The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. These facts few psychologists will dispute, and their admitted truth must establish for all time the genuineness and dignity of the weirdly horrible tale as a literary form…

As may naturally be expected of a form so closely connected with primal emotion, the horror-tale is as old as human thought and speech themselves.
H. P. Lovecraft

• Algernon Blackwood; The Willows
• Ambrose Bierce; The Death of Halpin Frayser
• Arthur Machen; The Great God Pan
• Bram Stoker; The Judge's House
• Edgar Allan Poe; The Raven
• Edgar Allan Poe; The Black Cat
• Edgar Allan Poe; The Fall of the House of Usher
• E. F. Benson; Mrs. Amworth
• H.P. Lovecraft; The Call of Cthulhu
• Washington Irving; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• Henry James; The Turn of the Screw
• W. W. Jacobs; The Monkey's Paw