The Cold Embrace: Weird Stories by Women
Edited by S.T. Joshi
Dover Publications
May 18, 2016
Reviewed by Elaine Pascale
The Cold Embrace features tales of dark fiction written by women over nearly a one hundred year time span. The collection is bookended by Mary Shelley (1830) and May Sinclair (1922), and contains names that would be familiar to any Gothic fan. These were women who wrote without the benefit of Women in Horror Month; women who made supernatural tales popular, and in so doing, created the opportunities that exist for women writers today.
The anthology contains both recognizable and rare offerings. Standouts include the titular story by Mary Elizabeth Braddon — it holds no surprising twists, but the writing is taut and peculiarly efficient. The same can be said for Gertrude Atherton’s “Death and the Woman.” There is also Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which is often pressed upon college students — a misfortune, as it assigns labor to an experience that should be amazing. A curious soul, discovering Gilman’s story, will delight in its alarming take on female hysteria, as opposed to wondering how long of a paper he or she must write about it. Edna Underwood’s “The Painter of Dead Women” twists the romantic trope of an American abroad, marveling in the malevolence that lurked beneath the gilded age. Also enjoyable are the two haunting tales of revenge: Ellen Glasgow’s “The Shadowy Third” and Marjorie Bowen’s “Scoured Silk.”
Joshi crafts an insightful introduction and includes tales that are as literary as they are disturbing. The Cold Embrace is not an easy summer read, but it should be a requirement for all who are interested in Gothic literature, as well as for those who celebrate our contemporary women in horror.
