Gathering together deliciously chilling tales from the three highly-acclaimed volumes of Virago ghost stories, this collection features stories by A. S. Byatt, Angela Carter, Charlotte Brontë, Antonia Fraser, Penelope Lively, Ruth Rendell, Edith Wharton, and many more. Here lost loves, past enmities, and unwanted memories mingle with the inexplicable as unquiet souls return to repay kindnesses, settle scores, and haunt the imagination. All of the writers demonstrate a subtle power to delight and chill at the same time as they explore the ghostly margins of the supernatural.

The story of the vampire is one that has been told and retold throughout the centuries, often undergoing radical changes along the way, until what once was a terrible, bestial creature of darkness has been transformed into a sensual, passionate creature that is often misunderstood by the world at large. Most often the realm of male authors writing about male vampires, over the last century the genre has seen a refreshing swing toward authors of both sexes exploring the other side of the vampiric genderthe women of the night. The sixteen stories collected within these pages are among the very best of their kind, from many of the best fantasy and horror authors writing today. From an encounter with a predatory spouse in a New England storm to a continuation of the Dracula story featuring a completely different tale of love, longing and loss, these stories explore both what it is to be female, humanand vampire, and often all at the same time. The selected stories include: "One for the Road" by Stephen King. The regulars at Tookeys Bar know better than to wander around Jerusalems Lotespecially at night. But when a husband needs help during a snowstorm, they travel into the heart of the blizzard ... and an encounter with pure evil. "Sister Death" by Jane Yolen. Even the heart of a millennia-old vampire who accompanies theAngel of Death on his appointed rounds can be swayed by the yearning look of a young child. "Queen of the Night" by Gene Wolfe. The lady in white came for the boy in the dead of night, spiriting him away to her dark castle, where he would experience such things that would change his life forever... "Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu" by Norman Partridge. The real story of what happened after the events of Bram Stokers novel Dracula is told against the vast, wild Texas frontier, as one of Draculas hunters returns home to claim everything that is his ... including his one true love.

To the Western eye, there is something jarringly incongruous, even shocking, about the image of a six-year-old girl being held down by loving relatives so that her genitals can be cut. Yet two million girls experience this each year. Most Westerners, upon learning of the practice of female circumcision, have responded with outrage; those committed to improving the status of women have gone beyond outrage to action by creating various programs for "eradicating" the practice. But few understand the real life complexities families face in deciding whether to follow the traditional practices or to take the risk of change.

In The Female Circumcision Controversy, Ellen Gruenbaum points out that Western outrage and Western efforts to stop genital mutilation often provoke a strong backlash from people in the countries where the practice is common. She looks at the validity of Western arguments against the practice. In doing so, she explores both outsider and insider perspectives on female circumcision, concentrating particularly on the complex attitudes of the individuals and groups who practice it and on indigenous efforts to end it. Gruenbaum finds that the criticisms of outsiders are frequently simplistic and fail to appreciate the diversity of cultural contexts, the complex meanings, and the conflicting responses to change.

Drawing on over five years of fieldwork in Sudan, where the most severe forms of genital surgery are common, Gruenbaum shows that the practices of female circumcision are deeply embedded in Sudanese cultural traditions—in religious, moral, and aesthetic values, and in ideas about class, ethnicity, and gender. Her research illuminates both the resistance to and the acceptance of change. She shows that change is occurring as the result of economic and social developments, the influences of Islamic activists, the work of Sudanese health educators, and the efforts of educated African women. That does not mean that there is no role for outsiders, Gruenbaum asserts, and she offers suggestions for those who wish to help facilitate change.

By presenting specific cultural contexts and human experiences with a deep knowledge of the tremendous variation of the practice and meaning of female circumcision, Gruenbaum provides an insightful analysis of the process of changing this complex, highly debated practice.

The first major collection of new and classic haunted-house tales by masters of the form. Vengeful ghosts and kind ones, violent poltergeists and innocent shades, phantasmal victims and evil specters with intentions ranging from the horrific to the erotic - spirits of every sort haunt the houses in this anthology of tales by such distinguished writers as Joan Aiken, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, L. P. Hartley, James Herbert, M. R. James, Ruth Rendell, Hugh Walpole, and Fay Weldon. As the ghosts in these masterfully haunting tales invade residences as grand as country mansions or as disconcertingly familiar as a city apartment, they also very craftily seduce - and chill - the reader's soul.

Barely surviving a spectacular yachting accident, Mark Sayres finds himself in a remote area of the Olympic Peninsula coast in Washington State. He has come to look for his wife, Maggie, who has been troubled by a disturbing discovery at the archaeological site where she is working. After recovering at the home of Sandra Torrel, whose mysterious husband bears a disturbing family secret, Mark learns of a succession of terrifying events in the little town of Neah Bay that seem connected with the nearby excavation. Why are archaeologists Paul Radwick and Ken Matsamura so secretive about what may have been unearthed? Can their discovery have something to do with an appalling incident of nearly a century ago that has begun to haunt the present? In this chilling novel, Philip Haldeman evokes the rugged seacoast, eerie rainforests, small-town confines, and human interrelationships of a remote corner of the Pacific Northwest, all within a ghostly tale of horror that not only brings to mind the best work of H.P. Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood, but whose themes of love, loyalty, and conflict will satisfy a wide variety of readers.

The editors of Many Bloody Returns deliver the perfect howl-iday gift, with new tales from Patricia Briggs, Carrie Vaughn, and many more.

New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur, and Carrie Vaughn—along with eleven other masters of the genre—offer all-new stories on werewolves and the holidays, a fresh variation on the concept that worked so well with birthdays and vampires in Many Bloody Returns.

The holidays can bring out the beast in anyone. They are particularly hard for lycanthropes. Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner have harvested the scariest, funniest and saddest werewolf tales by an outstanding pack of authors, best read by the light of a full moon with a silver bullet close at hand.

Whether wolfing down a holiday feast (use your imagination) or craving some hair of the dog on New Year’s morning, the werewolves in these frighteningly original stories will surprise, delight, amuse, and scare the pants off readers who love a little wolfsbane with their mistletoe.

In a truly distinguished collection of twenty superb, sublimely dark tales written especially for this volume, such acknowledged contemporary masters of horror fiction as Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, Nancy Holder, Richard Laymon, Brian Lumley, Joe Lansdale, Whitley Streiber, F. Paul Wilson, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro serve up a veritable feast of fear. For the first time ever, Dark Delicacies, the world’s foremost horror bookstore, lends its famous name and imprimatur to an anthology designed to please the palate of the genre’s most discriminating fans. Throughout, the editors—Del Howison (co-owner of Dark Delicacies) and leading horror anthologist Jeff Gelb—present perfectly crafted, freshly original horror-fiction fare that is as terrifying as it is chillingly delicious.

In a second distinguished collection of twenty superb, sublimely dark tales written especially for this volume, such acknowledged contemporary masters of horror fiction as Barbara Hambly, John Farris, James Sallis, Steve Niles, Tananarive Due, L. A. Banks, and Gary Brandner serve up a veritable feast of fear. For the second time, Dark Delicacies, the world's foremost horror bookstore, lends its famous name and imprimatur to an anthology designed to please the palate of the genre's most discriminating fans. Throughout, the editors — Del Howison (co-owner of Dark Delicacies) and leading horror anthologist Jeff Gelb — present perfectly crafted, freshly original horror-fiction fare that is as terrifying as it is chillingly delicious.

A stellar cast of horror writers comprise this third entry in the Dark Delicacies anthology series. These twenty-one short works will examine and lay bare all the ways in which we are haunted—both literally and figuratively. With a new novella from David Morrell and a short story Chuck Palahniuk is writing as a teaching class on his blog, interest in this anthology will prove that the third time is no trick and all treat!

Includes contributions from:
• Kevin J. Anderson
• Clive Barker
• Michael Boatman
• Heather Graham
• Richard Christian Matheson
• David Morrell
• Chuck Palahniuk
• Victor Salva• And many more!

"The Monkey's Paw" is a moral tale about how there's always a price to pay if you interfere with what's natural. It's not a mere object lesson, though: the powerful mood of mourning and despair is what makes it so memorable. Jacobs also emphasizes the dangers of mocking the supernatural. In the superb tale "The Toll House," for example, four men pull the familiar stunt of staying in a supposedly haunted house overnight. They tease each other while drinking whiskey and playing cards to while away the time, and one of them tugs on the servants' bell as a joke. Later on the man who pulled the bell is all alone in the dark, pursued by ominous footsteps, rushing about in a panicky search for the stairs. And in "Jerry Bundler," an actor tries to pull a prank on a man who is fearful of ghosts by dressing up as a renowned local spirit. He pays for his impudence in a way that is not supernatural, but the reader's left wondering what forces contrived the tragic chain of events.