The Oxford Book of the Supernatural — D.J. Enright

From the eerie visitation of Scrooge by Marley's ghost, to the three witches brewing evil on the heath in Macbeth, to the deadly lust for blood of Bram Stoker's Dracula, we have always been fascinated by things that go "bump in the night." The supernatural has chilled our hearts and has fired our imaginations, and it has fueled the writings of our greatest authors, from Odysseus's journey to the underworld in Homer, to Faust's bargain with Mephistopheles in Goethe. The Oxford Book of the Supernatural compiles some of the very best writings on this fearsome subject, drawing from both ancient and modern, from East and West, and from Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist traditions. Here readers will enter a foreboding realm of ghosts and vampires, werewolves and witches, dreams and telepathy, demonic possession and near-death experiences. Drawing from both factual accounts and the finest works of literature, and including writers ranging from Homer to Hardy, Pliny to Primo Levi, and Apuleius to A.S. Byatt, Enright offers material that probes the dark corner where the supernatural and natural worlds collide, igniting our deepest anxieties and fears. At times touching, grotesque, eerie, and frightening, The Oxford Book of the Supernatural will interest anyone who is curious about the supernatural or the occult. But whether you believe in the unearthly or not, this literate anthology will satisfy what Virginia Woolf has called "the strange human craving for the pleasure of feeling afraid."