Dark Entries: Curious and Macabre Tales

Robert Aickman’s work greatly influenced Neil Gaiman and Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell and Adam Neville, John Langan and Thomas Ligotti.

A weary traveler takes shelter from a storm in a house that suspiciously resembles a dollhouse, which she had once owned as a child. A tourist trip to Venice turns into a meeting with the unknown and the dreadful. A young newlywed couple arrives in a seaside town where bells ring constantly, you can’t reach the sea, and the air is thick with a premonition of trouble. An ordinary Englishman enters the cathedral of St. Bavo in Ghent and gets the most ominous tour of his life—one whose consequences he will remember forever. All of this and much more can be found in two classic collections by Robert Aickman, a true master of English prose whose texts have influenced many generations of horror and fantasy writers. His influence can be seen in the prose of Adam Neville and Neil Gaiman, John Langan and Peter Straub, Thomas Ligotti and Ramsey Campbell. Aickman’s unquestionable talent was recognized by such horror classics as Robert Bloch and Fritz Leiber. Aickman gave rise to an entire direction in supernatural literature, but his unique manner remains unlike anything else, and the special atmosphere of his works still cannot be reproduced by anyone.