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A review by thesubmariner
Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Alberto Manguel
adventurous
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
What a journey. As an admirer of fantastic short stories this was such a comfort read. Usually, I would read a few stories or around 50 pages or so before bedtime and later lay in the bed thinking and visualizing about what I read. This was also an educational experience for I learned about writers with some insight from Alberto Manguel who had the pleasure to know many of the Argentinian writers from this anthology. However, I don’t think this anthology is for everyone because most of the stories are from the 19th and early 20th century and have a certain charm about them. Not to mention the writing style. You need to be in a specific mood while reading these stories. I will definitely read part 2 in the near future and reread most of these stories and maybe review them individually.
I grouped stories by star (*) rating in alphabetical order.
5*:
"Autumn Mountain" - short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1921) 5*
The Bottle Imp - novelette by Robert Louis Stevenson (1891) 5*
Clorinda - short story by André Pieyre de Mandiargues (1960) 5*
Death and the Gardener - short fiction by Jean Cocteau (1923) 5*
"A Dog in Dürer's Etching "The Knight, Death and the Devil" - short story by Marco Denevi (1983) 5*
A Dream short story by Edward William Lane [as by Anonymous; from The Arabian Nights Entertainments] (1983) 5*
The Dream - short story by O. Henry (1910) 5*
Enoch Soames - novelette by Max Beerbohm (1916) 5*
The Fisherman and His Soul - novelette by Oscar Wilde (1891) 5*
The Friends - short story by Silvina Ocampo (1959) 5*
From "Peter and Rosa" - short fiction by Karen Blixen (as by Isak Dinesen) (1983) 5*
How Wang-Fo Was Saved - short story by Marguerite Yourcenar (1936) 5*
Insomnia - short story by Virgilio Piñera (1946) 5*
In the Penal Colony - novelette by Franz Kafka (1919) 5*
Lady Into Fox - novella by David Garnett (1922) 5*
Lord Mountdrago - novelette by W. Somerset Maugham (1939) 5*
The Monkey's Paw - short story by W. W. Jacobs (1902) 5*
Pomegranate Seed - novelette by Edith Wharton (1931) 5*
The Queen of Spades short story by Alexander Sergeievitch Pushkin (1834) 5*
The Rocking-Horse Winner short story by D. H. Lawrence (1926) 5*
The Sick Gentleman's Last Visit - short story by Giovanni Papini (1906) 5*
Split Second - novelette by Daphne du Maurier (1952) 5*
The Wizard Postponed - short story by Jorge Luis Borges (1933) [as by Don Juan Manuel] 5*
4-5*:
The Captives of Longjumeau - short story by Léon Bloy (1893) 4-5*
Climax for a Ghost Story - short story by I. A. Ireland (1919) 4-5*
The Feather Pillow - short story by Horacio Quiroga (1907) 4-5*
From "A School Story" - short fiction by M. R. James (1911) - read full version on: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_School_Story 4-5*
Importance - short story by Manuel Mujica Láinez (1978) 4-5*
An Injustice Revealed - short story by Anonymous (?) 4-5*
An Invitation to the Hunt - short story by George Hitchcock (1960) 4-5*
The Lady on the Grey - short story by John Collier (1951) 4-5*
Laura - short story by Saki (1914) 4-5*
Of a Promise Kept - short story by Lafcadio Hearn (1901) 4-5*
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973) 4-5*
The Playground - short story by Ray Bradbury (1952) 4-5*
Tattoo - short story by as by Junichiro Tanizaki (1910) 4-5*
The Third Bank of the River - short story by João Guimarães Rosa (1962) 4-5*
The Travelling Companion - short story by Hans Christian Andersen (1835) 4-5*
The Visit to the Museum - short story by Vladimir Nabokov (1958) 4-5*
4*:
August 25, 1983 - short story by Jorge Luis Borges (1983) 4*
The Argentine Ant - novelette by Italo Calvino (1952) 4*
The Door in the Wall - short story by H. G. Wells (1906) 4*
Father's Last Escape - short story by Bruno Schulz (1937) 4*
The Friends of the Friends - novelette by Henry James (1896) 4*
From the "American Notebooks" - short fiction by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1983) 4*
The Grey Ones - short story by J. B. Priestley (1953) 4*
Home - short story by Hilaire Belloc (1910) 4*
House Taken Over - short story by Julio Cortázar (1946) 4*
How Love Came to Professor Guildea - novella by Robert S. Hichens (1897) 4*
A Little Place Off the Edgware Road - short story by Graham Greene (1939) 4*
The Mysteries of the Joy Rio - short story by Tennessee Williams (1954) 4*
The Pagan Rabbi - novelette by Cynthia Ozick (1966) 4*
The Sight - short story by Brian Moore (1977) 4*
The State of Grace - short story by Marcel Aymé (1944) 4*
The Storm - short story by Jules Verne (1886) 4*
The Tall Woman - novelette by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (1882) 4*
Venetian Masks - short story by Adolfo Bioy Casares (1982) 4*
A Visitor from Down Under - short story by L. P. Hartley (1926) 4*
The Wish House - short story by Rudyard Kipling (1924) 4*
3-4*
The Bureau d'Echange de Maux - short story by Lord Dunsany (1915) 3-4*
Certain Distant Suns - short story by Joanne Greenberg (1983) 3-4*
The Curfew Tolls - short story by Stephen Vincent Benét (1935) 3-4*
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - short story by Edgar Allan Poe (1845) 3-4*
Et in Sempiternum Pereant - short story by Charles Williams (1935) 3-4*
John Duffy's Brother - short story by Flann O'Brien (1940) 3-4*
The Large Ant - short story by Howard Fast (1960) 3-4*
The Lemmings - short story by Alex Comfort (1946) 3-4*
A Scent of Mimosa - short story by Francis King (1975) 3-4*
Seaton's Aunt - novelette by Walter de la Mare (1922) 3-4*
The Signalman - short story by Charles Dickens (1866) 3-4*
The Story of a Panic - novelette by E. M. Forster (1904) 3-4*
I grouped stories by star (*) rating in alphabetical order.
5*:
"Autumn Mountain" - short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1921) 5*
The Bottle Imp - novelette by Robert Louis Stevenson (1891) 5*
Clorinda - short story by André Pieyre de Mandiargues (1960) 5*
Death and the Gardener - short fiction by Jean Cocteau (1923) 5*
"A Dog in Dürer's Etching "The Knight, Death and the Devil" - short story by Marco Denevi (1983) 5*
A Dream short story by Edward William Lane [as by Anonymous; from The Arabian Nights Entertainments] (1983) 5*
The Dream - short story by O. Henry (1910) 5*
Enoch Soames - novelette by Max Beerbohm (1916) 5*
The Fisherman and His Soul - novelette by Oscar Wilde (1891) 5*
The Friends - short story by Silvina Ocampo (1959) 5*
From "Peter and Rosa" - short fiction by Karen Blixen (as by Isak Dinesen) (1983) 5*
How Wang-Fo Was Saved - short story by Marguerite Yourcenar (1936) 5*
Insomnia - short story by Virgilio Piñera (1946) 5*
In the Penal Colony - novelette by Franz Kafka (1919) 5*
Lady Into Fox - novella by David Garnett (1922) 5*
Lord Mountdrago - novelette by W. Somerset Maugham (1939) 5*
The Monkey's Paw - short story by W. W. Jacobs (1902) 5*
Pomegranate Seed - novelette by Edith Wharton (1931) 5*
The Queen of Spades short story by Alexander Sergeievitch Pushkin (1834) 5*
The Rocking-Horse Winner short story by D. H. Lawrence (1926) 5*
The Sick Gentleman's Last Visit - short story by Giovanni Papini (1906) 5*
Split Second - novelette by Daphne du Maurier (1952) 5*
The Wizard Postponed - short story by Jorge Luis Borges (1933) [as by Don Juan Manuel] 5*
4-5*:
The Captives of Longjumeau - short story by Léon Bloy (1893) 4-5*
Climax for a Ghost Story - short story by I. A. Ireland (1919) 4-5*
The Feather Pillow - short story by Horacio Quiroga (1907) 4-5*
From "A School Story" - short fiction by M. R. James (1911) - read full version on: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_School_Story 4-5*
Importance - short story by Manuel Mujica Láinez (1978) 4-5*
An Injustice Revealed - short story by Anonymous (?) 4-5*
An Invitation to the Hunt - short story by George Hitchcock (1960) 4-5*
The Lady on the Grey - short story by John Collier (1951) 4-5*
Laura - short story by Saki (1914) 4-5*
Of a Promise Kept - short story by Lafcadio Hearn (1901) 4-5*
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973) 4-5*
The Playground - short story by Ray Bradbury (1952) 4-5*
Tattoo - short story by as by Junichiro Tanizaki (1910) 4-5*
The Third Bank of the River - short story by João Guimarães Rosa (1962) 4-5*
The Travelling Companion - short story by Hans Christian Andersen (1835) 4-5*
The Visit to the Museum - short story by Vladimir Nabokov (1958) 4-5*
4*:
August 25, 1983 - short story by Jorge Luis Borges (1983) 4*
The Argentine Ant - novelette by Italo Calvino (1952) 4*
The Door in the Wall - short story by H. G. Wells (1906) 4*
Father's Last Escape - short story by Bruno Schulz (1937) 4*
The Friends of the Friends - novelette by Henry James (1896) 4*
From the "American Notebooks" - short fiction by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1983) 4*
The Grey Ones - short story by J. B. Priestley (1953) 4*
Home - short story by Hilaire Belloc (1910) 4*
House Taken Over - short story by Julio Cortázar (1946) 4*
How Love Came to Professor Guildea - novella by Robert S. Hichens (1897) 4*
A Little Place Off the Edgware Road - short story by Graham Greene (1939) 4*
The Mysteries of the Joy Rio - short story by Tennessee Williams (1954) 4*
The Pagan Rabbi - novelette by Cynthia Ozick (1966) 4*
The Sight - short story by Brian Moore (1977) 4*
The State of Grace - short story by Marcel Aymé (1944) 4*
The Storm - short story by Jules Verne (1886) 4*
The Tall Woman - novelette by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (1882) 4*
Venetian Masks - short story by Adolfo Bioy Casares (1982) 4*
A Visitor from Down Under - short story by L. P. Hartley (1926) 4*
The Wish House - short story by Rudyard Kipling (1924) 4*
3-4*
The Bureau d'Echange de Maux - short story by Lord Dunsany (1915) 3-4*
Certain Distant Suns - short story by Joanne Greenberg (1983) 3-4*
The Curfew Tolls - short story by Stephen Vincent Benét (1935) 3-4*
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - short story by Edgar Allan Poe (1845) 3-4*
Et in Sempiternum Pereant - short story by Charles Williams (1935) 3-4*
John Duffy's Brother - short story by Flann O'Brien (1940) 3-4*
The Large Ant - short story by Howard Fast (1960) 3-4*
The Lemmings - short story by Alex Comfort (1946) 3-4*
A Scent of Mimosa - short story by Francis King (1975) 3-4*
Seaton's Aunt - novelette by Walter de la Mare (1922) 3-4*
The Signalman - short story by Charles Dickens (1866) 3-4*
The Story of a Panic - novelette by E. M. Forster (1904) 3-4*