Witches & Warlocks: Tales of Black Magic, Old & New

by Marvin Kaye (Editor)

Other authorsOscar Wilde (Contributor), Tanith Lee (Contributor), H. G. Wells (Contributor), Isaac Asimov (Contributor), Robert Louis Stevenson (Contributor), Ray Bradbury (Contributor), H. P. Lovecraft (Contributor), Nathaniel Hawthorne (Contributor), W. B. Yeats (Contributor), Isaac Bashevis Singer (Contributor), Algernon Blackwood (Contributor)3 more, Frank L. Baum (Contributor), Lady Wilde (Contributor), Fritz Leiber, Jr. (Contributor)
Hardcover, 1989

Status

Available

Call number

808.838766

Collection

Publication

Guild America Books (1989), 529 pages

Description

Witches & warlocks curse, jinx, hex, spook, possess, charm & bedevil their victims in this collection of tales. Many stories are dark & chilling; some are light & humorous; most are time-honored; and a few are original, having been written especially for this book. Contributors include Robert Louis Stevenson, Nikolai Gogol, W.B. Yeats, L. Frank Baum, H.G. Wells, Isaac Singer, Ray Bradbury, Tanith Lee, Robert Bloch, Manly Wade Wellman, and others.

User reviews

LibraryThing member noneofthis
Kaye's Witches and Warlocks is not Asimov's Young Witches and Warlocks. Shame on me for inexplicably confusing them.

Kay's anthology is markedly lurid. After finding that the first few stories were focused around the topics of sex and hellfire, I skipped around and only read the stories by the
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authors I was interested in. By and large, I could have lived without reading them, but there were a few I felt worth the effort of tracking down.

Wells' "The Magic Shop" couldn't hold my interest. Bradbury's "The Traveler" was an excellent October Country tale, and I'm surprised that it was't included in the October Country collection. Pinkwater's "Wizard Crystal" was only mildly exciting; I prefer his humorous works. Lee's "Perfidious Amber" was a bit of mystery story and not one of her best. Baum's "The Tiger's Eye" was perhaps even better that Bradbury's story and one that I'm glad I read, and not just for this quote:

"Not willingly," admitted the tiger. "But here is the alternative; either you transform yourself into an eye for our child, or I and my dear wife will tear you into shreds." (Guild America Books, no ISBN, pp. 212-213)

Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is so frequently anthologized that there was little pleasure in finding it here. Asimov's "The Up-to-Date Sorcerer" was not at all to my taste. Lovecraft's "Witches' Hollow" (completed by August Derleth) was pretty bland. Stevenson's "The Song of the Morrow" started of promisingly but ended rather flat. The Appendices contained some interesting information, however.
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Language

Original publication date

1991

Physical description

529 p.; 9.5 inches

ISBN

1566192536 / 9781566192538

Local notes

FB Includes Appendix on The Two Witchcrafts, Notes, and Suggestions for further Reading and Viewing
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