Witchcraft Classics: Best Witch Short Stories 1800-1849

"Then with the agility of a cat she sprang on his shoulders, struck him in the side with a broom, and he began to run like a race-horse, carrying her on his shoulders." Nikolai Gogol, Viy

The cradle of modern witch short stories began in the first half of the 19th century. This anthology unearths the very best of these stories. Andrew Barger, a leading voice in the Gothic literature space, searched forgotten magazines, newspapers, journals and scholarly articles, to uncover the best witch stories written in the English language over one hundred years after the horrific events of the Salem Witch Trials. They had a lasting effect in both the U.S. and Europe, as these publications reflect from the many authors who penned witch stories in this genre. Andrew includes in his introduction to the collection, the actual text from the Salem Witch Trials.

These classic witch stories that have been uncovered are unmatched. One is a humorous tale that stands, in the grand Irish tradition of great storytelling, shoulder to shoulder with Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1819) and Charles Dickens's "The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton" (1836), as that rare combination of humor and horror that is so difficult to find. It is published for the first time in over a century and a half. What Andrew calls "America's first great witch short story" is also published for the first time in nearly two hundred years. As readers have come to expect from Andrew, he includes his scholarly touch to the anthology by providing introductions to each story and a foreword titled "Hags! Hags! Hags!" There are also illustrations for each story. Last, Andrew provides a list of stories considered at the end of the anthology. Read these witchcraft classics tonight!

Hags! Hags! Hags! (2023) by Andrew Barger

The Hollow of the Three Hills (1830) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Marvelous Legend of Tom Connor's Cat (1847) by Samuel Lover

The Witch Caprusche (1845) by Elizabeth Ellet

The Brownie of the Black Haggs (1827) by James Hogg

Lydia Ashbaugh, the Witch (1836) by William Darby

Young Goodman Brown (1835) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Viy (1835) by Nikolai Gogol

Witch Short Stories Considered