This exciting and unique new anthology offers the best of popular fiction, including 45 short stories and one short novel that highlight the major genres of romance, horror fiction, science fiction, detective stories and adventure. Some of the world's most popular authors, from Edgar Allen Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle to Stephen King and Ian Fleming, are featured. Supporting this definitive collection of stories are ten non-fiction essays which discuss the key elements for writing in each genre.

• 1 HORROR FICTION
  • Introduction
  • The King and His Three Daughters by Horace Walpole
  • The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
  • The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell
  • Green Tea by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
  • The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce
  • Dracula’s Guest by Bram Stoker
  • Introduction to Supernatural Horror in Literature by H. P. Lovecraft
  • The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
  • Horror Market Writer and the Ten Bears by Stephen King
  • Graveyard Shift by Stephen King
  • Nunc Dimittis by Tanith Lee
  • Down, Satan! by Clive Barker

• 2 ROMANCE FICTION
  • Introduction
  • The Sisters’ Trial by Louisa May Alcott
  • Jane by Mary Roberts Rinehart
  • Introduction to Love Stories by Rosamunde Pilcher
  • Lalla by Rosamunde Pilcher
  • Trying to Tame the Romance: Critics and Correctness by Jayne Ann Krentz
  • Connecting Rooms by Jayne Ann Krentz
  • The Kiss by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
  • The Healing Touch by Janet Dailey

• 3 SCIENCE FICTION
  • Introduction
  • The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley
  • An Express of the Future by Jules Verne
  • The Star by H. G. Wells
  • Shambleau by C. L. Moore
  • Robbie by Isaac Asimov
  • Space Jockey by Robert A. Heinlein
  • Coda by Ray Bradbury
  • Usher II by Ray Bradbury
  • “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison
  • Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones by Samuel R. Delany
  • Myth and Archetype in Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Vaster Than Empires and More Slow by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson
  • Speech Sounds by Octavia E. Butler

• 4 DETECTIVE FICTION
  • Introduction
  • The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
  • The Musgrave Ritual by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Tuesday Night Club by Agatha Christie
  • Too Many Have Lived by Dashiell Hammett
  • The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler
  • Blackmailers Don’t Shoot by Raymond Chandler
  • Absolutely Elsewhere by Dorothy L. Sayers
  • Chee’s Witch by Tony Hillerman
  • Creating a Female Sleuth by Marcia Muller
  • The Place That Time Forgot by Marcia Muller
  • The Watts Lions [Easy Rawlins] by Walter Mosley

• 5 ADVENTURE FICTION
  • Introduction
  • About Fiction by H. Rider Haggard
  • Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard
  • Literature by Rudyard Kipling
  • The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
  • The Taste of the Meat by Jack London
  • The Battle for Teeka [Tarzan] by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • The Good Patriots by Baroness Orczy
  • The Ghost by Max Brand
  • From Missouri by Zane Grey
  • The Treasure Ship by Rafael Sabatini
  • The Gift of Cochise by Louis L’Amour
  • From a View to a Kill by Ian Fleming

• CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON POPULAR FICTION
  • Introduction
  • Popular Culture—New Notes Toward a Definition by Ray B. Browne
  • The Concept of Formula in the Study of Popular Literature by John G. Cawelti
  • Frankenstein: The New Prometheus by Arthur Asa Berger
  • Beneath the Surface: The Hidden Codes of Romance by Linda Barlow Krentz & Jayne Ann Krentz
  • Science Fiction: The Rebirth of Mythology by Gail Landsman
  • A Marxist Interpretation of the Crime Story by Ernest Mandel
  • Women and the Language of Men by Jane Tompkins