Early Weird fiction embraces the supernatural, horror, science fiction, fantasy and the Gothic, and was explored with enthusiasm by many women writers in the United Kingdom and in the USA. Melissa Edmundson has brought together a compelling collection of the best Weird short stories by women from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to thrill new readers and delight these authors' fans. The thirteen authors include: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of `The Yellow Wallpaper', with her story of a haunted New England house, `The Giant Wistaria' (1891). Margaret Oliphant's delicate story of ghostly possession, `The Library Window' (1897). Edith Nesbit's `The Shadow' (1910) about the peril of telling a ghost story after a ball. Edith Wharton's alarming story of Breton dogs and a jealous husband, `Kerfol' (1916). May Sinclair's `Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched' (1927), a story of a love that will never die. Mary Butts' `With and Without Buttons' (1938), a story of very haunted gloves. D K Broster's unholy story of a mistress's feathery revenge, `Crouching At The Door' (1942).

About the Author
Melissa Edmundson researches and publishes on nineteenth and early twentieth-century British women writers, with a particular interest in women's supernatural fiction. She is the editor of a 2011 critical edition of Alice Perrin's East of Suez (1901), and author of Women's Ghost Literature in Nineteenth-Century Britain (University of Wales Press, 2013) and Women's Colonial Gothic Writing, 1850-1930: Haunted Empire (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). She edited Avenging Angels: Ghost Stories by Victorian Women Writers (Victorian Secrets, 2018).

Reviews
"Handheld Books...publish[es] tempting, macabre treats." - The Washington Post "The collection is a deliberate effort to attenuate, in the horror tradition, the dominance of men like M R James, Arthur Machen, H P Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce, and restore to prominence innovative writers such as May Sinclair, Mary Butts and Margery Lawrence. They show the continuing influence of Gothic and supernatural tropes and the effect of their collision with a modernizing world and women's changing roles within it." - Times Literary Supplement "The range of authors and stories suggests that the Weird is perhaps more an approach than a genre, demonstrating the Weird's ability to discomfort and disturb ... Women's Weird is an essential read for any fan or scholar of Weird fiction, and we are indebted to both Handheld Press and Melissa Edmundson for performing this service." - The Fantasy Hive "This book is the perfect companion to an evening of weird ... The stories explore a vast array of ideas and occurrences that feed into our human psyche, the scares and the fear that we hear about in folklore and legend come to the surface in these stories. In some cases, these tales go beyond our primal fears and go into the world of the surreal, opening up new ideas and new fears for us to process." - Black Sunday "There are so many stories I loved in this collection, but the ones that stood out to me as unlike any of the weird fiction I've read before were those that located their horror within the mundane ... "Couching at the Door" was perhaps my favorite story in the collection, and its exploration of the relationship between art and morality as well as the story of a hedonistic older man leading a beautiful young protege into depravity" - The Gothic Library "A landmark anthology ... Edmundson has curated a solid journey through weird landscapes ... The notes/annotations at the back of the book by publisher Kate Macdonald should become an industry standard ... This is an unmissable, urgent and era-defining work." - Gingernuts of Horror



Book Information
ISBN 9781912766246
Author Melissa Edmundson
Format Paperback
Page Count 321
Imprint Handheld Press
Publisher Handheld Press