Table of Contents: The Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
(rough of the cover; also see Ann’s parallel post on the Weird Tales blog)
THE WEIRD: A Compendium of Dark & Strange Stories
Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Pub Date: Mid-October; Publisher: Atlantic, Corvus imprint (UK edition)
Foreword: Michael Moorcock
Introduction by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
Afterword: China Mieville
Over one hundred years of weird fiction collected in a single volume of 750,000 words. Over 20 nationalities are represented and seven new translations were commissioned for the book, most notably definitive translations of Julio Cortazar’s “Axolotl” and Michel Bernanos’ short novel “The Other Side of the Mountain” (the first translations of these classics in many decades). Other highlights include the short novels / long novellas “The Beak Doctor” by Eric Basso, “Tainaron” by Leena Krohn, and “The Brotherhood of Mutilation” by Brian Evenson. This is among the largest collections of weird fiction ever housed between the covers of one book.
Strands of The Weird represented include classic and mainstream weird tales, weird SF, weird ritual, international weird, and offshoots of the weird influenced by Surrealism, Symbolism, the Gothic, and the Decadent movement. (A discussion of weird modes of fiction can be found in the introduction.)
A compendium is neither as complete as an encyclopedia nor as baggy as a treasury. Although the backbone of the book reflects the immense influence of both Kafka and Lovecraft, we have ventured out from that basic focus to provide different traditions of weird fiction and outliers that are perhaps open to debate. The anthology is meant to be both an interrogation of weird fiction and a conversation with it. We hope that readers will be delighted by the classics included and by the unexpected discoveries found within its pages.
Also, in support of both the anthology and weird fiction, we will be launching http://www.weirdfictionreview.com in October.
Table of Contents
Story order is chronological except for a couple of exceptions transposed for thematic reasons. Stories translated into English are largely positioned by date of first publication in their original language. Authors are North American or from the United Kingdom unless otherwise indicated.
Alfred Kubin, “The Other Side” (excerpt), 1908 (translation, Austria)
F. Marion Crawford, “The Screaming Skull,” 1908
Algernon Blackwood, “The Willows,” 1907
Saki, “Sredni Vashtar,” 1910
M.R. James, “Casting the Runes,” 1911
Lord Dunsany, “How Nuth Would Have Practiced his Art,” 1912
Gustav Meyrink, “The Man in the Bottle,” 1912 (translation, Austria)
Georg Heym, “The Dissection,” 1913 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Germany)
Hanns Heinz Ewers, “The Spider,” 1915 (translation, Germany)
Rabindranath Tagore, “The Hungry Stones,” 1916 (India)
Luigi Ugolini, “The Vegetable Man,” 1917 (new translation by Anna and Brendan Connell, Italy; first-ever translation into English)
A. Merritt, “The People of the Pit,” 1918
Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “The Hell Screen,” 1918 (new translation, Japan)
Francis Stevens (Gertrude Barrows Bennett), “Unseen—Unfeared,” 1919
Franz Kafka, “In the Penal Colony,” 1919 (translation, German/Czech)
Stefan Grabinski, “The White Weyrak,” 1921 (translation, Poland)
H.F. Arnold, “The Night Wire,” 1926
H.P. Lovecraft, “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929
Margaret Irwin, “The Book,” 1930
Jean Ray, “The Mainz Psalter,” 1930 (translation, Belgium)
Jean Ray, “The Shadowy Street,” 1931 (translation, Belgium)
Clark Ashton Smith, “Genius Loci,” 1933
Hagiwara Sakutoro, “The Town of Cats,” 1935 (translation, Japan)
Hugh Walpole, “The Tarn,” 1936
Bruno Schulz, “Sanatorium at the Sign of the Hourglass,” 1937 (translation, Poland)
Robert Barbour Johnson, “Far Below,” 1939
Fritz Leiber, “Smoke Ghost,” 1941
Leonora Carrington, “White Rabbits,” 1941
Donald Wollheim, “Mimic,” 1942
Ray Bradbury, “The Crowd,” 1943
William Sansom, “The Long Sheet,” 1944
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Aleph,” 1945 (translation, Argentina)
Olympe Bhely-Quenum, “A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949 (Benin)
Shirley Jackson, “The Summer People,” 1950
Margaret St. Clair, “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951
Robert Bloch, “The Hungry House,” 1951
Augusto Monterroso, “Mister Taylor,” 1952 (new translation by Larry Nolen, Guatemala)
Amos Tutuola, “The Complete Gentleman,” 1952 (Nigeria)
Jerome Bixby, “It’s a Good Life,” 1953
Julio Cortazar, “Axolotl,” 1956 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Argentina)
William Sansom, “A Woman Seldom Found,” 1956
Charles Beaumont, “The Howling Man,” 1959
Mervyn Peake, “Same Time, Same Place,” 1963
Dino Buzzati, “The Colomber,” 1966 (new translation by Gio Clairval, Italy)
Michel Bernanos, “The Other Side of the Mountain,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
Merce Rodoreda, “The Salamander,” 1967 (translation, Catalan)
Claude Seignolle, “The Ghoulbird,” 1967 (new translation by Gio Clairval, France)
Gahan Wilson, “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” 1967
Daphne Du Maurier, “Don’t Look Now,” 1971
Robert Aickman, “The Hospice,” 1975
Dennis Etchison, “It Only Comes Out at Night,” 1976
James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats,” 1976
Eric Basso, “The Beak Doctor,” 1977
Jamaica Kincaid, “Mother,” 1978 (Antigua and Barbuda/US)
George R.R. Martin, “Sandkings,” 1979
Bob Leman, “Window,” 1980
Ramsey Campbell, “The Brood,” 1980
Michael Shea, “The Autopsy,” 1980
William Gibson/John Shirley, “The Belonging Kind,” 1981
M. John Harrison, “Egnaro,” 1981
Joanna Russ, “The Little Dirty Girl,” 1982
M. John Harrison, “The New Rays,” 1982
Premendra Mitra, “The Discovery of Telenapota,” 1984 (translation, India)
F. Paul Wilson, “Soft,” 1984
Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild,” 1984
Clive Barker, “In the Hills, the Cities,” 1984
Leena Krohn, “Tainaron,” 1985 (translation, Finland)
Garry Kilworth, “Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands,” 1987
Lucius Shepard, “Shades,” 1987
Harlan Ellison, “The Function of Dream Sleep,” 1988
Ben Okri, “Worlds That Flourish,” 1988 (Nigeria)
Elizabeth Hand, “The Boy in the Tree,” 1989
Joyce Carol Oates, “Family,” 1989
Poppy Z Brite, “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood,” 1990
Michal Ajvaz, “The End of the Garden,” 1991 (translation, Czech)
Karen Joy Fowler, “The Dark,” 1991
Kathe Koja, “Angels in Love,” 1991
Haruki Murakami, “The Ice Man,” 1991 (translation, Japan)
Lisa Tuttle, “Replacements,” 1992
Marc Laidlaw, “The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio,” 1993
Steven Utley, “The Country Doctor,” 1993
William Browning Spenser, “The Ocean and All Its Devices,” 1994
Jeffrey Ford, “The Delicate,” 1994
Martin Simpson, “Last Rites and Resurrections,” 1994
Stephen King, “The Man in the Black Suit,” 1994
Angela Carter, “The Snow Pavilion,” 1995
Craig Padawer, “The Meat Garden,” 1996
Stepan Chapman, “The Stiff and the Stile,” 1997
Tanith Lee, “Yellow and Red,” 1998
Kelly Link, “The Specialist’s Hat,” 1998
Caitlin R. Kiernan, “A Redress for Andromeda,” 2000
Michael Chabon, “The God of Dark Laughter,” 2001
China Mieville, “Details,” 2002
Michael Cisco, “The Genius of Assassins,” 2002
Neil Gaiman, “Feeders and Eaters,” 2002
Jeff VanderMeer, “The Cage,” 2002
Jeffrey Ford, “The Beautiful Gelreesh,” 2003
Thomas Ligotti, “The Town Manager,” 2003
Brian Evenson, “The Brotherhood of Mutilation,” 2003
Mark Samuels, “The White Hands,” 2003
Daniel Abraham, “Flat Diana,” 2004
Margo Lanagan, “Singing My Sister Down,” 2005 (Australia)
T.M. Wright, “The People on the Island,” 2005
Laird Barron, “The Forest,” 2007
Liz Williams, “The Hide,” 2007
Reza Negarestani, “The Dust Enforcer,” 2008 (Iran)
Micaela Morrissette, “The Familiars,” 2009
Steve Duffy, “In the Lion’s Den,” 2009
Stephen Graham Jones, “Little Lambs,” 2009
K.J. Bishop, “Saving the Gleeful Horse,” 2010 (Australia)
62 comments on “Table of Contents: The Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer”
Looks hella awesome.
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to read it and catch up on old and new favorites.
Finally, the ultimate answer to: What is Weird??? Gahhhhhhhhhhh! I’m so excited! It will be like Christmas!
Wow. I mean, this is incredible!
Awesome! I just miss a bit by Lucy Taylor and Joe R. Lansdale.
Woaw! A truly impressive collection! And very nice cover, too.
That’s impressive. I’m very much looking forward to it. I appreciate your dedication to the weird.
At first I was anxious about a audio edition. But I’ve never seen one done for a book this large.
Maybe you guys can do a few for the website????
I agree Lansdale should be involved and its a travesty how forgotten Lucy Taylor is.
We love Lansdale and it was just a matter of how much naturalistic horror verging on the weird to take. He’ll be in many another reprint antho we do.
Taylor is a tough one. More horror than weird, to our minds.
Wish there’d been a Theodore Sturgeon or William Hope Hodgson story here but, damn, that’s still a great line-up!
Nice lineup.
I’m pretty sure that it’s “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do AWFUL Things to Rats.”
gardner–yep. will fix. it’s correct in the book.
Some amazing names on that table of contents. And it’s absolutely thrilling to see so many translations.
I think this is the most ambitious anthology since those published by Alberto Manguel (Black Water: 1 & 2). My sincerest wishes for its success.
Now there’s a list it was well worth a year to see, kudos in particular on the Ray and Leman selections. I only wish there could have been space for Sarban, his work serves as a bridge between the cosmic mysticism of Machen/Blackwood and the psychological ambiguity of Aickman, and derserves to be rediscovered. But as for now, October can’t arrive soon enough!
That’s a hell of a line-up, and I’m flattered you included me.
Great line-up. Very interesting, Jeff!
But no Ballard, Machen too, and no one from Russia =(
By the way, what is an original title for Seignolle’s story?
Thanks.
Terrific lineup! I would have loved to have seen Hoffmann, Le Fanu, Erckmann-Chatrian, Machen, Lafcadio Hearn, de la Mare, Davis Grubb, Richard Matheson, Glen Hirshberg included – maybe in a follow-up volume?
Thanks for all of these perceptive and useful comments. And thanks, Ramsey!!!
Huw–some of those you mention pretty much predate our general start date chronologically or their best work was before then….Re Sarban…the story we liked best took a lot of pages before it got to a weird element. He’s in the back of our mind along with several others for a second volume with a slightly different focus…Re Russians…I love Russian fiction but so much of what we saw was more in an absurdist/ fantastical mode and we had to make a decision as to where we spent our time in exploring international work. I desperately wanted to include, for example, Bulgakov, but nothing fit…It would be lovely to do a huge antho of general fantasy and surrealism to do so…We also think there’s a lot more Indian horror/ghost stories out there, etc….As for Ballard, he’s listed in the intro with three others we could not acquire the rights for. But rest assured all of these things we considered, debated, etc. Re Machen–definitely mentioned in the intro along with William Hope Hodgson. I can go into more detail later about that decision.
Oh–original title of the Seignolle was “The Night Charmer”. But “Ghoulbird” is more in line with the tone of the story. And quite honestly the original translation is just mediocre.
Looks Awesome. I’ve read 40 of these, but funnily not the one by Ugolini – a writer hailing from Tuscany, the region of Italy where I live.
The one absence that hurts for me – the only one of my favorites among contemporary writers of the fantastic in English that has been left out – is Thomas Disch (say, The Asian Shore).
Marco: Thanks for the kind and thoughtful comment. Re Disch–we agree he would be essential to a comprehensive volume of dark fantasy, horror, or SF…slightly less so for the weird. We went back and forth on that particular story with regard to this antho. But I am glad that for you we largely seem to have gotten it right.
Reflecting on the long and distinguished list of people who DIDN’T get in makes me all the more honoured to have made the cut. As Ramsey says, I’m both flattered and hugely grateful. Thanks, Ann & Jeff!
Great thanks, Jeff!
Steve: Your story is awesome and unique! Yes, we have long lists of stories and writers for future anthologies with somewhat different foci.
Why no Thomas Ligotti? He surely belongs in such an anthology?
read the list again
An incredible line-up. Well done.
Will the font-size be readable?
Lovely. I always thought you had excellent taste.
I see it will be published by Corvus in the UK. Will it be released in the U.S. ?
The Amazons (US and UK) have only incoherent information about the availability of this book… Any insight from the half-editor?
Spoke to one of the staff at Piccadilly Waterstone’s at start of month (as Amazon was saying it’s out the 1st); they told me they had a release date down for Nov 1st (for UK), so am hoping it’ll materialise then. Looks truly awesome (this, and Machen out in Penguin Classics in Dec, makes for a salivating winter of weird)
Ps. When’s someone going to republish Kubin’s The Other Side in full? The Dedalus ed was out a decade or so ago now and trades at about £30+ on ebay/abe (for paperback). Really needs to be in print.
totally agree about the kubin!
My brother recommended I may like this blog. He was once entirely right. This put up truly made my day. You can not believe just how much time I had spent for this info! Thank you!
I just got this for Christmas! Its brilliant!
whoah this blog is wonderful i love reading your articles. Keep up the good paintings! You understand, a lot of people are looking round for this information, you could aid them greatly.
This looks amazing. Pre-ordered the U.S. version. The TOC looks jam-packed with excellent work. Great job.
I got this book for my birthday. I don’t get to read often, but when I do, I pour through as much as I can. Last night I read “Mother” and “Sandkings”. Tonight it’s hopefully “Window” and more. Some of these stories are truly unsettling. Terrifying. Thought provoking. I love every second I get to spend reading this book.
Thank you. Job well done.
Thanks! So glad you like it!
I see a lot of interesting content on your page.
You have to spend a lot of time writing, i know how to save you a
lot of work, there is a tool that creates unique, SEO friendly posts in couple of seconds, just search
in google – laranita’s free content source
This is basically the kj activator 2014 truths your folks does not want one to discover
Comments are closed.