Book excerpt: Fantastic fiction has existed since man's earliest days of telling tales around a fire. It deals with our most powerful emotions: fear, love and hope. Throughout its history, the short story has always been its most vital form. In short fiction, the boundaries of genre have been established, broken and re-established; the field has become differentiated and complex. The Big Book of Classic Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction displays the evolution of the genre, filled with significant and powerful works by some of the greatest masters of storytelling. Fantastic fiction has had an impact on all types of literature, and we can trace its effects via the generations of writers who have contributed to the field, from Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Herbert, Franz Kafka, Guy de Maupassant, H Beam Piper, Herman Melville, HG Wells, HP Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, Jack London, Jules Verne, Kurt Vonnegut, Marion Zimmer Bradley, MR James, O Henry, Philip K Dick, Richard Connell, Robert A Heinlein, Robert E Howard, William Hope Hodgson, WF Harvey to WW Jacobs, whose bestelling and award-winning collections of short fiction have proved the durability of the form. The Big Book of Classic Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction is a mammoth of a book, containing over 800 pages featuring 47 of the greatest short stories ever told in horror, fantasy and science fiction. It is a book to last the ages. The Nameless City by H.P. Lovecraft 2 B R O 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs A Dream Of Armageddon by H.G. Wells Lost Hearts by M.R. James The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell Ancient Lights by Algernon Blackwood Second Variety by Philip K. Dick The Voice In The Night by William Hope Hodgson The Gun by Philip K. Dick The Beast With Five Fingers by W.F. Harvey Youth by Isaac Asimov The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce In The Year 2889 by Jules Verne The Vampyre by John William Polidori Beyond The Door by Philip K. Dick The Pit And The Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe The Valley Of Spiders by H.G. Wells A Wicked Woman by Jack London The Time Machine by H.G. Wells Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker The Missing Link by Frank Herbert Dagon by H.P. Lovecraft The Last Days Of The United States by Robert A. Heinlein The Apparition by Guy de Maupassant The Planet Savers by Marion Zimmer Bradley Pigeons From Hell by Robert E. Howard Beyond Lies The Wub by Philip K. Dick The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft Old Rambling House by Frank Herbert The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells At The Mountains Of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick The Shunned House by H.P. Lovecraft The Red Room by H.G. Wells Beyond The Wall Of Sleep by H.P. Lovecraft Crossroads Of Destiny by H. Beam Piper The Masque Of The Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe The Monster Mine by Anonymous The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story Of Wall Street by Herman Melville The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Gift Of The Magi by O. Henry The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft