Dan Barker

"English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and writer Richard Dawkins opens Chapter 2 of his bestseller The God Delusion by saying that the God of the Old Testament is "arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction" and goes on to list nineteen negative character traits. Now in God : the Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction, Dan Barker, a former ordained minister and current atheist, proves that Dawkins was right."--Dust jacket.

To build a fire, version 1 / Jack London -- To build a fire, version 2 / Jack London -- An account of the tragic death of the Willey Family -- The ambitious guest / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The child-who-was-tired / Katherine Mansfield -- Sleepy / Anton Chekhov -- From "Tricks and Defeats of Sporting Genius" / Samuel Seabough -- The notorious jumping frog of Calaveras country / Mark Twain -- Repentance / Frank O'Connor -- First confession / Frank O'Connor -- The death in the forest / Sherwood Anderson -- Death in the woods / Sherwood Anderson -- The geranium / Flannery O'Connor -- Judgement / Flannery O'Connor -- Odour of chrysanthemums, version 1 / D.H. Lawrence -- Odour of chrysanthemums, version 3 / D.H. Lawrence -- Odour of chrysanthemums, version 2, the ending / D.H. Lawrence -- The jewelry / Guy de Maupassant -- Paste / Henry James -- Boule de Suif / Guy de Maupassant -- The heroine / Isak Dinesen -- [That evening sun](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20080863W) / William Faulkner -- The killers / Ernest Hemingway -- [An occurrence at Owl Creek bridge](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL14863196W) / Ambrose Bierce -- The secert miracle / Jorge Luis Borges -- Miriam / Truman Capote -- A little companion / Angus Wilson -- The demon lover / Elizabeth Bown -- The daemon lover / Shirley Jackson -- The phantom lover, two excerpts -- Dry September / William Faulkner -- Going to meet the man / James Baldwin -- The basement room / Graham Greene -- Next door / Kurt Vonnegut -- [William Wilson](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16088822W) / Edgar Allan Poe -- The secret sharer / Joseph Conrad -- The eyes / Edith Wharton -- Life isn't a short story / Conrad Aiken -- The potato elf / Vladimer Nabokov -- [A painful case](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5213767W/A_Painful_Case) / James Joyce -- Barbados / Paule Marshall -- Death of a travelling salesman / Eudora Welty -- Beggar my neighbor / Dan Jacobson -- Awakening / Isaac Babel -- [Young goodman Brown](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL455569W) / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The judgement / Franz Kafka -- King of the bingo game / Ralph Ellison -- Night-sea journey / John Barth.

Here are ruined castles, abbeys and crypts, spires and bats silhouetted against full moons, sharp-toothed men in full evening dress seducing beautiful, innocent young women, coffin lids being raised to reveal unspeakable residents. But the classic vampire of gothic tradition is not the only fiend to stalk the thousand pages of this vast collection. Vampires come in many guises, and all can be found within: reluctant vampires, detective vampires, space vampires, lesbian vampires, punk vampires. There are stories here by men and women from every literary era of the past century and a half, right up to the most talented writers of the present day. The Vampire Archives is the biggest, hungriest, undeadliest collection of vampire stories, as well as the most comprehensive bibliography of vampire fiction ever assembled. Dark, stormy, and delicious, once it sinks its teeth into you there's no escape. Vampires! Whether imagined by BramStroker or Anne Rice, they are part of the human lexicon and as old as blood itself. They are your neighbors, your friends, and they are always lurking. Now Otto Penzler - editor of the bestselling Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps - has compiled the darkest, the scariest, and by far the most evil collection of vampire stories ever. With over eighty stories, including the works of Stephen King and D. H. Lawrence, alongside Lord Byron and Tanith Lee, not to mention Edgar Allan Poe and Harlan Ellison, The Vampire Archives will drive a stake through the heart of any other collection out there.