From two acclaimed experts in the genre, a brand-new volume of supernatural stories showcasing the forgotten female horror writers from 1852–1923.
While the nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley may be hailed as the first modern writer of horror, the success of her immortal Frankenstein undoubtedly inspired dozens of female authors who wrote their own evocative, chilling tales. Weird Women, edited by award-winning anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger, collects some of the finest tales of terror by authors as legendary as Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Charlotte Gilman-Perkins, alongside works of writers who were the bestsellers and critical favorites of their time – Marie Corelli, Ellen Glasgow, Charlotte Riddell – and lesser known authors who are deserving of contemporary recognition.
As railroads, industry, cities, and technology flourished in the mid-nineteenth century, so did stories exploring the horrors they unleashed. This anthology includes ghost stories and tales of haunted houses, as well as mad scientists, werewolves, ancient curses, mummies, psychological terrors, demonic dimensions, and even weird westerns. Curated by Klinger and Morton with an aim to presenting work that has languished in the shadows, all of these exceptional supernatural stories are sure to surprise, delight, and frighten today’s readers.
- “The Old Nurse’s Story” (1852) by Elizabeth Gaskell
- “The Moonstone Mass” (1868) by Harriet Spofford
- “Lost in a Pyramid, or the Mummy’s Curse” (1869) by Louisa May Alcott
- “What Was the Matter?” (1869) by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
- “Nut Bush Farm” (1882) by Mrs. J. H. (Charlotte) Riddell
- “The Gray Man” (1886) by Sarah Orne Jewett
- “In a Far-Off World” (1889) by Olive Schreiner
- “The Giant Wistaria” (1891) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- “The Lady with the Carnations” (1895) by Marie Corelli
- “The Were-Wolf” (1896) by Clemence Housman
- “An Itinerant House” (1897) by Emma Frances Dawson
- “Transmigration” (1900) by Dora Sigerson Shorter
- “The Wind in the Rose-Bush” (1902) by Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman
- “The Banshee’s Halloween” (1903) by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh
- “In the Closed Room” (1904) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- “The Dream Baby” (1904) by Olivia Howard Dunbar
- “The Third Drug” (1908) by Edith Nesbit
- “The Pocket-Hunter’s Story” (1909) by Mary Austin
- “Twilight” (1912) by Marjorie Bowen
- “The Swine-Gods” (1917) by Regina Miriam Bloch
- “Jordan’s End” (1923) by Ellen Glasgow