The Temple of Dagon

No one asked for it, and here it is: The favorite story thread.

I've never tried to rank my favorites but here are a few at random.

Chickamauga--Ambrose Bierce
The Pit and the Pendulum--EA Poe
The Willows--Algernon Blackwood
What was It?--Fitz-James O'Brien
The Body-Snatchers--RL Stevenson

Of more contemporary stories, "Sticks" by Karl Edward Wagner and "Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson come to mind.

Of those the Pit and the Pendulum is the only one that I have read.

Are we just talking short stories here?
In order, from first, my top three.

H.P. Lovecraft - "At The Mountains of Madness"
Edgar Allen Poe - "The Black Cat" and "The Oblong Box"


If we go into more novella-sized territory, then everything below "At The Mountains of Madness" would be moved down a notch for Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness".

Jesus Prime wrote:Are we just talking short stories here?
In order, from first, my top three.

H.P. Lovecraft - "At The Mountains of Madness"
Edgar Allen Poe - "The Black Cat" and "The Oblong Box"


If we go into more novella-sized territory, then everything below "At The Mountains of Madness" would be moved down a notch for Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness".

"Mountains of Madness" was the first HPL story I read, way back when. During the past year, I went back and reread. It's still very good.

It's been quite a while since I read "Heart of Darkness" but I remember liking it fairly well. Some months ago, I tried to read Secret Sharer and didn't care for it so much. He had a good idea but insisted on it (the identity between the stowaway and the captain) a little too much.

I forgot to mention some of my favorites by Borges. Here they are:

The Library of Babel

The Garden of Forking Paths

The Lottery in Babylon

The Mysterious Stranger - Mark Twain
Goldfinger - Ian Fleming
Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family

In no order.[/url]

Hodgson wrote:It's been quite a while since I read "Heart of Darkness" but I remember liking it fairly well.

It's better every time you read it again. It's one of those things that usually has to grow on you, like Beckett or Camus.