description: Most people know H.G. Wells as one of the undisputed fathers of modern science fiction, but he also wrote many influential horror stories, both psychological and supernatural in content. "The Plattner Story," contained in this volume, demonstrates how Wells can move from a science-fiction premise (a venture into the Fourth Dimension) into a tale of awe and terror--in which the protagonist encounters the ghostly Watchers of the Living: "They were indeed limbless, and they had the appearance of human heads, beneath which a tadpole-like body swung.... And as he looked at the nearest of those approaching, he saw it was indeed a human head, albeit with singularly large eyes, and wearing such an expression of distress and anguish as he had never seen before upon a mortal countenance." This volume collects the best known of Wells's horror tales, including three about unusual monsters ("The Strange Orchid," "In the Avu Observatory," and "The Sea Raiders"), grisly stories of the conte cruel variety ("The Cone" and "The Lord of the Dynamos"), a multilayered gem about fear and the quest for knowledge ("The Apple"), and an early example of the black-magic horror tale that can be interpreted as psychological ("Pollock and the Porroh Man"). As venerable horror critic Jack Sullivan writes, "Of all the many writers of the Victorian and Edwardian periods who attempted the fashionable exercise of reconciling science with mystical experience ... Wells accomplished the fusion with the most wit and restraint. For a man who spent so many years writing essays about scientific and metaphysical subjects, he was surprisingly good at keeping his story moving and keeping essaylike explanations to a minimum.... Readers who think of Wells's short stories as being exclusively science fiction are in for some chilling surprises." --Fiona Webster
language: English
title: Thirty Strange Stories.
titlecomplete: Thirty Strange Stories.
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Horror, Classics, Fantasy
ratings_count: 69
publisher: Causeway Books