It is commonly said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. That may be a way to fortify our reason and rationality but all too often it merely escalates the panic and irrationality so that every sentence we read or hear has the ability to shred nerves and common sense in next to no time.Why would we allow authors to do this to us? The truth is we enjoy it. Fear may be frightful but it is also enormous fun. Unless, of course, they take it too far. Which in many cases our classic authors including Edgar Allan Poe, H P Lovecraft, Edith Nesbit, W W Jacobs and a host of others certainly do.