Horror fiction "challenge", week one

First round of horror short fiction, mostly classics.

1. The House on the Borderland - William Hope Hodgson
2. The Mystery of the Derelict - William Hope Hodgson
3. The Horla - Guy de Maupassant
4. Fear - Guy de Maupassant
5. The White People - Arthur Machen
6. The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen
7. The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
8. El Día de Muerte - Ray Bradbury
9. At Chrighton Abbey - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
10. The Haunted Mill - Jerome K. Jerome
11. Surreal Estate - Nina Kiriki Hoffman
12. Birthmark - Seabury Quinn

"The Lottery" was definitely the best of these, but pretty much everything was quite good.  Machen and Hodgson were early "weird fiction" writers; H. P. Lovecraft cites them as big influences on his work, and it shows.  "The House on the Borderland" and "The Great God Pan" are both fantastic novellas, and I recommend them highly if you enjoy Lovecraft.  "At Chrighton Abbey" is an excellent Gothic ghost story and another highlight of this bunch.

I've realized that reading 31 stories/novellas by Halloween is not going to be any kind of challenge, especially if I'm reading mostly short stories. I'm just going to read whatever I want, not worry about the number of stories or their length, and see where I end up next month. I'm not going to discuss anything in-depth as I go, but at the end I will write up a "Top 10" post or something along those lines. In the meantime, feel free to hit me up with comments, questions, or recommendations!