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