Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

The author, Alvin Schwartz, recounts the history of telling scary stories, a timeless pastime for all peoples and cultures that seems to answer a basic human desire to be scared while knowing that one is in no actual danger. Many of these stories, some thousands of years old, feature supernatural creatures (such as ghosts, witches, devils, vampires, or zombies) as well as real-life dangers, but all “are based on things that people saw or heard or experienced—or thought they did” (2). To illustrate the age-old domesticity of telling scary stories, Schwartz cites William Shakespeare’s play A Winter’s Tale, wherein a young prince named Mamillius begins to tell his mother a tale of “sprites and goblins,” as befits the winter season, about a man who “dwelt by a churchyard” (2). Unfortunately, he is quickly interrupted by the play’s tragic events, leaving the rest of his story untold. Schwartz argues that most scary stories should be told, not read, and that the teller should speak slowly and softly for an eerie effect. They should also be told at night when the gloomy darkness spawns all sorts of fears and imaginings.