7/10

This is not intended to be a 'book of horror' so one should not think that before reading it. It's more a 'book of the weird'. There were probably only a couple tales in here that really moved me enough to be "scared". I feel I have to try and put myself in the time period these were written in order to get the full effect but it doesn't often work as I still end up getting bored. Luckily though that didn't happen too often. I had rated each story as I read them and only ended up giving five of the twenty a rating higher than 7/10. The lowest being a 5/10 from the author Lafcadio Hearn who spun an odd tale about hands glued to breasts! The best tales were by Erckmann-Chatrian, Villiers de Adam, Edgar Poe, William Hodgson, and Henry James. The one by James takes up nearly 1/4 of this book so don't except a short read with that one, but it's worth it. And I should add that when reading the one by Hodgson one can't help but think of the Creepshow episode where Stephen King turns into a green pile of grass before shooting himself. Overall, H.P. Lovecraft shows us that he has good taste in tales of the strange but reading some of these 100 to 200 years later just doesn't float my boat much at this age. H.P. is still better than them all in my opinion!

7/10