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First printing. Wraps are firm, text block clean, without highlights/underlining or markings. Some rubbing/curling to wraps, mild tanning. Well packaged and promptly shipped from California. Partnered with Friends of the Library since 2010. First printing. Wraps are firm, text block clean, without highlights/underlining or markings. Some rubbing/curling to wraps, mild tanning. Well packaged and promptly shipped from California. Partnered with Friends of the Library since 2010. See less
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Alberto Manguel
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Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature Paperback – December 13, 1984

by Alberto Manguel (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 28 ratings
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Short stories by authors including Julio Cortazar, Saki, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ray Bradbury deal with hauntings, time warps, prophetic dreams, strange creatures, and bizarre occurrences
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  1. Print length
    967 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Three Rivers Press
  4. Publication date
    December 13, 1984
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 2.25 x 7.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0517552698
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0517552698
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Three Rivers Press; 1st American ed edition (December 13, 1984)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 967 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0517552698
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0517552698
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.64 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 2.25 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 28 ratings

About the author

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Alberto Manguel

Alberto Manguel

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Internationally acclaimed as an anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, and editor, Alberto Manguel is the bestselling author of several award-winning books, including A Dictionary of Imaginary Places and A History of Reading. He was born in Buenos Aires, moved to Canada in 1982 and now lives in France, where he was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre français des Arts et des Lettres.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
28 global ratings
English translation Julio Cortazar, Saki,
5 Stars
English translation Julio Cortazar, Saki,
English translation of short stories by authors including Julio Cortazar, Saki, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ray Bradbury deal with haunting, time warps, prophetic dreams, strange creatures, and bizarre occurrences. From American edition, Publisher C.N. Potter,NY, distributed by Crown books 1984Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature
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Top reviews from the United States

GAP
5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable!
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2016
Verified Purchase
Unbelievable!
Or maybe not so convincing...but always well written.
Black Water is a collection of the fantastic taken from literature.
A great writer's reference to the unexplained.
One person found this helpful
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Ravenhill
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Anthology
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2015
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Well-rounded and well-chosen stories of the weird, dark, strange and in some cases horrific.
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francis c
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2015
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great anthology, with quality writers...
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Stephen C. Rife
5.0 out of 5 stars Miraculous
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2023
So many great short stories assembled here, with fine, efficient introductions from Manguel for each. A joy.
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Glenn Russell
5.0 out of 5 stars He is surely among the very greatest readers of books and lovers of world literature
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2016
Alberto Manguel - Argentine-Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist and editor. He is surely among the very greatest readers of books and lovers of world literature. Black Water collects 72 tales of the fantastic by such authors as Jean Cocteau, Marguerite Yourcenar, Herman Hesse, Italo Calvino, Vladimir Nabokov, H.G.Wells, Franz Kafka and Ursula K. LeGuin. There is one story I particularly enjoy from a less well known author from Argentina, Manuel Mujica Láinez, and it is this story I have made the focus of my review. Hope you enjoy and take the opportunity to explore this outstanding collection on your own.

IMPORTANCE by Manuel Mujica Láinez
Great Lady: Mrs. Hermosilla del Fresno, widow, lady of very great importance, lives in her huge mansion with her many servants and presides over all the city’s important charities and parties. Great writers such as de Maupassant and Balzac have always understood one of the perfect ingredients for a good short story is a character puffed up by all their wealth and social standing. Manuel Mujica Láinez was familiar with the precariousness of family wealth: born into a distinguished and wealthy lineage of Buenos Aries nobility, by the time the family line reached his parents and Manuel, the vast majority of wealth vanished. Manuel had to earn a living as a literary critic and art critic for the city’s leading newspaper.

Chink in the Armor: Unfortunately, there is one small fact diminishing the Señora’s splendid importance: her family background is somewhat less than splendid. That’s right, sad but true, she comes from a dubious bloodline. Also unfortunate for Señora, certain obscure relatives occasionally have the temerity to pop up at the wrong time forcing Señora to cloak their kinship with a wry smile and arched glance “while her vanity spits and snarls inside her like a crouching tiger.” Ah, a second valuable ingredient for a good short story featuring a puffed up character: a hidden flaw.

Piety Counts: Señora believes in God as well as in heaven and hell. And equally notable, Señora also firmly believes, a belief bolstered by her assistants and employees, that she has unquestionably earned her rightful place in Paradise. Such a worldview as the Señora’s has always amused me, a worldview shared by fundamentalists of whatever stripe I’ve encountered: there’s a heaven and hell and I’m the one going to heaven. All the rest of you people who don’t believe exactly what I believe will go to hell – good riddance!

The Fantastic: As it turns out, there’s an excellent reason why this story is included in Alberto Manguel's anthology of fantastic literature: one morning Señora wakes up only to discover she is dead. That’s right, all her very, very important servants gather in her room, wailing and crying over the fact that their beloved Señora has died. Of course, Señora is frightened and a tad astonished at this event since deep down Señora really and truly believed she is immortal. Let’s face it, all of us are not that different from Señora – a characteristically human way of viewing life: suffering, old age and especially death are things that happen to other people, certainly not me since, well . . . life is all about me!

The Unexpected: After one hour, two hours, three hours, Señora thinks enough is enough, where are heavenly angels to carry me off to paradise? Instead, exactly the beings she does not want to appear, appear: her dubious cousins, nephews and, damn, her most dreaded half-sister show up in open view of those upper crust ladies Señora has always tried her hardest to impress. Oh, my, what a bummer for someone who has spent their life molding an identity around wealth, status and bloodline. Sidebar: In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition with their Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead), the biggest mistake we can make at the time of our death is to cling to our past life and relationships rather than letting go.

Bad News: Señora's upper crust lady friends actually exchange pleasantries with her lowly relatives rather than paying any attention to her. What is happening here? Señora grows impatient, life is not cooperating with her wishes and desires. On top of this, after six distasteful, highly unpleasant days, Señora’s lawyer shows up on the scene and, contrary to her interests in perpetuating her good name by leaving her wealth to her chosen charities as clearly expressed in her will, the nefarious rascal denies there is any such will and boldly states all her monies will be distributed to her relatives. Ahhh! Señora wants to raise her arms to heaven and shout out the truth, but, alas, inhabiting a ghostly, otherworldly space, she cannot move her limbs or open her mouth.

Even Worse: The bad news continues, her cousins, nephews and half-sister move into her house, rummage through her drawers and closets, put on her clothes and jewelry, have lewd sex on her bed right next to her ghostly body, speak of her as prudish, vain and haughty. Here is how Manuel Mujica Láinez ends his tale: “Until, gradually, Mrs Hermosilla del Fresno (who cannot even escape into the haven of madness) understands, with surprise and despair, the she will never be taken away, not even to be guided to an unexpected Hell. Because this, however strange, absurd, unconventional and antitheological it might seem, this is Hell.”
6 people found this helpful
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NE FL Editor
5.0 out of 5 stars Doorway into a different world
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2011
Where to begin?

This anthology was one I obtained in my 20's and have dipped into ever since. Certain themes resonate. The serendipity of chance encounters leads to uncanny places. Visions and dreams enthrall the person who entertains them. And love takes the most unexpected forms. An imaginary painting captivates art critics in ways that a real one never could ("Autumn Mountain"). An artist paints himself into a scene that enables him to escape even in death ("How Wang Fo Was Saved" by Marguerite Yourcenar). A woman cancels the laws of nature through her disbelief ("Certain Distant Suns" by Greenberg). An errand to rescue an artwork become a trap leading to exile ("The Visit To the Museum" by Nabokov). A specter from beyond returns to wreak vengeance on the one who profited from his demise ("A Visitor From Down Under"). Here is a vignette: The Dream (from the One Thousand and One Arabian Nights)

There was a man of Baghdad who possessed great wealth and many possessions. But his estate changed and his wealth passed away until at length he was reduced to sustaining himself by laborious exertion. And he slept one night, overwhelmed and oppressed, and in his dream saw one who said to him, Arise and repair to Cairo, for verily thy fortune lies there. So he awoke and journeyed to Cairo, and when he arrived there night overtook him and he slept in a mosque.

Now as God, Whose Name be exalted, would have it, certain robbers broke into a house adjacent to the mosque and the inhabitants raising cries, the robbers slipped over the wall into the mosque and escaped. Then the constabulary entered the mosque and found the man of Baghdad there, and seizing him, beat him with their truncheons until he was nearly dead, and then put him in a cell. And after three days the constable summoned him and asked, From whence are thou? And he answered, From Baghdad. And he asked him, What affair was it that brought thee to Cairo? And he answered, I saw a person in a dream who told me to go to Cairo, for my fortune was there. And I now see what that fortune was, namely the beating I received at the hand of the constables.

Then the head constable laughed so that his grinders showed, and he said, Oh thou of little sense, know this, that I for three nights had a dream in which I was told that if I went to Baghdad and went to such-and-such a street and came to a certain house and went into the back garden there and dug beneath a fountain that I would find a great treasure. And I did not go. But thou has traveled from city to city all on account of confused dreams.

Then he gave him some money and said, Take this and return to thy city.

Now, the house that the constable described in his dream was the house of the man of Baghdad. So when he returned to his home, he went into the garden and dug beneath the fountain, and found abundant wealth. And so God sustained him, and it was regarded as a marvelous coincidence.
5 people found this helpful
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RJ
5.0 out of 5 stars English translation Julio Cortazar, Saki,
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018
English translation of short stories by authors including Julio Cortazar, Saki, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ray Bradbury deal with haunting, time warps, prophetic dreams, strange creatures, and bizarre occurrences. From American edition, Publisher C.N. Potter,NY, distributed by Crown books 1984 Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature
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RJ
5.0 out of 5 stars English translation Julio Cortazar, Saki,
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018
English translation of short stories by authors including Julio Cortazar, Saki, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ray Bradbury deal with haunting, time warps, prophetic dreams, strange creatures, and bizarre occurrences. From American edition, Publisher C.N. Potter,NY, distributed by Crown books 1984[[ASIN:0517552698 Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature]]
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3 people found this helpful
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ATB
5.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL!
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2016
I am truthfully only about halfway through this delightful tome (I always seem to be reading several books at a time), but every story I've read so far is wonderfully disturbing and incredibly crafted. 'Lady Into Fox', the story I've just finished, is longer than most of the others, and is brilliant. The introductions to the stories by the editor can be helpful, and I like most of them, however, they do contain a spoiler here and there, so proceed with caution. Definitely recommended.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Mike Enerson
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in Canada on October 12, 2020
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An outstanding collection of short stories.
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R Kandekar
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collection for weird and horror adjacent literature
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 25, 2021
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A brilliant collection of weird and unsettling stories from both literary masters as well as lesser-known writers. A must read for anyone who likes weird/fantastic/horror short stories.
One person found this helpful
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Amitava Das
5.0 out of 5 stars A great collection and a legacy
Reviewed in India on January 2, 2020
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This is a brilliant , rare exotic collection of fantastic literature from all the major languages in the world , curated by the great bibliophile Alberto Manguel. Can’t praise it enough.
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Helen
5.0 out of 5 stars Much to read!
Reviewed in Spain on November 29, 2018
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The copy was OK, but well, the book itself is 30 years old already. The content is great, recommend.
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