Top 20 Horror Short Stories

Ben Thomas of Literacity recently posted "What Influenced Me," a list (in turn inspired by lonesome_crow's "Imaginary horror anthology") of the top horror short stories that influenced his writing. I too have decided to take part in this analysis. The rules: only one story per author, no more than twenty stories total.

So, here they are in no particular order:

1. “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892)
   by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
   Completed in a mere two days, "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a first person narrative describing descent into madness. The story starts with a narrator suffering from a bought of depression, but soon escalates as she begins to see things her room’s yellow wallpaper. With a forcefully domineering husband and medical commentary touching on the historical treatment of women, the story succeeds in being equally identifiable as Gothic horror, psychological horror, and feminist commentary. Gilman’s own interpretation of the story can be found here. In addition, a version of the story staring Agnes Moorehead was performed in 1948 for the CBS radio show Suspense. You can listen to the original recording here.
   The full text of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is available here.
   
2. “Revelation” (1965)
   by Flannery O'Connor
   Flannery O’Connor is an author of American literature who focused on Southern Gothic archetypes and grotesque characters used to present both empathy and disgust. Her stories delve into the hypocrisy of self-righteous Christianity while highlighting the failures of a bigoted secular society. "Revelation" was the last completed story by O’Connor, prior to her death from lupus at age 39. Beginning in a waiting room filled with a spectrum of Southern characters, and ending with a confrontation with God, "Revelation" shows what happens when a good Christian woman is struck by the disgusting nature of her own life.
   
3. “The Yellow Sign” (1895)
   by Robert W. Chambers
   Chambers’ collection of tales, The King in Yellow (which included the short story “The Yellow Sign”), has inspired H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson, Raymond Chandler, Grant Morrison, Steven King, and John Carpenter, to name a few. “The Yellow Sign” follows the theme of The King in Yellow, by telling the story of an artist’s reading of a play that can bring about madness, and may be the key to another world.
   The full text of The King in Yellow is available here.
   
4. “Cool Air” (1928)
   by H.P. Lovecraft
   In "Cool Air," we are given a first person tale where the narrator tells us of the gruesome happenings that made him detest even a “draught of cool air.” While there are many influential stories written by Lovecraft, "Cool Air" stands out for two reasons. First, it is one of the few stories that steps away both from cosmic themes and the New England setting present in the majority of his work. “Cool Air” is one of only three stories written by Lovecraft while he stayed in New York, and the trapped feeling he had while outside familiar territory (along with a reflection of his own abnormal sensitivity to cold) can be felt throughout the piece. Second, it was the only Lovecraft story to be rejected outright by the pulp Weird Tales (of which he was a regular contributor). Editor Farnsworth Wright feared the concluding scene may have invited the censorship of his publication.
   The full text of "Cool Air" is, temporarily at least, available here.
   
5. “We Can Get Them For You Wholesale” (1989)
   by Neil Gaiman
   Assassination bargain packages anyone? Originally published in Knave magazine, the title of the story alludes to the Phillip K. Dick story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale." This story has also been included in Angels and Visitations (1993) and Smoke and Mirrors (1998). In addition, a short film adaptation of this story has been created by Ghostwood Films. It can be viewed here.
   
6. “House of Secrets: Façade” (2001)
   by Steven T. Seagle *
   Rain—an East Coast runaway—and Tracy—her Seattle-based friend-of-convenience, leave town for a while, but their travels take them to a place where secrets long buried are awakening. Rain would like to keep them buried, but the Juris has other plans. Can you keep a secret? Not if it’s ripped from you… word… by word. A sequel to the House of Secrets series, “Façade” did a wonderful job of keeping tied to the original themes without becoming same-old, same-old.
   
7. “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843)
   by Edgar Allan Poe
   First published in the literary journal The Pioneer, "The Tell-Tale Heart" is another first person narrative describing decent into madness. Suffering from an over-acuteness of the senses, the narrator finds reason to kill, but even death may not end suffering. The story was revised in 1845 for the Broadway Journal, and reprinted multiple times. In addition, several version of the story were performed for radio, the Inner Sanctum broadcast read by Boris Karloff in 1941 being perhaps the most memorable. You can listen to this and other original recordings here.
   The full text of "The Tell-Tale Heart" is available here.
   
8. “Young Goodman Brown” (1835)
   by Nathaniel Hawthorne
   Nathanial Hawthorne is an author of American literature who focused on colonial archetypes and New England characters used to represent the everyman. His tales are critical of Puritan values and present guilt-ridden morals. "Young Goodman Brown" begins with a mysterious meeting and ends with a confrontation with the Devil himself, demonstrating the effects of a good Puritan man faced with seeing his Faith challenged (hehe).
   The full text of "Young Goodman Brown" is available here.
   
9. “Darkness” (1816)
   by George Gordon, Lord Byron **
   “Darkness” presents an apocalyptic world where darkness has taken over, and the world has become little more than a “lump of death.” Humanity has vanished, faith is defeated, meaning and value have reached an end. Surprisingly, the story isn’t completely fictional. Written in 1816—the Year Without a Summer—Byron was familiar with the eruption of Mt. Tambora, which cast enough ash into the atmosphere to block the sun and cause irregular weather patterns across the Earth.
   The full text of "Darkness" is available here.
   
10. “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” (1891)
    by Ambrose G. Bierce
    Full text available here.
    
11. “The Mortal Immortal” (1833)
    by Mary Shelley
    Full text available here.
    
12. “The Horrorist” (1995)
    by Jamie Delano *
    A tie-in to the John Constantine: Hellblazer series, but few stories in the regular series have lived up to this short piece of psychological horror.
    
13. “A Rose for Emily” (1930)
    by William Faulkner
    A classic example of Southern Gothic horror.
    Full text available here.
    
14. “Long-Distance Call” (1953)
    by Richard Matheson
    Also known as “Sorry, Right Number,” this story was made into a Twilight Zone episode in 1961. I’ll let Rod Serling’s words give you a sense of the story’s themes:
    
    

    “As must be obvious, this is a house hovered over by Mr. Death, that omnipresent player to the third and final act of every life. And it's been said, and probably rightfully so, that what follows this life is one of the unfathomable mysteries—an area of darkness which we the living reserve for the dead—or so it is said. For in a moment, a child will try to cross that bridge which separates light and shadow—and, of course, he must take the only known route, that indistinct highway through the region we call...the Twilight Zone.”

15. “The Lottery” (1948)
    by Shirley Jackson
    Quiet horror where contemporary life collides with barbaric ritual.
    Full text available here.
    
16. “The Phantom Coach” (1890?)
    by Amelia B. Edwards
    A wonderful tale of supernatural horror.
    Full text available here.
    
17. “The Most Dangerous Game” (1924)
    by Richard Connell
    A tale of psychological horror, Connell's story is said to have been an inspiration for Arthur Leigh Allen--the prime suspect in a bit of non-fiction horror: the still unsolved 1960s Zodiac murders.
    Abridged text available here.
    
18. “A Dream of Armageddon” (1901)
    by H.G. Wells
    Apocalyptic horror by an early sci-fi master.
    Full text available here.
    
19. “Down Satan” (1985)
    by Clive Barker
    Horror-of-the-Demonic originally published in Books of Blood IV: The Inhuman Condition.
    
20. “The Beast of Averoigne” (1927)
    by Clark Ashton Smith
    A tale of weird fiction originally published in the pulp Weird Tales.
    Abridged text available here.
    

Added by readers:

1. “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” (1967)
   by Harlan Ellison
   Thank you to Chanel for this suggestion. "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is a dystopian short story first published in IF: Worlds of Science Fiction

2. “The Monkey's Paw” (1902)
   by W.W. Jacobs
   Thank you to Tom for this suggestion.
   Full text available here.

3. “The Colour Out of Space” (1927)
   by H.P. Lovecraft
   Thank you to the Rubber Chicken for this suggestion. "The Colour Out of Space" is a Lovecraftian horror story first published in the pulp Amazing Stories.
   Full text available here.
   
   
4. “Sredni Vashtar” (1914)
   by Saki
   Thank you to Justin, of OutlawPoet Daily, for this suggestion and the text link.
   Full text available here.
   

* a short comic oneshot
** a poem (so I cheated a little)

P.S. I'll be updating this list with reader suggestions, Amazon links, and brief synopsizes as soon as I get a chance.