A. E. Coppard

In this collection of stories, A. E. Coppard has developed to a new perfection the subtlety, comprehension, and originality which have always distinguished his work. The title story is the tragedy of a Viennese street porter, who is unexpectedly put into a position to avenge himself most horribly on his wife's lover. "A Looking Glass for St. Luke" is the delicate and lovely story of a man who looks back to what might have been. "Fine Feathers" tells of Homer Dodd, a brewery clerk, whose life centered on the evening dress suit which he never wore.

xi • General Introduction (The Evil Image: Two Centuries of Gothic Short Fiction and Poetry) • essay by Patricia L. Skarda and Nora Crow Jaffe xxv • Critical Studies of the Gothic • essay by uncredited 2 • The Apparition of Mrs. Veal • (1919) • short story by Daniel Defoe (variant of A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal the Next Day After Her Death to One Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury the 8th of September 1705 1706) 11 • On the Pleasures Derived from Objects of Terror; with Sir Bertrand, a Fragment • (1773) • short story by Anna Letitia Barbauld and John Aikin (variant of On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror; with Sir Bertrand, A Fragment) [as by Dr. John Aikin and Anna Laetitia Aikin Barbauld] 18 • The Snow-Fiend • (1826) • poem by Ann Radcliffe 20 • December's Eve, Abroad • (1826) • poem by Ann Radcliffe 21 • December's Eve, At Home • (1826) • poem by Ann Radcliffe 23 • A Receipt for Writing a Novel • (1799) • poem by Mary Alcock 27 • Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogine • (1796) • poem by Matthew Gregory Lewis 29 • Giles Jollup the Grave, and Brown Sally Green • (1801) • poem by Matthew Gregory Lewis 35 • "Christabel" • (1797) • poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (variant of Christabel 1816) 55 • Manfred: A Dramatic Poem • (1817) • poem by Lord George Gordon Byron 94 • The Vampyre: A Tale • [Lord Ruthven] • (1819) • novelette by Dr. John William Polidori 110 • A Fragment of a Novel • (1819) • short story by Lord George Gordon Byron (variant of Fragment of a Novel) 117 • Transformation • (1830) • short story by Mary Shelley (variant of The Transformation) 133 • Isabella, or The Pot of Basil • (1820) • poem by John Keats 153 • Wandering Willie's Tale • [Redgauntlet Excerpts] • (1824) • short story by Sir Walter Scott 169 • The Spectre Bridegroom • (1819) • short story by Washington Irving 182 • [Fall of the House of Usher]( (1839) • novelette by Edgar Allan Poe 199 • [Young Goodman Brown]( • (1835) • short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne 212 • Rochester's Song to Jane Eyre • (unknown) • poem by Charlotte Brontë 214 • R. Alcona to J. Brenzaida • (1846) • poem by Emily Brontë 214 • Retrospection • (1835) • poem by Charlotte Brontë 215 • No Coward Soul Is Mine • (1846) • poem by Emily Brontë 218 • The Signalman • (1866) • short story by Charles Dickens 231 • Sister Helen • (1853) • poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 240 • Goblin Market • (1859) • poem by Christina Rossetti [as by Christina Georgina Rossetti] 256 • Green Tea • [Martin Hesselius] • (1869) • novelette by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 285 • Perilous Play • (1869) • short story by Louisa May Alcott 298 • The Ghostly Rental • (1876) • novelette by Henry James 326 • The Stolen Child • (1886) • poem by William Butler Yeats 331 • Markheim • (1885) • short story by Robert Louis Stevenson 346 • The Darkling Thrush • (1900) • poem by Thomas Hardy (variant of By the Century's Deathbed) 347 • A Wasted Illness • (1901) • poem by Thomas Hardy 350 • The Monster • non-genre • (1898) • novella by Stephen Crane 400 • The Mezzotint • (1904) • short story by M. R. James 411 • Arabesque: The Mouse • (1920) • short story by A. E. Coppard 419 • [A Rose for Emily]( • (1930) • short story by William Faulkner 429 • Clytie • (1941) • short story by Eudora Welty 442 • The River • non-genre • (1953) • short story by Flannery O'Connor 458 • Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) • (1971) • poem by Anne Sexton 465 • Suffer the Little Children • (1972) • short story by Stephen King 476 • Suggestions for Further Reading in the Gothic Tradition • essay by uncredited

[Black Cat]( / Edgar Allan Poe -- [Tell-tale Heart]( / Edgar Allan Poe -- [Premature Burial]( / Edgar Allan Poe -- Torture of hope / Villiers de L'Isle Adam -- An episode of the terror / Honore de Balzac -- The hand / Guy de Maupassant -- The withered arm / Thomas Hardy -- The idiots / Joseph Conrad -- The bird / Thomas Burke -- Lot no. 249 / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- The sentence / J. Kaden-Bandrowski -- Arabesque, the mouse / A.E. Coppard -- Cinci / Luigi Pirandello -- Suspicion / Dorothy L. Sayers -- Dead on her feet / Cornell Woolrich -- Taboo / Geoffrey Household -- A little place off the Edgware Road / Graham Greene -- The words of guru / C.M. Kornbluth -- Yours truly, Jack the Ripper / Robert Bloch -- The veld / Ray Bradbury -- Evening primrose / John Collier -- Back from the grave / Robert Silverberg -- [A rose for Emily]( / William Faulkner -- The comforts of home / Flannery O'Connor -- [Pig]( / Roald Dahl -- Robert / Stanley Ellin -- The question / Stanley Ellin -- The terrapin / Patricia Highsmith -- Not after mindnight / Daphne du Maurier -- Corabella / David Fletcher.