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 Calvino's 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. Hoffmann's "The Sandman, " Nikolai Gogol's "The Nose, " Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart, " Robert Louis Stevenson's "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.

"Impressive and utterly pleasing . . . Each story [Calvino] picks is absorbing, unique, and continually surprising." - Los Angeles Times