The true theme of the nineteenth-century fantastic tale is the reality of what we see: to believe or not to believe in phantasmagoric apparitions, to glimpse another world, enchanted or infernal, behind everyday appearances. from Calvinos introduction to Fantastic Tales

Vampires, ghosts, and other horrors abound in this collection of nineteenth-century fantastic literature, selected and edited by Italo Calvino, a twentieth-century master of the speculative. This posthumously published anthology of enchanting, uncanny, terrifying, and immortally entertaining short stories includes E.T.A. Hoffmanns The Sandman, Nikolai Gogols The Nose, Edgar Allan Poes The Tell-Tale Heart, Robert Louis Stevensons The Bottle Imp, and many more, each with an introduction by Calvino. Fantastic Tales is a delight for the mind and a feast for the senses.