In a parallel universe where Edgar Allan Poe never existed, this would be a nice little book. In this world, where Mr. Poe was pretty prolific and, well, better, it’s not really worth your time.
I saw this collection of Bram Stoker short stories at this AMAZING old barn bookstore (pictured left). I’d never read anything but Dracula, so I was curious. It’s…fine. Stoker’s very earnest. It’s like a 12-year-old boy at camp telling you a ghost story, and then at the end, he’s like, “But he was DEAD the WHOLE TIME!!!! Isn’t that CRAZY?!?!?!?!” Most of the stories follow a similar pattern: educated, dashing young man goes on some sort of trip/adventure, meets something spooky, and either vanquishes it or gets vanquished. Sometimes there’s a love interest, sometimes there are funny accents (including one story where I kept picturing the main character talking to the Nac Mac Feegle the whole time).
If Poe stories are too dark and subtle for you, check out some Stoker stories. They feel very watered down, but like a lot of effort went into them. And some of the writing is lovely:
“it is a part of the penalty of being human that we cannot forbid the coming of thoughts, but it is a glory of humanity that we can wrestle with them and overcome them.”