The Cold Embrace: Weird Stories by Women – Book Review

by | Aug 8, 2016 | Book Reviews, Reviews | 0 comments

51f7TqntEkL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_The Cold Embrace: Weird Stories by Women
Edited by S.T. Joshi
Dover Publications
May, 2016
Reviewed by Jess Landry

This original anthology presents 19 short stories that cover nearly a century of speculative fiction by women authors. Selections range from Mary Shelley’s “Transformation” (1830), a pendant to Frankenstein in its themes and motifs, to “Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched” (1922) by May Sinclair, a tale of time travel that follows its heroine to Hell and back.

Plain and simple, female writers of weird fiction from the earlier days are not as well-known as their male counterparts. The Cold Embrace looks to change that by bringing together a collection of authors who may have otherwise been forgotten.

Introduced and edited by S.T. Joshi, the anthology collects some well-known names mixed with some not-as-well-known ones. Starting readers off is the most recognisable of the bunch, Mary Shelley. Her story, “Transformation,” as noted above, bears great similarities to the story she would soon come to write — one of the most renowned tales, not just of horror, but of fiction in general. Other stories of mention include “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It’s a study in subtle psychological horror, where a young woman with some serious issues becomes obsessed with the wallpaper lining her room, and E. Nesbit’s “From the Dead.” Although the author mainly wrote children’s books, her contribution to this collection in which a marriage goes awry, is a good one. Also included are stories from Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, May Sinclair, and Vernon Lee, among others.

The Cold Embrace is a fantastic collection of women authors whose works are ones you should introduce yourself to, if you’ve yet to meet.

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