Belsen Express ” ), Frank Belknap Long ( “ The
Autumn Visitors ” ), Clark Ashton Smith ( " Crypt Lineage " ), August Derleth ( " The Seal of R'lyeh " ), Robert E.
Howard ( “ The Black Stone ” )…
Other great American short story writers, born between 1854 and 1889: R. W. Chambers ( “ The Yellow Sign ” ), F.
Marion Crawford ( “ The Upper Bunk ” ), Edith Wharton ( “ The Maidenbell ” ) and prolific Weird Tales writer
Seabury Quinn ( “ The Last Man ” ).

The last years

In the Anglo-Saxon world

Starting in the 70s of the 20th century, literary horror has registered a marked
tendency towards the long novel to the detriment of the short story. Among the
best-known contemporary authors, mostly North American, we must mention
Robert Aickman ( " The Swords " ), T. AND. d. Klein ( “ Children of the
Kingdom ” ), Dan Simmons ( “ The River Styx Flows Upstream ” ), Ramsey
Campbell ( “ The Litter ” ), Peter Straub ( “ The General’s Wife ” ), Dean
Koontz ( “ Terra Phobia ” ) ), Theodore Sturgeon ( “ Brilliant Segment ” ), the
classics Richard Matheson ( “ Through the Channels ” ) and Ray Bradbury ( “
Stephen King. And the Rock Cried ” ), the young (in the 80s) and groundbreaking Clive
Barker ( “ Terror”). ” ) and the omnipresent and irregular Stephen King ( “ The
Fog ” ). Almost all of these authors have successfully cultivated science fiction, especially Bradbury and Matheson.

The reason was obvious, but at first Randy's mind refused to accept it... It was too impossible, too insanely grotesque.
As he watched, something was tugging at Deke's foot in the space between two of the boards that formed the surface
of the water raft. Then he saw the dull glow of the black thing, beyond the heel and toes of Deke's subtly deformed
right foot; an opaque shine in which rotating and malevolent colors moved.
Horror story 11

“ The Raft ” by Stephen King

Here we can also mention two important writers of that nationality: the late Shirley Jackson ( " The Beautiful Stranger
" ) and Joyce Carol Oates ( " The Bingo King " ).

In Spanish
The influence of Anglo-Saxon fantastic literature is clearly observed in the work of Argentineans Jorge Luis Borges
and Adolfo Bioy Casares , from the first decades of the 20th century. Although the gothic or horror story subgenre
was not the most developed by these authors and by their successors ( Silvina Ocampo , Juan Rodolfo Wilcock ...), the
fantastic story is, which normally tries to recreate a process of estrangement operated in everyday life, showing an
unusual point of view of reality, with hints of terror from this situation.
For this reason, in the work of Borges and Bioy, worship is paid to those they consider masters of short fiction: Edgar
Allan Poe , R. L. Stevenson , G. K. Chesterton , Lord Dunsany , Nathaniel Hawthorne , Henry James , which can be
seen in the collections they published in the 1950s, in Buenos Aires, which include these and many other English and
American horror, police and mystery authors.
Spanish-speaking, it is worth mentioning as authentic specialists in the scary
story, three followers of Edgar Allan Poe in Spanish, the Peruvian Clemente
Palma (1872-1946, collection Cuentos malévolos ), the Uruguayan Horacio
Quiroga (1878-1937: “ El white syncope " ) and the Argentine Julio Cortázar
(1914-1984): " House taken " , " All the fires the fire " , " The night face up " ...
The Mexican Carlos Fuentes has dedicated several works to the genre ( “ Aura
” , Cumpleaños ” , Inquieta Compañía ). Another Mexican, the great short story
writer Juan Rulfo (1918-1986), pioneer of magical realism , is sometimes
considered a horror writer, apart from his ghost novel Pedro Páramo , for short
stories such as “ Luvina ” or “ Talpa ” . Also contributing to the genre
throughout the 20th century are the Argentines Leopoldo Lugones ( “ La loba
” ) and Santiago Dabove ( “ Ser Polvo ” ), the Cuban Virgilio Piñera ( “ La
carne ” ), the Uruguayan Felisberto Hernández ( La casa collection inundada ),
the Venezuelan Salvador Garmendia ( “ Claves ” ) and the Mexican Juan José
Arreola ( “ La migala ” ), among others. The Argentine Julio
Cortazar.
He heard screaming, a hoarse scream that bounced off the walls. Another
scream, ending in a whimper. It was he who screamed in the darkness, he screamed because he was alive, his whole
body defended itself with the scream of what was going to come, of the inevitable end. He thought of his companions
who would fill other dungeons, and of those who were already ascending the steps of sacrifice.
“ The Night Face Up ” , by Julio Cortázar
In Spain, apart from the aforementioned Bécquer, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, scary stories were written
by, among others, prominent authors such as Agustín Pérez Zaragoza (collection Funeral Gallery of Specters and
Bloody Shadows ), Emilia Pardo Bazán ( “ The resurrected " ), Pedro Antonio de Alarcón ( " The tall woman " ),
Wenceslao Fernández Flórez ( " The clearing in the forest " ), Pío Baroja ( " Médium " ), Miguel de Unamuno ( " The
one who was buried " ) and Noel Clarasó ( “ Beyond Death ” ). And more modernly: Emilio Carrere ( “ The House of
the Cross ” ), Juan Perucho ( Apparicions i Fantasmes collection), Alfonso Sastre ( The Lugubrious Nights collection),
Juan Benet ( “ Catalisis ” ), Leopoldo María Panero ( “ The Place of the son " ), José María Merino ( " The empty
books " ), Javier Marías ( " No more loves " ), Luis Mateo Díez ( " The lesser evils " ), Cristina Fernández Cubas ( "
The angle of horror " ), Pilar Pedraza ( “ Anfiteatro ” ), José María Latorre ( “ The Night of Cagliostro ” ), Gregorio
Morales ( “ The Shadow Eater ” ), Ángel Olgoso ( “ The Demons of the Place” ) . Other Spanish authors are grouped
in the Spanish Association of Horror Writers , “ Nocte ” , which has more than thirty members.
Publications in Spanish
Horror story 12

Spanish-language publishers have never seemed very willing to promote the genre among new generations of writers.
However, specifically in Spain, since the 60s of the 20th century, anthologies of macabre stories from powerful
Anglo-Saxon publishing houses have continued to appear, preferring the importation of material to vernacular
creation. Thus we have the multiple paperback editions of Editorial Bruguera ( The best unusual stories , The best
stories from beyond the grave , The best ghost stories ...), by prestigious compilers in the field such as Kurt Singer,
Forrest J. Ackerman or A. van Hageland, as well as the numerous editions by the publishers, some of which have
already disappeared, Minotauro, Grijalbo, Molino, Acervo, Ultramar, Géminis, Fontamara, Versal, Uve, Siruela,
Vértice, etc.
From Alianza Editorial we have the carefully selected selections by Rafael Llopis mentioned above, translated by him
himself with the help of the translator and great specialist Francisco Torres Oliver ( National Translation Award ),
who has since developed, on his own, an intense and brilliant work in this field. In 1989, Edhasa Publishing House
published the canonical Ghost Stories of English Literature , by Cox and Gilbert. Ed. In 1977, Martínez Roca had
released the also excellent Master Stories of Terror and Mystery , edited by Agustí Bartra . This same publisher, in the
80s and 90s, offered large selections of important North American magazines, such as Twilight Zone ( Unknown
Dimension ), which represent a wide sample of the latest and eclectic trends. More recently, from the specialized
Editorial Valdemar, along with many other titles, Happy Nightmares , in two generous volumes, and new initiatives
have emerged such as those led by the publishers Jaguar and Factoría de Ideas.
Genre milestones
Taking as reference the titles just mentioned, a select list of horror stories could be ventured, in order to the special
attention they have traditionally received from anthologists and critics:
“ The Black Cat , ” “ The Fall of the House of Usher , ” “ The Cask of Amontillado , ” “ The Tell-Tale Heart , ” by Poe .
“ The Dunwich Horror ” , “ The Shadow Over Innsmouth ” , by Lovecraft . “ The Horla ” , by Maupassant . “ A sacred
terror ” , “ The boarded window ” , by Ambrose Bierce . “ The Merry Corner, ” by Henry James . * “ The Enemy, ” by
Chekhov . “ Green Tea ” by Sheridan Le Fanu . “ The Closet ” , by Thomas Mann . “ The Monkey's Paw ” , by W. W.
Jacobs . “ Whistle and I will come ” , by M. R. James . “ The Signalman ” , by Dickens . “ The Graveyard Rats, ” by
Henry Kuttner . * “ A Rose for Emily, ” by Faulkner . * “ Luvina ” , by Juan Rulfo . * “ The Rural Doctor ” , by Kafka .
* “ The Sisters, ” by Joyce . “ The Pipe Smoker ” by Martin Armstrong . “ The Mocked ” by Jack London . “ Vinum
Sabbati ” (or “ The White Powder ” ), “ The Great God Pan, ” by Arthur Machen . “ Janet with the Crooked Neck ” by
Stevenson . “ The Wendigo ” , by Algernon Blackwood . “ The Judge's House, ” by Bram Stoker . “ House taken ” , by
Julio Cortázar . “ The Raft ,” by Stephen King .
(*Anthologized as stories of mystery and terror by Agustí Bartra in the aforementioned collection.)
The list can be extended indefinitely:
“ Ligeia ” , “ Berenice ” , “ The Oval Portrait ” , “ The Truth About Mr. Valdemar ” by Poe . “ The Being on the
Threshold ” , “ The Whisperer in the Dark ” , “ The Shadow Out of Time ” , “ The Call of Cthulhu ” , “ The Rats in the
Walls ” , “ The Hound ” , by Lovecraft . “ The Night ” , by Maupassant . “ The Spectral Income ” , by Henry James . “
Schalken the Painter ” , “ The Ghost of Mrs. Crowl ” , by Sheridan Le Fanu . “ Count Magnus ” , “ The Curse of the
Runes ” , “ A View from the Hill ” , “ Mr. Humphreys and his inheritance " , " The diary of Mr. Poynter ” , “ The Seats
of Barchester Cathedral ” , “ The Engraving ” , by M. R. James . “ The White People ” , “ The Black Seal ” , “ The
Shining Pyramid ” , “ N ” , by Arthur Machen . “ Olalla ” , “ The Body Snatcher ” , by Stevenson . “ The Willows ” , “
Ancient Witchcraft ” , “ Descent into Egypt ” , by Algernon Blackwood . “ The Tower Room ” , by E. F. Benson . “
The son ” , “ The specter ” , “ The feather pillow ” , “ The slaughtered chicken ” , by Horacio Quiroga . “ Circe ” , “
Letters from Mom ” , “ The Night Face Up ” , “ The Devil's Drool ” , by Julio Cortázar . “ Crouch End ” , “ I Am the
Door ” , “ Sometimes They Come Back ” , by Stephen King .
“ The Bride ” , by M. Q. Shiel . “ The celestial plot ” , “ In memory of Paulina ” , by Adolfo Bioy Casares . “ The Door
in the Wall ” , by H. g. Wells . " What is this? ” by Fitz James O'Brien . “ The abandoned ship ” , “ The ship of stone ” ,
by William Hope Hodgson . “ The Vampire ” , by John William Polidori , “ The Professor's Teddy Bear ” , by
Horror story 13

Theodore Sturgeon . “ The Vacationers, ” by Shirley Jackson . “ Young Goodman Brown ” , “ Rappaccini's Daughter
” , by Nathaniel Hawthorne . “ John Barrington Cowles ” , by Arthur Conan Doyle . “ The Mark of the Beast ” , “ The
Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes ” , by Rudyard Kipling . “ The Kiss ” , by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer . “ The Spider ” ,
by H. H. Ewers. “ Because blood is life ” by F. Marion Crawford . “ Vera ” , by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam . “ The family
of the vurdalak ” , by Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy . “ Son of the soul ” , by Emilia Pardo Bazán . “ The garden of
Montarto, “ It was a dead presence ” , by Noel Clarasó . “ The Grain of the Pomegranate, ” by Edith Wharton . “ The
smell ” , by P. McGrath. “ Ovando ” , by J. Kincaid. “ Look Up There, ” by H. Russell Wakefield . “ The Courtyard,” “
The Third Expedition, ” “ The Men of the Earth, ” by Ray Bradbury . “ Lord Mountdrago ” , by William Somerset
Maugham . “ Bethmoora ” , “ The Office of the Exchange of Evils ” , by Lord Dunsany . “ De profundis ” , by Walter
de la Mare . “ The Dogs of Tyndalos, ” by Frank Belknap Long . “ The Dead Queen ” by R. Coover. “ The Yellow
Paper ” by Charlotte P. Gilman. “ The Valley of the Lost, ” by Robert E. Howard . “ The Gargoyle Sculptor ” , “ The
End of the Story ” , by Clark Ashton Smith . “ Quiet Voices in Passenham ” by T. H. White. “ The cicerones ” , by
Robert Aickman . “ Fullcircle ” , by John Buchan . “ Et in sempiternum pereant ” , by Charles Williams . “ The Black
Monk ” by Anton Chekhov ...

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VV. AA.: Horror. Selection 2 (Kurt Singer, ed.). Bruguera, 1976.

VV. AA.: Horror. Selection 6 (Kurt Singer, ed.). Bruguera, 1976.
Horror story 14

VV. AA.: The best unusual stories . Ed. Bruguera, 1974.

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Sources and contributors of the article 15

Sources and contributors of the article

Horror story Source : http://es.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=54084639 Contributors : Let's see, Albasmalko, Andreasmperu, Antur, Antón Francho,
Banfield, Belb, Cafetoso, Camilo, CommonsDelinker, Dagane, Dark Bane, Deleatur, Delphidius, Dhidalgo, Diegusjaimes, Diogeneselcinico42, Dorieo, Dreitmen,
El Moska, Ensada, Ezarate, Filipo, Gerkijel, Grijalvo, Góngora, Hlnodovic, Iuvens, Jarisleif, Jarke, Javierito92, Jkbw, JorgeGG, Jorgekagiagian, José Luis1
, Karshan, Keres, Laura Fiorucci, Lominis, Macarrones, MadriCR, Manwë, Matdrodes, Netito777, OboeCrack, Phoenix7g, Pruxo, Pólux, Sara Roma, Savh, Sebrev,
Seranian, Siabef, Soulreaper, Sürrell, Taichi, Tano4595, Tomatejc, Verrrr , 342 anonymous editions

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