Classic Tales of Horror from Canterbury Classics. A short review of a great collection of tales in a high quality leather hardback form.

 

Classic Tales of Horror, from Canterbury Classics.

    This isn't my usual review. There is simply too much within this book to break down each short story or novella that makes up its entirety. I bought this book purely out of the desire to possess many of the stories within its pages that I had never gotten around to reading. It was worth the price simply for the excellent quality of the book. At over 900 pages, this is a massive selection of stories, and many of them are well known, but others are less so. Some are only a couple of pages long, while others run for several chapters, each of them possesses its own style, but each fits the overall theme. I have my favorites, such as The Pit and the Pendulum, but there were many that I read for the first time. I enjoyed The Turn of the Screw, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, and The Willows by Algernon Blackwood. Many of these stories are from the late 19th century and the early 20th century, and the language used can be a little jarring for those who have not read books from those time periods before.

    As I said earlier, this isn't the typical review. It is hard to give the contents a review, and with such a great variety of works, it becomes hard to provide an overall grading. So I'll do my best and rate this book on the quality of the product, the overall quality of the range of contents, and the selection of stories. The leather seems of good quality with a simple but well-designed cover. There were no signs of damage, and the material appears hardy and well maintained.  It is a chunky book with fifty-five stories within. That is more than I had expected, and they are well-written and great examples of the genre. There are some of my favorite stories within, which makes me a little biased, but even without those, I found this product to be a great read. I would recommend this to any horror fan, and it would be a greater recommendation to those that prefer works reflecting an earlier period in history. 

    This is an easy eight out of ten for me. The contents alone are worth the price and will satisfy any horror fan. Give this book a go if you are looking to add a collection of short stories to your book collection or if you are just looking to find some elusive tales that you might not have come across yet. If you can recommend any other classic collections of stories, let me know. Always looking for new books to add to my personal collection. 

Jerusalem's Lot by Stephen King. The short story and a look at the upcoming series Chapelwaite based on it.

 

Jerusalem's Lot and the upcoming Chapelwaite series

    I thought about doing a complete look at 'Salem's Lot after catching the trailer for Chapelwaite. It seemed the wrong choice, considering there is also another adaptation in the works for the novel. Looking at the short story alone made more sense to me. I had to reread it, it had been some time since I had done so and unlike, the full novel, I had only read it once. It came as a bit of a surprise, the trailer, that is. I had heard of the adaptation being in the works, and seeing such a familiar name in the lead piqued my interest. I've enjoyed Adrien Brody in many films, the foremost among them being the Pianist, and having him as the lead fills me with hesitant optimism at the series release. The network behind the series is unknown to me, but there are a great many new streaming services of late, so that is not such a worry, and now I merely have to wait and see what direction they go in. 

    The trailer sets up the premise with Adrien Brody's character reeling from a loss and coming to Jerusalem's Lot with his children in tow. From the outset, an air of menace sits over the trailer, of darkness beyond the edge of sight. We see the house that is so prevalent in the short story and, like that story, the distrust the town's folk have regarding its owners. It appears heightened somewhat in the trailer, our protagonist's family is foreign to the region, and this could be something that would often cause distrust, in some regions, during the era the story is set in. The family dynamic, in general, is a new twist on the story, which is set on the shoulders of the cousin alone as they settled into the house during the short story. It isn't long before we catch glimpses of the vampires lurking in the shadows but how much is 'real' here is open to interpretation as this is the first trailer.  I am left to wonder just how closely they will follow the original story, what changes the studio has in store, and if it will manage to maintain an air of menace throughout. I'm hoping it won't deviate too strongly, but if it does, I hope it will strive to maintain the feel and the intent behind the original short story.

    The short story is set in a series of letters sent from the new owner to his friend, a man he refers to as Bones, and one or two others. The house is newly inherited, sitting empty for a time, and the owner is settling with only his friend, Calvin, at his side. Being a short story, it unfolds swiftly, the pacing not too fast, but the tension is kept in the monologue, the writer giving us more details on the eerie goings-on within as he spends more time within the confines of the house. A notable detail here is that our writer once spent time in a facility for mental illness, and it is suggested that maybe he has begun to suffer from delusion once more. It is also worth noting that even before the events, it is said by the locals that anyone living in the house must be crazy to do so. This further highlights that there is a fell reputation surrounding the house, and its owner, before our protagonist arrived. I do like the obvious energy of our letter writer at the start, their joy at discovering the entirety of their new property, and how that changes as things begin to spiral. I liked the use of the rats in the walls trope. As a fan of H.P Lovecraft, I've seen this done before, but King uses it well. The story is well written, and there is an element here that can lead you to believe that this is all real, but enough doubt lingers about the sanity of our writer. As a short story saying too much would give away the gist of the story and how it unfolds, that would be a disservice that has yet to read it through. 

    It is a short story contained within my current copy of 'Salem's Lot, a book I highly recommend to any King fan and is worth reading on its own. With this new adaptation on the horizon, I wonder how they will redo 'Salem's Lot, will the two tie in together, or will they be entirely separate entities. Regardless I am tentatively looking forward to it, my interest in the book, and the short story, rekindled in the wake of the trailer's arrival. I hope they manage to capture some of the magic of the short story and, in time, we discover more of what it has in store. I hope you give them both a look and let me know if you're looking forward to this adaptation too.