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Horror and Ghost Stories |
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By: Lagerlöf, Selma (1858-1940) | |
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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) | |
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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) | |
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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) | |
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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) | |
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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 | |
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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: M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis (1775-1818) | |
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The Monk; a romance |
By: M. R. James (1862-1936) | |
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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) | |
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The Golgotha Dancers |
By: Margaret Widdemer (1884-1978) | |
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The Haunted Hour An Anthology |
By: Mary Elizabeth Hawker (1848-1908) | |
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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) | |
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The Phantom Of Bogue Holauba 1911 |
By: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) | |
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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... | |
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 Renard (1875-1939) | |
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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) | |
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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) | |
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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) | |
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The Gray Nun |
By: Oliver Onions (1873-1961) | |
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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) | |
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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... | |
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: Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) | |
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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 Marsh | |
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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,... |
By: Rita (E. M. Gollan) (1850-1938) | |
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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 Hugh Benson (1871-1914) | |
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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 |
By: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) | |
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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. | |
The Waif Woman |
By: Robert Smythe Hichens | |
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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) | |
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) | |
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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... | |
Mystery Of Choice
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 |
By: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) | |
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The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories |