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. Horror intends to create an eerie and frightening atmosphere for the listener. 

Prevalent elements include ghosts, demons, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, the Devil, witches, monsters, dystopian and apocalyptic worlds, serial killers, cannibalism, psychopaths, cults, dark magic, Satanism, the macabre, gore, and torture.

Contents include: 

Edgar Allan Poe: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Gold Bug", "The Black Cat", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", "Hop-Frog", "The Raven"

Bram Stoker: Dracula

Mary Shelley: Frankenstein

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Carmilla

Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

H.P. Lovecraft: "The Alchemist", "At the Mountains of Madness", "Azathoth", "The Beast in the Cave", "Beyond the Wall of Sleep", "The Book", "The Call of Cthulhu", The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, "The Cats of Ulthar", "The Colour Out of Space", "Dagon", "The Descendent", "The Doom that Came to Sarnath", The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, "The Evil Clergyman", "Ex Oblivione", "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family", "The Festival", "From Beyond", "The Haunter of the Dark", "He", "Herbert West - Reanimator", "The History of the Necrnomicon", "The Horror at Red Hook", "The Hound", "Hypnos", "Ibid", "In the Vault", "The Little Glass Bottle", "Memory", ""The Moon-Bog", "The Music of Erich Zann", "The Nameless City", "Nyarlathotep", "Old Bugs", "The Other Gods", "The Outsider", "Pickman's Model", "The Picture in the House", "Polaris", "The Quest of Iranon", "The Rats in the Walls", "A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson", "The Secret Cave or John Lees Adventure", The Shadow Out of Time, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, "The Shunned House", "The Silver Key", "The Statement of Randolph Carter", "The Strange High House in the Mist", "The Street", "The Temple", "The Terrible Old Man", "The Tomb", "The Transition of Juan Romero", "The Tree", "Under the Pyramids", "The Very Old Folk", "What the Moon Brings", The Whisperer in Darkness, "The White Ship", "Supernatural Horror in Literature"

Algernon Blackwood: "The Willows"

Francis Marion Crawford: "The Doll's Ghost"

Robert W. Chambers: "The King in Yellow"

M. R. James: "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book", "Lost Hearts", The Mezzotint"