Nothing in an Engstrom story is what it first appears to be, yet at its core each tale has the ring of truth.Nightmare Flower is Engstrom's first major collection, containing eighteen short works plus a novelette, "Fogarty & Fogarty," and a short novel, "Project Stone." The stories span a wide range of styles and genres, varying from the almost fable-like simplicity of "The Pan Man" to the spine-chilling horror of "The Jeweler's Thumb is Turning Green."Love - what people will do to get it and keep it, the devastations of the loss or betrayal of love, the transformation of love to obsession - Love in all its different forms - lies at the heart of several of Engstrom's eloquent and quietly unnerving tales, including "Fogarty & Fogarty" and the collection's title story, "Nightmare Flower."In "Rivering" a woman confronts grief; in "Genetically Predisposed" a man, a woman, and a snake form a new version of the old, eternal triangle. "Quiet Meditation" reveals the little lies that make life bearable; "The Old Woman Upstairs" studies the complex relationship between mother and daughter.Each of these stories is a sideways glimpse of the world, a slant on life both moving and thought-provoking.

    P. Lovecraft first introduced his macabre universe in the pages of Weird Tales magazine, the response was electrifying. Gifted writers—among them his closest peers—added sinister new elements to the fear-drenched landscape. Here are some of the most famous original stories from the pulp era that played a pivotal role in reflecting the master’s dark vision.  FANE OF THE BLACK PHARAOH by Robert Bloch: A man obsessed with unearthing dark secrets succumbs to the lure of the forbidden.BELLS OF HORROR by Henry Kuttner: Infernal chimes ring the promise of dementia and mutilation.THE FIRE OF ASSHURBANIPAL by Robert E. Howard: In the burning Afghan desert, a young American unleashes an ancient curse.THE ABYSS by Robert A. W. Lowndes: A hypnotized man finds himself in an alternate universe, trapped on a high wire between life and death.  AND SIXTEEN MORE TALES OF ICY TERROR . . .  THE THING ON THE ROOF by Robert E. Howard THE SEVEN GEASES by Clark Ashton Smith THE INVADERS by Henry Kuttner THE THING THAT WALKED ON THE WIND by August Derleth ITHAQUA by August Derleth THE LAIR OF THE STAR-SPAWN by August Derleth & Mark Schorer THE LORD OF ILLUSION by E. Hoffmann Price THE WARDER OF KNOWLEDGE by Richard F. Searight THE SCOURGE OF B’MOTH by Bertram Russell THE HOUSE OF THE WORM by Mearle Prout SPAWN OF THE GREEN ABYSS by C. Hall Thompson THE GUARDIAN OF THE BOOK by Henry Hasse MUSIC OF THE STARS by Duane W. Rimel THE AQUARIUM by Carl Jacobi THE HORROR OUT OF LOVECRAFT by Donald A. Wollheim TO ARKHAM AND THE STARS by Fritz Leiber

    The publication of this revised third edition of Ritual and Other Stories reflects the continued interest in Machen's work, and collects together his more elusive short fiction. Through the publication of Ritual and its companion 'best of' volume Tales of Horror and the Supernatural, Tartarus has now reissued all Machen's short stories in accessible form.As R.B. Russell writes in his new Introduction, 'the great strength of Ritual is that it spans Machen's career and thus reveals his development as a writer'. As well as two early pieces from the 1880s, Ritual contains from the 1890s stories that compare well with Machen's better-known decadent work, such as The Great God Pan. These include the exquisite prose-poem 'Rus in Urbe' (1890), and the stories from the Ornaments in Jade collection, written in the 1890s but not published until 1924. Machen's much underrated later work is represented by, amongst others, 'The Tree of Life' (1936), 'one of the most sympathetic stories Machen ever wrote', and the title story 'Ritual', which although written in 1937 'could have been penned at any time in his career, and is undeniably Machen at his best'.Ritual & Other Stories contains:The Priest and the Barber, The Spagyric Quest of Beroaldus Cosmopolita, The Town of Long Ago, Candletime, Cidermas, Over the Gate, Of the Isle of Shadows, A Further Account of the Academy of Lagado, Tales from Barataria, Sir John's Chef, Rus in Urbe, By the Brook, The Autophone, The Brook Farm, A Remarkable Coincidence, A Double Return, A Wonderful Woman, The Lost Club, An Underground Adventure, Jocelyn's Escape, The Red Hand, The Rose Garden, The Turanians, The Idealist, Witchcraft, The Ceremony, Psychology, Torture, Midsummer, Nature, Holy Things, The Young Man in the Blue Suit, The Soldiers' Rest, The Monstrance, The Dazzling Light, The Little Nations, The Men from Troy, The Light That Can Never Be Put Out, Drake's Drum, A New Christmas Carol, 7B Coney Court, Munitions of War, The Gift of Tongues, The Islington Mystery, Johnny Double, The Cosy Room, Awaking, Opening the Door, The Compliments of the Season, The Dover Road, The Exalted Omega, The Tree of Life, Out of the Picture, Change, Ritual.

    For centuries, writers have struggled to achieve the sublime through these tales, at times creating works of enduring interest. Horror novels have become one of the major bestselling forms of fiction in recent years, and Hollywood has given us a huge and varied supply of popular films, which has created an audience in the millions for horror. But throughout history, many of the finest achievements in horror have been in short fiction. From these masterpieces have been selected the contents of Foundations of Fear. This anthology presents an international selection of the strongest work by writers such as Clive Barker, H.P. Lovecraft, and Arthur Machen, who have been identified as category horror writers, and by writers such as Carlos Fuentes, Gerald Durrell, and Daphne Du Maurier, whose literary reputations transcend category. For horror in literature cuts across all category boundaries. Thus the reader will find in this volume domestic horror stories by Thomas Hardy, Violet Hunt and Mary Wilkins Freeman; and stories by Robert A. Heinlein and Philip K. Dick, masters of science fiction. The Introduction to Foundations of Fear takes particular note of women writers, who have made important contributions to the development of the horrific in literature; in addition to those already mentioned the collection includes works by Madeline Yale Wynne, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Gertrude Atherton, and others. Foundations of Fear challenges the notion that the supernatural in fiction has in modern times been supplanted by the psychological, the idea that horror is dead. Horror is one of the dominant literary modes of our time, a vigorous and living body of literature that continues to thrill us with the mystery and wonder of the unknown. Contents 1 • Introduction (Foundations of Fear) • (1992) • essay by David G. Hartwell 12 • Don't Look Now • (1966) • novella by Daphne du Maurier 41 • They • (1941) • shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein 52 • At the Mountains of Madness • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1936) • novel by H. P. Lovecraft 115 • The Little Room • (1895) • shortstory by Madeline Yale Wynne 124 • The Shadowy Street • (1965) • novelette by Jean Ray (aka La ruelle ténébreuse 1932 ) 145 • Passengers • (1968) • shortstory by Robert Silverberg 154 • The Moonstone Mass • (1868) • shortstory by Harriet Prescott Spofford 163 • The Blue Rose • [Blue Rose] • (1985) • novella by Peter Straub (aka Blue Rose) 197 • Sandkings • (1979) • novelette by George R. R. Martin 223 • The Great God Pan • (1894) • novella by Arthur Machen 256 • Aura • (1965) • novelette by Carlos Fuentes 276 • Barbara, of the House of Grebe • (1890) • novelette by Thomas Hardy 295 • Torturing Mr. Amberwell • (1985) • novelette by Thomas M. Disch 317 • The Prayer • (1895) • novelette by Violet Hunt 334 • Who Goes There? • (1938) • novella by John W. Campbell, Jr. [as by John W. Campbell ] 370 • . . . and my fear is great • (1953) • novella by Theodore Sturgeon (aka . . . And My Fear Is Great . . .) 409 • When Darkness Loves Us • (1985) • novelette by Elizabeth Engstrom 439 • We Purchased People • (1974) • shortstory by Frederik Pohl 449 • The Striding Place • (1896) • shortstory by Gertrude Atherton 454 • In the Hills, the Cities • (1984) • novelette by Clive Barker 474 • Faith of Our Fathers • (1967) • novelette by Philip K. Dick 495 • The Bell in the Fog • (1905) • novelette by Gertrude Atherton 509 • The Sand-Man • (1816) • novelette by E. T. A. Hoffmann (aka Der Sandmann) 530 • Bloodchild • (1984) • novelette by Octavia E. Butler [as by Octavia Butler ] 543 • Duel • (1971) • novelette by Richard Matheson 558 • Longtooth • (1970) • novelette by Edgar Pangborn 580 • Luella Miller • (1902) • shortstory by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman [as by Mary Wilkins Freeman ] 589 • The Entrance • (1979) • novelette by Gerald Durrell 619 • The Lurking Duck • (1992) • shortfiction by Scott Baker 649 • Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story • (1985) • novelette by Thomas Ligotti

    Collects a story from each of the "pulp" fiction magazines available from the 1920s to the 1950s, guaranteed to chill and thrill--if they don't make ill--all but the most bloodless readers.