Search - Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Classics)

I can't deny genuinely unsettling were the fantasy horror stories The Wendigo and The Willows. But the other seven stories reminded me why I don't read much in this genre. While I understand that characterization isn't necessary in genre fiction, I do want rather more than uncanny tone and weird mood. Such as a modicum of a story, not only fantastic scene setting and awesome effect. The stories seemed fusty, from the stuffy late Victorian prose to the wide-eyed theme that the physical and spiritual forces of Nature are out to get us. Yeah, we post-moderns know.