This collection of 14 stories collected by Lafcadio Hearn, contains Japanese ghost stories, but also several non-fiction pieces. Hearn tries to give a glimpse into the customs of the Japanese, by giving examples of Buddhist Proverbs and explaining the use of incense and the nation wide fascination with poetry. Furthermore, he has again translated several hair-rising ghost stories, like "A Passional Karma" about the truly undying love of a young couple.

Selma Lagerlöf was born in Vaermland, Sweden, in 1858 and enjoyed a long and very successful career as a writer, receiving the Nobel-Prize in Literature in 1909. She died in Vaermland in 1940. The Treasure (Herr Arnes penningar) is a fairly short Novel, both a Drama and a Ghost Story. Published in 1904 and the English translation in 1923. The story is set in Bohuslaen on the West coast of Sweden in the middle of the 16th Century. Herr Arne, the old Parson in Solberga and all his household are brutally murdered, and his great Treasure stolen...

The reader is immersed in the Hellish madness of war through the eyes of a tired soldier losing his grip on reality, scarred physically and mentally by the atrocities he witnesses. Lauded author Leonid Andreyev, who many consider Russia's Edgar Allan Poe, gives us a powerful and intense narrative showing the horrors of war and its impact on the psyche. - Summary by Ben Tucker

End of the world sci-fi tale borrows heavily from H.G. Wells' WOTW and In The Days of the Comet -- looks like fun !

Manfred is a dramatic poem in three acts by Lord Byron, and possibly a self confessional work. A noble, Manfred, is haunted by the memory of some unspeakable crime. In seeking for forgetfulness and oblivion, he wanders between his castle and the mountains. He has several encounters with the people who try to assist him, as well as spirits that rule nature and human destiny. The poem explores themes of morality, religion, guilt and the human condition.

Tales of Old Japan by Lord Redesdale is a collection of short stories focusing on Japanese life of the Edo period (1603 - 1868). It contains a number of classic Japanese stories, fairy tales, and other folklore; as well as Japanese sermons and non-fiction pieces on special ceremonies in Japanese life, such as marriage and harakiri, as observed by Lord Redesdale. The best know story of these is "The Forty-seven Ronins" a true account of samurai revenge as it happened at the beginning of 18th century Japan...

Louisa May Alcott enthusiasts would be delighted to read this short novel published in 1867, just a year before the grand debut of her most famous Little Women trilogy. This is one of three books she wrote under the pseudonym AM Barnard. She used this name to pen tales that were meant more for adult readers, though younger people will find them quite interesting too. The Abbot's Ghost or Maurice Treherne's Temptation is a romance, mystery, ghost-story and novel of manners all rolled into one...

A suspenseful vampire tale. Translated from the original Italian text by Erin O'Rourke.

From a master of weird fiction comes this collection of ghost stories rooted in the antiquarian pursuits. A doll's house that reveals more than its owner ever wished. Stolen prayer books that prove to be doom for those who seek to purloin them. A piercing shriek in the dead of night. A glimpse into the dark past through a pair of bewitched binoculars. An ancient crown that should have never been unearthed. A burial site cursed by those who died by wickedness. These nightmares may come to haunt your dreams if you should let them in. - Summary by Ben Tucker

I have not considered as ghost-poems anything but poems which related to the return of spirits to earth. They "The Blessed Damozel," a poem of spirits in heaven, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," whose heroine may be a fairy or witch, and whose ghosts are presented in dream only, do not belong in this classification; nor do such poems as Mathilde Blind's lovely sonnet, "The Dead Are Ever with Us," class as ghost-poems; for in these the dead are living in ourselves in a half-metaphorical sense. If a poem would be a ghost-story, in short, I have considered it a ghost-poem, not otherwise.

Dr. Haverill is asked to fill in as local physician for the skittish Dr. Lennox in a small Pennsylvania town. The locals seem to be a superstitious bunch, prone to fearing traveling in the woods at night and with good reason. It seems a series of vicious attacks have occurred by what appears to be some kind of large animal. As the bodies begin to pile up, Dr. Haverill starts to question whether the responsible party could be something beyond humanity. Writer Margery Williams Bianco is perhaps better known for writing the children's classic "The Velveteen Rabbit", but this dark slice of mystery horror fiction was found to be admired by none other than H...

In this 1895 Faustian novel by British author Marie Corelli, we follow the journey of Geoffrey Tempest. Initially a starving and penniless writer, his good fortune comes upon him in the form of a huge inheritance, and the friendship of a character who "is not what he seems", Prince Lucio Rimanez. Geoffrey seems to have the devils luck about him as he climbs the social ladder, marries the daughter of an Earl, and is the envy of all high society. Inevitably his luck and good fortune begin to crumble as it slowly becomes apparent who Prince Rimanez truly is. Geoffrey reaches his crisis point as he is forced to choose his true master. - Summary by Lisa Statler.

The Strange Visitation is a Christmas ghost story in the spirit of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It was commissioned by the Strand as a supplement to its December volume of that year. - Summary by A. Gramour

Witches, spells, ghosts, pacts with the Devil, occult rituals, love triangles, popes and the Anti-Christ are some of the ingredients of this chilling early horror work by Marjorie Bowen that some consider to be the ultimate Gothic Novel. With enough suspenseful plot twists and turns to keep most listeners on edge guessing till the very end.

Cecilia de Noël is an original and cleverly told ghost story, published in 1891. The story is told, Rashomon-like, from six different viewpoints.

This is a classic horror story, and one of the earliest examples of science fiction. The main characters are Dr. Frankenstein and his creation, the daemon. Shelley called the scientist a "pale student of unhallowed arts" and his creation a "hideous phantasm of a man." This story is not only delightfully frightful, but arguably represents one of the clearest criticisms of science during a time when, like the daemon, it was leaving its own infancy and, like Dr. Frankenstein, testing its ethical boundaries...

While Mary Shelley will most likely always be known for her enduring classic of mad science Frankenstein, this collection intends to show the sheer breath and quality of her writing beyond the creation for which she is most known. Many of these stories are told in an atmospheric gothic fiction vein, full of eerie old castles, strange revelations and family secrets. But we also have stories of the supernatural and even science fiction to contend with. Shelley was a true literary master and should be recognized for her contributions to literature beyond her most famous work. - Summary by Ben Tucker

Maurice Level was a French writer of supremely twisted and macabre fiction with demented plotting and gruesome violence reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe and admired by the likes of H. P. Lovecraft. But beyond the Grand Guignol set pieces and O' Henry-esque twist endings, Level was a humanist at heart, giving us truly empathic characters, full of sadness and regret, and showing us who these people really are at their core once all trace of society has been stripped away. Here presented are 26 of his tales of terror and madness, many of which were translated into English for the first time for this collection.

Maurice Renard's little known but delightfully bizarre tale of mad science run amok owes much to H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau while also forging its own path by taking Wells' plot as a starting point and pushing it to ridiculous extremes. When a young man named Nicholas goes to visit his beloved scientist uncle Dr. Lerne in a remote French chateau, he is immediately put on his guard by his uncle's strange behavior, the mysterious Germans who now work with his uncle in a secret laboratory on the premises, on the strange noises he hears in the night...

May Sinclair’s Uncanny Stories is a collection of short stories filled with macabre, romantic, and Gothic themes. Enjoy tales of love and loss, murder, philosophy, and supernatural happenings. Summary by RhiannonD.

An English tourist in a small, rural town in the South of France discovers an ancient manuscript with a strange illustration on the last page. A young orphan is sent to live with his elderly cousin, a secretive man who is obsessed with immortality. A picture that tells stories that change according to who is viewing it. These and other delicious, goose bump evoking tales are part of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by Montague R James. A master of his craft, MR James was an academic and administrator of King's College, Cambridge and later of Eton...

A collection of stories exploring the psychological and paranormal, some stories bordering on the macabre. - Summary by Luke Castle

A classic ghost story of a haunted house, and the haunted man who lives in it.

An American diplomat's family moves into an ancient stately mansion. They're warned by the owner that it is haunted by a most horrifying and gruesome spirit who had once cruelly murdered his own wife. The story progresses with creaking floor boards, mysterious passages, dark attics, clanking chains, and weird howling. Yet, the reader is totally unprepared for Oscar Wilde's brand of tongue in cheek humor as he takes all the ingredients of a traditional ghost story and turns it on its head, and creates a hilarious parody instead of a morbid saga! The Canterville Ghost was the first of Oscar Wilde's short stories to be published...

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories is a collection of short semi-comic mystery stories. This collection exemplifies Wilde's sharp wit and dark humour. Stories in this collection include Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, The Canterville Ghost, The Sphinx Without a Secret, The Model Millionaire, and The Portrait Of Mr W H.

Perceval Landon was a journalist and short story author, and in these two tales he explored the supernatural. In ‘Railhead’, a man receives an urgent message – from an out-of-service telegraph. In ‘Thurnley Abbey’, the titular abbey’s past might be less remote than its occupants believe. NB These stories were first published in 1908 and contain contemporary views on race and violence. It is policy not to alter the published text. - Summary by Newgatenovelist

“Would Julia of Strobazzo’s heart was reeking on my dagger!”From the asthmatic urgency of its opening abduction scene to the Satanic defiance of the villain’s departure “with a wild convulsive laugh of exulting revenge”, this first of Shelley’s Gothic novelettes recycles much sensational boyhood reading and also points to some of his more mature concerns.It is the ego-driven pursuit of passionate extremes, revenge included, which consigns figures like Zastrozzi and the murderous Matilda to an isolation which is socially destructive as well as self-annihilating...

"We cannot tell you what kind of a story this is. We simply cannot present it as we present other stories. It is too tremendous for that. We are very glad—and proud—to share it with you." - Summary by Planet Stories, Summer 1948

Tales of Folklore are often of special interest. Anything may happen to ordinary mortals in the world painted by folklore. But it becomes even more interesting when you dive into folklore of places away from your own culture. This volume is a collection of ancient Japanese tales. We hear of ordinary mortals interacting with the spirit world, sometimes to their benefit, sometimes to their doom, we hear of love and hate, and of war and peace. Some of the stories will be entirely new to most readers, some of them will be uncannily familiar. - Summary by Carolin

The Ingoldsby Legends are a collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poetry supposedly written by Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington Manor, actually a pen-name of Richard Harris Barham.The legends were first printed in 1837 as a regular series in Bentley's Miscellany and later in New Monthly Magazine. The legends were illustrated by John Leech and George Cruikshank. They proved immensely popular and were compiled into books published in 1840, 1842 and 1847 by Richard Bentley. They remained popular through the Victorian era but have since fallen out of fame. An omnibus edition appeared in 1879: The Ingoldsby Legends; or Mirth and marvels.

A story about a mysterious oriental figure who pursues a British politician to London, where he wreaks havoc with his powers of hypnosis and shape-shifting, Marsh’s novel is of a piece with other sensational turn-of-the-century fictions such as Stoker’s Dracula, George du Maurier’s Trilby, and Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels. Like Dracula and many of the sensation novels pioneered by Wilkie Collins and others in the 1860s, The Beetle is narrated from the perspectives of multiple characters,...

Mary Blyth, a sales clerk who is robbed, nearly murdered and then fired from her job, thinks her luck has changed when she inherits an old house from a distant relation, Benjamin Batters. This house holds dark secrets. Murderous thugs, a mysterious threat from the Far East let her know this is not the case. The Joss, a Reversion is from Richard Marsh, author of “The Beetle”. - Summary by Alan Winterrowd

Is it true that people can literally be scared to death ? Is it possible to photograph astral projections ? What happens if you play with a pack of cards which belonged to a dead card-trickster ? These and more questions are raised and answered in ''The Seen and the Unseen'' , a collection of twelve short stories of a supernatural and uncanny nature by English author Richard Marsh , famous for such mystery/horror novels as ''The Beetle'' and ''The Goddess: A Demon''. So if you feel you are ready for some goosebumps before bedtime, snuggle up and have a listen. - Summary by Sonia

After a night of drinking and gambling, John Ferguson has a terrifying dream of his neighbor being violently torn to shreds by an unknown attacker. When he wakes up, he sees a strange and bloodied woman climbing through his window, suffering from amnesia. These strange occurrences are brought to a chilling climax when, the next day, Ferguson learns that his dream came true, and his neighbor was indeed brutally murdered during the night! With suspicion mounting against the mysterious woman, Ferguson sets out to uncover her true identity and find the vicious killer in the process...

A group of guests, at an exclusive luxury hotel in Hampshire, are the witnesses of an illustration of occult powers, demonstrated by “the Mystery”, as Mrs. Jefferson named the beautiful stranger who one day appeared in the Turkish Baths of the hotel. The events that follow lead Mrs. Jefferson to question the wisdom of her interest in the occult.

Red Shadows is the first of a series of stories featuring Howard’s puritan avenger, Solomon Kane. Kane tracks his prey over land and sea, enters the jungles of Africa, and even faces dark Gods and evil magic — all to avenge a woman he’d never met before.

Fifteen short ghost stories by the Anglican then Roman Catholic priest, Robert Hugh Benson . The form of the book is of an old English Roman Catholic priest telling stories to his young friend. Benson wrote prolifically in many genres. His horror and ghost fiction are collected in The Light Invisible and A Mirror of Shalott - David Wales

Fourteen stories of the strange by the Anglican then Roman Catholic priest, Robert Hugh Benson . The form of the book is of stories told by a gathering of Roman Catholic clergy. Benson wrote prolifically in many genres. His horror and ghost fiction are collected in The Light Invisible and A Mirror of Shalott - Summary by David Wales

“Olalla” was a “shilling shocker” written for the Christmas season in 1885, just before the publication of Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The nameless protagonist of this Gothic tale, a wounded soldier, goes to the Spanish countryside to recuperate. He finds himself enthralled by the beautiful Olalla, the daughter of his hostess, whose family conceals a terrible secret.

Can the soul of the dead come back to haunt the one who was responsible for its death? What would happen if the responsible one did not believe it could be so, and yet was in love with the returned soul? The Return of the Soul is a horror story of a man who is visited by the returning soul of a deceased, and who has some very perplexing issues to deal with upon that return. (Introduction by Roger Melin)

Tongues of Conscience (1898) is a collection of five thought-provoking stories where an innocent, but selfish, action leads to horrific consequences. Robert Hichens writes some wonderfully evocative descriptions of nature: from a raw and exposed violent seascape, to the serene and idyllic countryside “…the violets seemed to sing in odours…” , to a train pushing through the white-out of a blizzard. In Sea Change an artist with a dark secret (“…I painted for him in words, the varying colors of waves in different seas… I drowned little Jack in the sea...

Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) studied art in Paris in the late 80’s and early 90’s, where his work was displayed at the Salon. However, shortly after returning to America, he decided to spend his time in writing. He became popular as the writer of a number of romantic novels, but is now best known as the author of “The King In Yellow”. This is a collection of the first half of this work of short stories which have an eerie, other-worldly feel to it; but the stories in the second half are essentially love stories, strongly coloured by the author’s life as an artist in France...

The Mystery of Choice is a collection of short horror stories written by Robert W. Chambers. The stories, set in France, are known for their heavy use of nature imagery. - Summary by Veronica Maresh Mead

This is a collection of 10 original ghost stories by Rosa Mulholland, published in 1880. Some only one section long; others spread out over 3 or 4 sections. Enjoy! Summary by Carolin

Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) was an English hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar. During his life, he published more than 100 books, among them this collection of ghost stories.

The setting, geography and history of this story by Rev'd Sabine Baring-Gould, author of Onward Christian Soldiers and other well-known hymns, are all accurate, or at least as accurate as local lore will allow. Kinver has long been a midlands beauty spot, and the UK National Trust own and open one of the rock-dwellings mentioned. The 'Stewponey' too was an inn until a year or two into the twenty-first century - the present reader having stopped there for a drink and a meal many times.The story, whether...

This issue contains "The Dark Side of Antri" by Sewell Peaslea Wright, "The Sunken Empire" by H. Thompson Rich, "The Gate to Xoran" by Hal K. Wells, "The Eye of Allah" by C. D. Willard, "The Fifth-Dimension Catapult" by Murray Leinster, and "The Pirate Planet[' by Charles W. Diffin.

Physician and author S. Weir Mitchell brings us a short collection of stories of the human condition. Through diverse settings as the mystical Arabian desert to a lonely park bench, from a jocular sea port to a dusty library packed with archaic tomes written in foreign tongues, S. Weir Mitchell shows us what it means to live as others live. Through hauntings both literal and metaphorical, through desperate acts and moral dilemmas, we are shown through these slight sketches that life is as complicated or simple as we choose to make it.

Though Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his detective stories, he also wrote other short stories which are masterpieces of mystery and suspense. In some of the stories in “Tales of Terror and Mystery”, a suppressed uneasiness gradually builds up and evolves into sheer terror. In others, the story line unexpectedly changes and comes to a horrific conclusion. Sit back in the comfort of your armchair and let yourself be transported to the strange but compelling world created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Abercrombie Smith, Edward Bellingham and William Monkhouse Lee are three students at Oxford University, sharing adjacent lodgings. When people against whom Bellingham holds a grudge are attacked, Smith starts to investigate. Is Bellingham innocent? But what are the strange noises coming from his room when he is not home? This short gothic horror story first published in 1892 is a bit outside the usual haunts of Conan Doyle and has been compared to the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and H. Rider Haggard. - Summary by Availle

A novelette of Verdun, the World War and Devil-Worship! - Summary by Weird Tales Magazine

Original title “La Morte Amoreuse.” This is the story of a priest named Romauld, and his all-consuming love for the beautiful courtesan, Clarimonde.

This is volume 1 of 3. Originally published as a penny dreadful from 1845 until 1847, when it first appeared in book form, Varney the Vampyre is a forerunner to vampire stories such as Dracula, which it heavily influenced. Flora Bannersworth is attacked in her own room in the middle of the night, and although her attacker is seemingly shot dead, the body is nowhere to be found. The discovery of two small bite marks on Flora’s neck leads Mr Marchdale, an old friend of the family, to the conclusion that she was bitten by a vampire...

An entertaining selection of “modern” ghost stories selected “to include specimens of a few of the distinctive types of modern ghosts, as well as to show the art of individual stories.”Sure to please the love of the supernatural in all of us!

The tale of Sweeney Todd has had many incarnations, most famously the stage and movie musical by Stephen Sondheim. But it all started in 1846 with a serialized telling of the story titled “The String of Pearls” in the weekly magazine “The People’s Periodical and Family Library”. Called by some a romance, by others a horror story, it is one of the earliest murder mysteries. In “The String of Pearls”, Sweeney Todd is less sympathetic than in some of his later incarnations – a perfect villain, totally self-seeking with no redeeming qualities...

The Short Ghost Story Collection contains ten classic spooky tales written by such master craftsmen as Algernon Blackwood, Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker and Saki among others. The stories range from haunted houses to reincarnation (as a predatory otter), ancient curses in which marble statues come alive and wreak a horrible revenge and a long narrative poem that describes a dialog between a ghost and a human being. This anthology features authors like Lewis Carroll and E Nesbit who are traditionally regarded as children's writers and other practitioners of the paranormal like American writer Mary E...

A collection of spooky stories hand picked from a variety of sources.

A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder.

A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder. The story "Jimmy Goggles the God" by H.G. Wells contains explicit language.

A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder.