Tales of Terror

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"Tales of Terror"

Title of an anonymous collection of Gothic style ballads, usually ascribed wrongly to Matthew Gregory Lewis. There are actually two books with this title. The first, published in 1799, included three of Lewis's ballads, together with others by Sir Walter Scott and Robert Southey, but does not appear to be compiled by Lewis. The three ballads later appeared in his book Tales of Wonder (1801).

A second Tales of Terror (1801) is a coarse and grotesque collection that contains parodies of the work of Lewis and others, and does not therefore seem to be compiled by Lewis either.

(See also English occult fiction .)

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