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Horror and Ghost Stories

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By: Ernest Rhys (1859-1946)

Book cover The Haunters & The Haunted Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural

By: F. Marion Crawford

Man Overboard by F. Marion Crawford Man Overboard

Peculiar happenings aboard the schooner Helen B. Jackson when one night during a storm, the small crew found themselves diminished by one. Somebody had gone overboard, and it was surmised that it was one of the twin Benton brothers. But oddly enough, it seemed that the ‘presence’ of the missing twin continued to exist on board during the following weeks. For example, one extra set of silverware was found to be used after each meal, but nobody claimed to be using them. What then did happen that stormy night, and which brother, if indeed it was one of the brothers, was the man who went overboard?

Book cover The Upper Berth

By: Forrest Reid (1875-1947)

Book cover Spring Song

A deceptive tale, The Spring Song seems at first glance to be standard Edwardian adventure. Grif - A boy on holiday with his siblings - must set out through the English countryside to rescue their beloved dog. Slowly, however, a subtle and not always benign magic slips into the tale, imbuing it with a dark haunting that is hard to put one's finger on. A genius friend takes on the role of boy detective to figure out why Grif has become so melancholy, but in an inversion of the trope its not clear if uncovering secrets makes things better or worse...

By: Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909)

Book cover Wandering Ghosts

This is a collection of seven ghost stories by Francis Marion Crawford. The volume includes all of the essential ingredients for good ghost and horror stories, such as mysterious deaths, haunted houses, and even vampires. - Summary by Carolin

By: Frank Norris (1870-1902)

Book cover Vandover and the Brute

Vandover is a student who succumbs to a gambling addiction. This addiction causes him to divest himself of his cherished possessions and to lose his status in life, whilst his friends prosper. Eventually he is transformed by a strange degenerative lycanthropy, reduced to running back and forth across his apartment, naked, on all-fours. The novel was Norris' first, though published posthumously. Characteristically, it explores the themes of habit and addiction in a heightened "naturalistic" style.

By: Frederick Marryat (1792-1848)

Book cover The Phantom Ship
Book cover The Phantom Ship

By: Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805)

Book cover The Ghost-Seer; or the Apparitionist; and Sport of Destiny

By: G. Ranger Wormser (1893-1953)

Book cover Scarecrow and Other Stories

G. Ranger Wormser was a forgotten master of horror fiction, specializing in a kind of creeping dread and subtle psychological horror that would later be exhibited to such great effect by authors like Shirley Jackson.

By: Gaston Leroux (1868-1927)

Book cover Man with the Black Feather

Theophrastus Longuet is a retired manufacturer of rubber stamps in Paris. He now spends his days relaxing, safe from life’s vicissitudes. with his lovely wife Marceline and long time friend M. Lecamus. However into every life a little rain must fall and it becomes apparent that a perfect storm is about to arrive in the lives of our tranquil threesome. The malevolent spirit of a murdering brigand named Cartouche, who was executed in Paris in 1721, is about to disrupt their perfect lives, in a way that will change them all forever. Not even the enigmatic Mage, M. Eliphas de Saint-Elme de Taillebourg de la Nox, in his mysterious underground crypt, may be enough to save them all.

By: George du Maurier (1834-1896)

Trilby by George du Maurier Trilby

Trilby, published in 1894, fits into the gothic horror genre which was undergoing a revival during the Fin de siècle and is one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the Fin de siècle period after Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The story of the poor artist’s model Trilby O’Ferrall, transformed into a diva under the spell of the evil musical genius Svengali, created a sensation. Soap, songs, dances, toothpaste, and Trilby, Florida were all named for the heroine, and a variety of soft felt hat with an indented crown (worn in the London stage production of a dramatization of the novel) came to be called a trilby...

By: George Griffith (1857-1906)

Book cover Mayfair Magician; a Romance of Criminal Science

Our narrator, a researcher, finds himself snowed in at a Scottish prison. The resident doctor, an observer of criminal psychology, offers him hospitality and entertainment in the form of this story, an account of the bizarre case of a strange prisoner in motorcycle goggles, why he must wear them, and what he did to earn a life sentence. - Summary by A. Gramour

By: George Sylvester Viereck (1884-1962)

The House of the Vampire by George Sylvester Viereck The House of the Vampire

The House of the Vampire is a 1907 novella that is a very unusual vampire story. A young writer comes under the powerful influence of a mysterious older master, who seems to have left a trail of ruined proteges in his wake. The story is as much about the nature of artistic creation as it is a chilling vampire tale.

By: Gerald Biss (1876-1922)

Book cover Door of the Unreal

An early werewolf novel, praised by H.P Lovecraft. The only weird fiction from an author of mainly crime fiction. Two strange disappearances occur on a road in Sussex. The second involved a member of the aristocracy and a famous actress, so a large, but fruitless investigation is held by Scotland Yard. An American, visiting an old friend, who is of the local gentry, suspects something horrible and begins to investigate to verify his fears..

By: Gertrude Barrows Bennett (1883-1948)

Book cover Citadel of Fear

Gertrude Barrows Bennett was the first major female writer of fantasy and science fiction in the United States, publishing her stories under the pseudonym Francis Stevens. Bennett wrote a number of highly acclaimed fantasies between 1917 and 1923 and has been called "the woman who invented dark fantasy". Citadel of Fear is considered Francis Stevens' masterpiece, by Lovecraft's acclaim. Two adventurers discover a lost city in the Mexican jungle. One is taken over by an evil god while the other falls in love with a woman from the ancient Mexican city of Tlapallan...

By: Greye La Spina (1880-1969)

Book cover Old Mr. Wiley
Book cover Gargoyle

Springing forth from the pages of Weird Tales comes celebrated author Greye La Spina's exciting tale of black magic and the occult! When painter Luke Porter is approached by eccentric occultist Cagliostro Moderno to accompany him to the sinister Fanewold Castle, he is at first skeptical. But after a series of seemingly happenstance events lands Luke at the castle's doorstep with a terrified Moderno in tow, he is drawn into the mystery of The Master, a cloaked figure who skulks in darkness and worships Lucifer, preparing his young and innocent cousin Sybil for a terrifying ritual...

By: H. G. Wells (1866-1946)

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau

One of the first instances of science fiction, Wells’ classic tale published in 1986 examines various controversial philosophical issues active at the time of its publication, most notable being the implications of vivisection and degeneration. Narrated by its everyman protagonist Edward Prendick, the novel follows the events of his stay at a mysterious island, home to ghastly secrets, horrors, and incomprehensible experiences. Furthermore, the novel features innovative themes which have become iconic in the modern science fiction genre, including moral and ethical responsibility, evolution, and man’s interference with the course of nature...

By: H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)

Collected Public Domain Works of H. P. Lovecraft by H. P. Lovecraft Collected Public Domain Works of H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft’s name is synonymous with horror fiction. His major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally alien. This collection contains 24 Lovecraft works that are in the public domain.

Book cover The Dunwich Horror

In a rundown farmhouse near isolated, rural Dunwich, a bizarre family conjures and nurtures an evil entity from another realm, with the purpose of destroying the world and delivering it to ancient gods to rule, and only an aged university librarian can stop them. The Dunwich Horror was first published in 1929 in Weird Tales.

Book cover Dunwich Horror (Version 2)

Horror stalks the earth. There are many dimensions that coexist with our universe and, unfortunately, overlap it in very special places. The horrific beings that live in these other dimensions are ancient, terrifying and very malign. This story is about one of these overlapping spots in a decaying community in the USA where these beings can interact with our world and where humans succeed in calling them forth in all of their stench, fetor and power with the intent of destroying all life on our planet. Mere humans cannot resist their power. Is there any hope? - Summary by Phil Chenevert

Book cover Colour Out of Space

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” This creepy horror story is one of the best written by Lovecraft in my opinion. What unknown being is lurking out there? What entity arrived in that meteor? Never described exactly, yet he manages to let your own imagination smell and taste it in this story. - Summary by phil chenevert

Book cover Call of Cthulhu

The worshipers of this ancient tentacled horror are still with us, waiting for this terrible being to awake and take vengeance again on an earth filled with nonbelievers. Lovecraft delves into this eons old cult in the greatest detail of any of his stories about Cthulhu and gives us hints about how it is worshiped and the abominable rituals involved. Creepy. Very creepy. - Summary by phil chenevert

By: Harold MacGrath (1871-1932)

The Drums of Jeopardy by Harold MacGrath The Drums of Jeopardy

The Drums of Jeopardy is a 1920 American novel by Harold MacGrath. The story was serialized by the The Saturday Evening Post beginning in January of 1920.In 1922 the book was made into a Broadway play and the following year a motion picture. A second film version appeared in 1931.It is said that a young Boris Karloff, who previously had a few uncredited film roles, chose his stage name for his first screen credit in 1920 from a Russian mad scientist character named “Boris Karlov” in this novel...

By: Henry James (1843-1916)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James The Turn of the Screw

Christmas Eve. Guests round a fireside begin telling each other ghost stories. One of them relates a true incident involving the governess of his little nephew and niece. Strange events begin to take place, involving the housekeeper, a stranger who prowls round the grounds, a mysterious woman dressed in black and an unknown misdemeanor committed by the little nephew. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James was published in 1893 and it remains one of the best-known and admired works of this great American writer...

The Jolly Corner by Henry James The Jolly Corner

“The Jolly Corner,” published in 1908, is considered by many to be a ghost story ranking second only to “The Turn of the Screw.” James’s protagonist, Spencer Brydon, is an American of 56, returned to New York after 33 years in Europe, where he has apparently accomplished little while living off his New York rentals. His friendship with Alice Staverton, and his engagement in the development of a property awaken him to the possibilities that might have been his, had he chosen a different course of life...

The Last of the Valerii by Henry James The Last of the Valerii

An unnamed American painter resident in Rome serves as narrator in this story, watching as his god-daughter Martha, becomes the wife of Prince Marco Valerio. The young bride is eager to use some of her American fortune in the service of archeology at the Villa Valerio, her husband's somewhat run down Roman house. Archeology can be, her god-father suggests, a rather expensive hobby, but to his (and her) surprise, the dig brings to light a lovely marble statue of Juno. Martha is overjoyed, but it is soon clear that her husband is overcome by the discovery, and overcome in ways that are to be disquieting...

Sir Edmund Orme by Henry James Sir Edmund Orme

Henry James wrote a number of ghost stories -- The Turn of the Screw being the most famous. Did he believe in ghosts himself, as did many of his contemporaries? It's generally possible to find earthly interpretations, Freudian and other, for his ghosts. Sir Edmund Orme, though, is unquestionably a real ghost -- except of course that James's unnamed narrator tells the story in the voice of yet a third man, and the narrator himself passes no judgments on the factual nature of what he is reporting (there's a resemblance here to The Turn of the Screw)...

By: Herman Landon

Book cover The Gray Phantom

A woman is apparently murdered in a New York auditorium under very suspicious circumstances one evening during a performance. Helen Hardwick happened to be in attendance that evening, as she had written the play that was being performed, and she was the only person to have caught a glimpse of something peculiar just before the murder. She also heard an ominous laughter which would continue to haunt her. Was it coincidence that the 'retired' Gray Phantom arrived in the city immediately after the murder...

By: Howard Pease (1863-)

Book cover Border Ghost Stories

By: Jack London (1876-1916)

Book cover Moon-Face and Other Stories

Well-known and well-regarded author Jack London, known for adventurous stories of the outdoors such as Call of the Wild and White Fang shows us a broader scope of interest in his short stories which here run the gamut from darkly comic tales of murder most foul to light and frothy tales of newspapermen and from crackling sci-fi to stories of sinister shadowy organizations and spiritualism, London illustrates the many talents he holds as a writer beyond his tales of the frozen north.

By: Jane Austen (1775-1817)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is a book about the life of Catherine Morland and her romantic relationships. The novel is divided into two parts; the first part begins with Catherine’s visit to Bath and her relationship with Henry Tilney and the other people she met there, and the second part starts with the arrival of Frederick Tilney and her visit to Northanger Abbey. This book alongside Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility is considered one of the major works of Jane Austen. The novel had undergone many revisions before its publication and it was even originally titled “Catherine...

By: Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927)

Told after Supper by Jerome K. Jerome Told after Supper

It is Christmas Eve, and the narrator, his uncle and sundry other local characters are sitting round the fire drinking copious quantities of whisky punch and telling ghost stories until bedtime, when… But no, I won’t spoil the fun. This is a little gem: Jerome at his tongue-in-cheek best.

By: John C. Hutcheson (1840-1897)

The Ghost Ship by John C. Hutcheson The Ghost Ship

This book intentionally veers in and out of the supernatural, as the title implies. The officers get more and more bewildered as they work out their position, and yet again encounter the same vessel going in an impossible direction. Having warned you of this, I must say that it is a well-written book about life aboard an ocean-going steamer at about the end of the nineteenth century.

By: John Charles Dent (1841-1888)

The Gerrard Street Mystery and Other Weird Tales by John Charles Dent The Gerrard Street Mystery and Other Weird Tales

John Charles Dent, the author of the following remarkable stories, was born in Kendal, Westmorland, England, in 1841. His parents emigrated to Canada shortly after that event, bringing with them, of course, the youth who was afterwards to become the Canadian author and historian. Mr. Dent received his primary education in Canadian schools, and afterwards studied law, becoming in due course a member of the Upper Canada Bar. He only practised for a few years, then returned to England to pursue a literary career, writing mostly for periodicals...

By: John Henry Ingram (1842-1916)

Book cover Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain

Possibly no part in the world is more connected in our minds to hauntings, ghost sightings and gruesome legends than Great Britain with its numerous castles, old manors, shady streets and remote country abodes. Who hasn't yet thought of maybe one day visiting one of those places, only to feel for themselves the thrill of the creepy atmosphere in their rooms and dungeons, enhanced by the chilling stories surrounding them? In this compilation, John Henry Ingram is offering the reader some 150 such places, gathering interesting, sometimes horrifying or even supernatural facts about the history and legends of these parts of Great Britain. - Summary by Sonia

By: John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922)

Book cover Enchanted Typewriter

The Enchanted Typewriter is a collection of short stories by the American author John Kendrick Bangs, written in 1899 in the style that has become known as Bangsian fantasy. Bangs attributes many of the stories to the late (and invisible) James Boswell, who has become an editor for a newspaper in Hades, and who communicates with the author by means of an old typewriter. The fantasy stories in this book are part of the author's Hades series, named for the stories' setting.

Book cover Water Ghost and Others

Eight ghost stories by a master story teller and humorist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

By: John Meade Falkner (1858-1932)

The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Falkner The Lost Stradivarius

The Lost Stradivarius (1895), by J. Meade Falkner, is a short novel of ghosts and the evil that can be invested in an object, in this case an extremely fine Stradivarius violin. After finding the violin of the title in a hidden compartment in his college rooms, the protagonist, a wealthy young heir, becomes increasingly secretive as well as obsessed by a particular piece of music, which seems to have the power to call up the ghost of its previous owner. Roaming from England to Italy, the story involves family love, lordly depravity, and the tragedy of obsession

By: John Ulrich Giesy (1877-1947)

Book cover Ebenezer's Casket

Ebenezer Clay isn't sick. He isn't suicidal. Despite that, he is absolutely sure that he will die tonight at 11:01 pm. The trouble is that no one else seems to believe him. Check out this unusual story of human interest originally published in the pages of Weird Tales magazine.

By: John William Polidori (1795-1821)

Book cover The Vampyre; a Tale

By: José Maria de Eça de Queirós (1845-1900)

Book cover Our Lady of the Pillar

A ghost story and love story all at once, set in medieval Portugal. Don Ruy is in love with Dona Leonor, but her husband has guessed his feelings and hatches a plan. Don Ruy rides right into a trap, but on the way, a dead man joins him and saves his life. - Summary by Carolin

By: Joseph Lewis French (1858-1936)

Book cover Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes Mystic-Humorous Stories
Book cover Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) Ghost Stories
Book cover Masterpieces of Mystery Riddle Stories

By: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873)

Book cover Wyvern Mystery

A classic with a pinch of romance, a pinch of gothic, and a dash of mystery, are you interested yet? When young Alice Maybell’ father dies she is taken in by Squire Fairfield, a widower with two handsome young sons, Charles and Harry. As Alice grows into a lovely young woman she attracts the attentions of more than one admirer, not all welcome. She marries the man she loves whilst fleeing the home she grew up in, but the blissful happiness that follows is short-lived. She finds herself pulled into the middle of the secrets of her husbands family’s past...

By: Joseph Sheridan LeFanu (1814-1873)

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu Carmilla

Published in 1872, Carmilla is an early work in the vampire literature genre and is incidentally one of the most influential of its type. The gothic novella accounts the tale of Laura, a young woman who becomes susceptible to the friendship and seductive charms of the mysterious Carmilla. A gripping tale of coincidence, mystery, compulsion, dark romance, and deception, Le Fanu’s classic is regarded as having paved the way for modern takes on vampires. Narrated by Laura, the novel opens with a recount of her childhood, as she depicts growing up in a beautiful, yet solitary castle encompassed by a forest in Styria, Austria...

The Room in the Dragon Volant by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu The Room in the Dragon Volant

J. Sheridan LeFanu's Gothic mystery novel is narrated by Richard Beckett, a young Englishman abroad in Napoleonic-era France. He falls instantly in love with a mysterious and imperiled Countess, whom he glimpses momentarily behind her black veil. In order to be near her, he takes a room in the Dragon Volant (the Flying Dragon), a haunted inn that has been the site of mysterious disappearances.

By: Jules Verne (1828-1905)

Book cover Castle of the Carpathians

The Castle stood above the quiet little town for as long as folks remembered: barren, deserted, lonely and frightening to the townsfolk. Until one day, smoke began to ascend from the dunjon. They were warned not to go near, and when intrepid souls dared to venture to uncover the mystery of the ruined castle, they learned firsthand what supernatural terrors await inside The Castle of the Carpathians. Summary by Joseph DeNoia.

By: L. T. Meade (1854-1914)

Book cover The Time of Roses

By: Lacy Collison-Morley

Greek and Roman Ghost Stories by Lacy Collison-Morley Greek and Roman Ghost Stories

A non-fiction work, comparing and collecting ghost stories by Classical Greek and Republican or Imperial Roman authors.

By: Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904)

In Ghostly Japan by Lafcadio Hearn In Ghostly Japan

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.

By: Lagerlöf, Selma (1858-1940)

The Treasure by Lagerlöf, Selma The Treasure

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...

By: Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev (1871-1919)

Book cover Red Laugh

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

By: Lloyd Eshbach (1910-2003)

Book cover The Gray Plague

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

By: Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)

Manfred by Lord George Gordon Byron Manfred

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.

By: Lord Redesdale (1837-1916)

Tales of Old Japan by Lord Redesdale Tales of Old Japan

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...

By: Louisa May Alcott

The Abbots Ghost or Maurice Treherne Temptation by Louisa May Alcott The Abbots Ghost or Maurice Treherne Temptation

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...

By: Luigi Capuana

A Vampire by Luigi Capuana A Vampire

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

By: M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis (1775-1818)

Book cover The Monk; a romance

By: M. R. James (1862-1936)

Book cover Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories

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

By: Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986)

The Golgotha Dancers by Manly Wade Wellman The Golgotha Dancers

By: Margaret Widdemer (1884-1978)

Book cover The Haunted Hour An Anthology
Book cover Haunted Hour; an anthology

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.

By: Margery Williams (1881-1944)

Book cover Thing in the Woods

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...

By: Marie Corelli (1855-1924)

Book cover Sorrows of Satan - Or, the Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire

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.

Book cover Strange Visitation

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

By: Marjorie Bowen (1885-1952)

Book cover Black Magic: a Tale of the Rise and Fall of the Antichrist

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.

By: Mary Elizabeth Hawker (1848-1908)

Book cover Cecilia de Noël

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

By: Mary Noailles Murfree (1850-1922)

Book cover The Phantom Of Bogue Holauba 1911

By: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851)

Book cover Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus (Version 4)

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...

Book cover Tales and Stories

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

By: Maurice Level (1875-1926)

Book cover Tales of Mystery and Horror

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.

By: Maurice Renard (1875-1939)

Book cover New Bodies for Old

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...

By: May Sinclair (1863-1946)

Book cover Uncanny Stories

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.

By: Montague R. James (1862-1936)

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by Montague R. James Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

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...

By: Nataly von Eschstruth (1860-1939)

Book cover The Gray Nun

By: Norman Douglas (1868-1952)

Book cover Unprofessional Tales

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

By: Oliver Onions (1873-1961)

The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions The Beckoning Fair One

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

By: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde The Canterville Ghost

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...

Book cover Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories

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.

By: Perceval Landon (1868-1927)

Book cover Two Supernatural Stories

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

By: Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Zastrozzi, A Romance by Percy Bysshe Shelley Zastrozzi, A Romance

“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...

By: Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

Book cover Pillar of Fire

"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

By: Richard Gordon Smith (1858-1918)

Book cover Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan

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

By: Richard Harris Barham (1788-1845)

The Ingoldsby Legends, 1st Series by Richard Harris Barham The Ingoldsby Legends, 1st Series

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.

By: Richard Marsh

The Beetle by Richard Marsh The Beetle

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,...

Book cover Joss: a Reversion

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

Book cover Seen and the Unseen

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

Book cover Goddess: A Demon

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...

By: Rita (E. M. Gollan) (1850-1938)

The Mystery of a Turkish Bath by Rita (E. M. Gollan) The Mystery of a Turkish Bath

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.

By: Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936)

Red Shadows by Robert Ervin Howard Red Shadows

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.

By: Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914)

Book cover Light Invisible

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

Book cover Mirror Of Shalott

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

By: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Olalla by Robert Louis Stevenson Olalla

“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.

Book cover The Waif Woman

By: Robert Smythe Hichens

The Return of the Soul by Robert Smythe Hichens The Return of the Soul

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)

Book cover Tongues of Conscience

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...

By: Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933)

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers The King in Yellow

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...


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