3.5 out of 5 stars
The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.
I don’t mind insects, they have an essential purpose in the world, whether it is pollinating, feeding vast numbers of other species or even clearing all the crap that everything leaves behind. I generally don’t find bugs creepy, but some people do, and this is the inspiration behind all these authors’ stories.
This is the list of stories included:
The Sphinx • Edgar Allan Poe • (1846)
The Blue Beetle: A Confession • A. G. Gray, Jun. • (1857)
The Mummy’s Soul • Anonymous
After Three Thousand Years • Jane G. Austin • (1868)
A Dream of Wild Bees• Olive Schreiner • (1888)
The Moth • H. G. Wells • (1895)
The Captivity of the Professor • A. Lincoln Green • (1901)
The Dream of Akinosuke • Lafcadio Hearn • (2007)
Butterflies • Lafcadio Hearn • (1904)
Caterpillars • E. F. Benson • (1912)
An Egyptian Hornet • Algernon Blackwood • (1915)
The Wicked Flea • J. U. Giesy • (1925)
The Miracle of the Lily • Clare Winger Harris • (1928)
Warning Wings • Arlton Eadie • (1929)
Beyond the Star Curtain • Garth Bentley • (1931)
Leiningen Versus the Ants • Carl Stephenson • (1938)
None of these stories terrified me, I am glad to say, but there was the odd one that made me shudder, in particular Caterpillars. I thought some were better than others, with my favourite being Beyond the Star Curtain, with The Captivity of the Professor coming a close second.
It is a great little collection that these editors have uncovered from the vaults of the British Library. I liked the intro for each of the authors and a potted history of each story, and even better, it was just before the story, so no flipping backwards and forwards. The stores are as diverse as the insects portrayed. Not all of the stories portray the insects as enemies of us, but those stories are in there if you fancy being creeped out a bit.
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