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Horror and Ghost Stories |
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By: Jane Austen (1775-1817) | |
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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: Charles Dickens (1812-1870) | |
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The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time, (better known as The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain) is a novella by Charles Dickens first published in 1848. It is the fifth and last of Dickens' Christmas novellas. The story is more about the spirit of the holidays than about the holidays themselves, harking back to the first of the series, A Christmas Carol. The tale centers around a Professor Redlaw and those close to him. |
By: Bram Stoker | |
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The Jewel of Seven Stars
The Jewel of Seven Stars (also published under the name: The Jewel of the Seven Stars) is a horror novel by Bram Stoker first published in 1903. The story is about an archaeologist’s plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy. | |
Dracula's Guest and other Weird Tales
Nine Gothic Horror Tales by the author of Dracula. Note : These tales are not for the squeamish!!! 0r a dark windy night. |
By: H. G. Wells (1866-1946) | |
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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: 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: Elizabeth Gaskell | |
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The Grey Woman
A “Bluebeard” story in which a young woman marries a man whom she discovers has killed his previous wives and is trying to kill her as well. |
By: Edith Wharton (1862-1937) | |
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Afterward
A short story classified under the American Gothic genre, the piece depicts an eerie set of events following the distressing occurrences within the Boyne household, as their dream relocation takes a drastic turn. Wharton cleverly weaves together Gothic themes including horror, retribution, and despair to create a dynamic plot which is additionally aided by the use of foreshadowing, an uncanny setting, and the reflective voice of its character. Divided into five parts, Afterward introduces newly rich couple Mary and Ned Boyne, who decide to make their dream move to England after Ned strikes a good business investment... |
By: Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) | |
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The Murders in the Rue Morgue
This story opens with a mother and daughter found brutally murdered inside a locked room in an upstairs apartment on a street in Paris. The police are baffled by both the ferocity of the crime and the lack of clues. Neighbors give conflicting evidence. Two friends are intrigued by the entire situation as reported in the newspapers. They decide to do a little investigating on their own. What they come up with is one of the most shocking and strangest of conclusions. The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe is perhaps the first modern detective tale, though similar stories by Voltaire and ETA Hoffman did appear a few decades earlier... | |
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
Published in 1838, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is Poe’s only complete novel and concentrates on several sea adventures gone awry. The novel follows Arthur Gordon Pym, who finds himself in the center of gloomy occurrences on board numerous vessels, as his anticipated sea adventure takes a drastic shift in the wind. Shipwreck, starvation, mutiny, near death experiences and cannibalism are just some of the issues endured in the gripping, and at times gruesome novel. The adventure... | |
Two Poe Tales
Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his famous short horror stories; however, horror is not the only genre in which he wrote. How To Write a Blackwood Article and its companion piece A Predicament are satirical works exploring the pieces of the formula generally seen in short horror stories (”articles”) found in the Scottish periodical “Blackwood’s Magazine” and the successful misapplication of said formula by – horrors! – a woman author! – respectively. |
By: Henry James (1843-1916) | |
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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
“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... |
By: Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) | |
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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: Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) | |
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Ghost: A Modern Fantasy
The novel opens with Carl Foster, a recently qualified doctor, coming to London to try and make his fortune. He meets a famous tenor, Signor Alresca, who suffers a dreadful injury backstage and Foster tends to him. He thus meets the lead soprano, Rosetta Rosa, and falls hopelessly in love with her.Alresca takes Foster under his wing and they travel to Alresca's home in Bruges. It is clear to Foster that Alresca has some strange obsession. Foster also notices a stranger who seems to be dogging his footsteps.Things take an even more sinister turn when Alresca inexplicably dies. . . |
By: Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) | |
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Missing: Page Thirteen
Violet Strange, a clever petite detective, is called upon to solve the mystery of a page gone missing from an important document. The futures of several people, including an eccentric misanthrope, a chemical scientist, a bride and groom, depend on the quick resolution of this problem. In solving one mystery, she uncovers another which dates back many years. |
By: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) | |
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Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories
Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?), satirist, critic, poet, short story writer and journalist. His fiction showed a clean economical style often sprinkled with subtle cynical comments on human behaviour. Nothing is known of his death, as he went missing while an observer with Pancho Villa’s army in 1913/14. (Summaries by Peter Yearsley)The Ways of Ghosts: Stories of encounters with the ghosts of the dead and dying. The spirits of the dead reach out to the living, to pass on a message or to pursue a killer... | |
The Parenticide Club
Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?), best known as journalist, satirist and short story writer. Cynical in outlook, economical in style; Bierce vanished while an observer with Pancho Villa’s army. Four grotesque short stories about murder within the family, seen through the gently innocent eyes of family members … usually the murderer himself.My favorite murder (00:23)Oil of Dog (20:13)An Imperfect Conflagration (29:32)The Hypnotist (37:14) | |
Can Such Things Be?
24 short stories in fairly typical Bierce fashion - ghostly, spooky, to be read (or listened to) in the dark, perhaps with a light crackling fire burning dimly in the background. Stories of ghosts, apparitions, and strange, inexplicable occurrences are prevalent in these tales, some of which occur on or near Civil War fields of battle, some in country cottages, and some within urban areas. Can Such Things Be? implies and relates that anything is possible, at any time. |
By: John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922) | |
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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. | |
Water Ghost and Others
Eight ghost stories by a master story teller and humorist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. |
By: Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) | |
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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: 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... |
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: Walter De la Mare (1873-1956) | |
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Return (de la Mare version)
A story of psychological horror, The Return explores ideas of identity, love, and alienation. Arthur grapples with the reactions of his family and community, and his own sanity, when he experiences a sudden and mysterious "transformation". ( |
By: Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) | |
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The Willows
A tale of horror in which a pleasant sojourn down the Danube tumbles terrifyingly awry as the veil between this world and an unfathomably weird dimension is inadvertently pierced by an innocent pair of vacationers, “The Willows”, arguably Algernon Blackwood’s seminal contribution to supernatural literature, has had a lasting influence on the field. No less a personage than H. P. Lovecraft describing it as “…the greatest weird tale ever written.” A reading will reveal a clear influence to one familiar with Lovecraft’s work... | |
The Camp of the Dog
A party of campers on a deserted Baltic island is terrorized by a huge wolf… or is it? | |
The Wendigo
Another camper tale, this time set in the Canadian wilderness. A hunting party separates to track moose, and one member is abducted by the Wendigo of legend. Robert Aickman regarded this as "one of the (possibly) six great masterpieces in the field". | |
Four Weird Tales
Four stories: The Insanity of Jones, The Man Who Found Out, The Glamour of the Snow, and Sand. Tales by one the greatest practitioners of supernatural literature. Reincarnation, the Occult, and mystery. | |
John Silence
Six stories about Dr. John Silence if you want the shivers to run up your back, this is the right place to be |
By: Émile Zola (1840-1902) | |
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Therese Raquin
An unsatisfied wife kills her weak husband in order to carry on a sordid affair with another man. However, her selfish plans are spoiled when her husband continues to haunt her. This is often said to be Zola's first great novel. |
By: Joseph Sheridan LeFanu (1814-1873) | |
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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... |
By: W. W. Jacobs (1863-1943) | |
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The Monkey's Paw
An eerie supernatural story, The Monkey's Paw follows the White family as they come to realize that nothing in life comes without a price or at the simple push of a button. First published in 1902, the short story powerfully suggests that one should not interfere with the course of nature, as cheating fate can result in unforeseen consequences that leave one with more than they bargained for. Set in England, the tale opens on a dark and stormy night inside Laburnam Villa, home to Mr. and Mrs... |
By: Arthur Machen (1863-1947) | |
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The White People
Literary critics see Arthur Machen’s works as a significant part of the late Victorian revival of the gothic novel and the decadent movement of the 1890s, bearing direct comparison to the themes found in contemporary works like Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. The White People is a highly influential horror story of a young girl’s discovery of ancient magic. It was written in the late 1890s as part of a longer unfinished novel, some sketches from which went into his book Ornaments in Jade. Fans of supernatural fiction often cite this story as a classic in the genre. | |
Hill of Dreams
The novel recounts the life of a young man, Lucian Taylor, focusing on his dreamy childhood in rural Wales, in a town based on Caerleon. The Hill of Dreams of the title is an old Roman fort where Lucian has strange sensual visions, including ones of the town in the time of Roman Britain. Later it describes Lucian's attempts to make a living as an author in London, enduring poverty and suffering in the pursuit of art. Generally thought to be Machen's greatest work, it was little noticed on its publication in 1907 save in a glowing review by Alfred Douglas... |
By: Elliott O’Donnell (1872—1965) | |
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Animal Ghosts
Summary: This is a collection of ghost stories in which the antagonists are various animals. Divided up into chapters of ghost sightings by each group of animals, you will hear of hauntings by dogs, cats, birds, jungle animals, etc. (Summary by Allyson Hester) |
By: William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) | |
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The House on the Borderland
In 1877, two gentlemen, Messrs Tonnison and Berreggnog, head into Ireland to spend a week fishing in the village of Kraighten. While there, they discover in the ruins of a very curious house a diary of the man who had once owned it. Its torn pages seem to hint at an evil beyond anything that existed on this side of the curtains of impossibility. This is a classic novel that worked to slowly bridge the gap between the British fantastic and supernatural authors of the later 19th century and modern horror fiction. Classic American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft lists this and other works by Hodgson among his greatest influences. | |
Night Land
The Sun has gone out and the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, nearly eight miles high – the Last Redoubt, under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a Circle of Energy, known as the "air clog", powered from a subterranean energy source called the "Earth Current". For millennia, vast living shapes—the Watchers—have waited in the darkness near the pyramid... | |
Boats of the 'Glen Carrig'
Eighteenth-century sailors adrift in a lifeboat encounter strange lands and weird creatures in their search for home. A creepy tale of nautical adventure. | |
Ghost Pirates
The Ghost Pirates is a powerful account of a doomed and haunted ship on its last voyage, and of the terrible sea-devils (of quasi-human aspect, and perhaps the spirits of bygone buccaneers) that besiege it and finally drag it down to an unknown fate. With its command of maritime knowledge, and its clever selection of hints and incidents suggestive of latent horrors in nature, this book at times reaches enviable peaks of power. |
By: John Meade Falkner (1858-1932) | |
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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: Harold MacGrath (1871-1932) | |
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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: Luigi Capuana | |
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A Vampire
A suspenseful vampire tale. Translated from the original Italian text by Erin O'Rourke. |
By: Ward Moore (1903-1978) | |
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Greener Than You Think
Do remember reading a panic-mongering news story a while back about genetically engineered “Frankengrass” “escaping” from the golf course where it had been planted? That news story was foreshadowed decades previously in the form of prophetic fiction wherein a pushy salesman, a cash-strapped scientist, and a clump of crabgrass accidentally merge forces with apocalyptic consequences. A triple-genre combo of science fiction, horror, and satire, Greener Than You Think is a forgotten classic that resonates beautifully with modern times. This is a faithful reading of a 1947 first edition text. |
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: Lacy Collison-Morley | |
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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) | |
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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: 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: George Sylvester Viereck (1884-1962) | |
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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: Joseph Sheridan LeFanu (1814-1873) | |
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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: Théophile Gautier (1811-1872) | |
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Clarimonde
Original title “La Morte Amoreuse.” This is the story of a priest named Romauld, and his all-consuming love for the beautiful courtesan, Clarimonde. |
By: Frank Norris (1870-1902) | |
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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: Clara Reeve (1729-1807) | |
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The Old English Baron
The story follows the adventures of Sir Philip Harclay, who returns to medieval England to find that the castle seat and estate of his friend Lord Lovel have been usurped. A series of revelations, horrors and betrayals climax in a scene of single combat in which good battles evil for the return of the prize. |
By: Charles Willing Beale (1845-1932) | |
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The Ghost of Guir House
Do you think you understand ghosts? Now you will.Paul Henley, seemingly summoned to a mysterious rural Virginia mansion from his home in New York, finds himself as a guest at a remote, dilapidated colonial house with a host and a hostess every bit as mysterious as the house itself. Might Dorothy, his hostess, somehow be implicated in the hideous crime which he came to know took place in the hidden depths of Guir House some years ago? He hardly thought so, she seemed so innocent. And yet .... (Introduction by Roger Melin) |
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: F. Marion Crawford | |
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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? |
By: Daniel A. Lord (1888-1955) | |
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Red Arrows in the Night
The Scarlet Archer of Agincourt is claimed by the Erkenwold’s as their family ghost. Tradition held that the death of an important Erkenwold was always heralded by the apparition of the Scarlet Archer. Now in the early years of WWII, the archer has made an appearance on the family estate on the US coast. Is it a ghost or something more sinister, and what does he or she want?This mystery novel was written by Daniel A Lord, S.J., who was a popular American Catholic writer. The subjects of the works in his bibliography range from religion, humor, plays, songs, mysteries and even politics... |
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: S. Baring-Gould (1834-1924) | |
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Bladys of the Stewponey
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... |
By: Alice Muriel Williamson (1869-1933) | |
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The House by the Lock
What secrets lay within the walls of the house by the lock? What secrets, if any, are held by the man who owns that mysterious house? A body is found in a backwater creek not far from the house by the lock, but what leads Noel Stanton on a quest to determine who the killer might be is more than merely the disappearance of his American friend Harvey Farnham. He has reason to believe that the wealthy and influential owner of the house, Carson Wildred, might somehow be implicated in the coincidental disappearance and murder... |
By: Charles Clark Munn (1848-1917) | |
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Pocket Island
Along the coast of Maine are littered thousands of small islands. One such, named 'Pocket Island' by the locals was so called because of a pocket formed twice daily by the waning of the tides. The coast of Maine holds many secrets and legends, and Pocket Island was no exception. Subtitled "A Story of Country Life in New England", this story holds such varied and fascinating glimpses into the lives of a few individuals, and is not limited to merely a story of ghosts, of war, of barn dances, friendship, tales of rum-runners, smugglers, and seafarers... |
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: Richard Harris Barham (1788-1845) | |
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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: Charles Goddard and Paul Dicky | |
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The Ghost Breaker
The Ghost Breaker is a drama and haunted house horror complete with heroes, villains, and a Princess. The Ghost Breaker was originally a screenplay and would later be made a drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. |
By: George du Maurier (1834-1896) | |
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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: Carolyn Steward Taylor | |
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Werewolf -- Five Pieces
Five stories and essays about werewolves. |
By: S. Baring-Gould (1834-1924) | |
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The Book of Ghosts
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. |
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: Dorothy Scarborough (1878-1935) | |
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Humorous Ghost Stories
Includes: An introduction by Dorothy Scarborough -- The Canterville ghost / by Oscar Wilde -- The ghost-extinguisher / by Gelett Burgess -- "Dey ain't no ghosts" / by Ellis Parker Butler -- The transferred ghost / by Frank R. Stockton -- The mummy's foot / Théophile Gautier -- The rival ghosts / Brander Matthews -- The water ghost of Harrowby Hall / by John Kendrick Bangs -- Back from that bourne / Anonymous -- The ghost-ship / by Richard Middleton -- The transplanted ghost / by Wallace Irwin --... |
By: David Belasco (1853-1931) | |
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Return of Peter Grimm |
By: Charles B. Cory (1857-1921) | |
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Montezuma's Castle and Other Weird Tales
This is a collection of weird tales inspired from the natural history expeditions of the author, an independently wealthy bird collector, Olympic golfer, writer of many books on birds of the world, and, as evidenced in these pages, a fine storyteller to boot. |
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: Unknown | |
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The String of Pearls
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... |
By: Various | |
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PD Goth
A collection of spooky stories hand picked from a variety of sources. |
By: Arthur Machen (1863-1947) | |
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The Great God Pan
"The Great God Pan" is a novella written by Arthur Machen. A version of the story was published in the magazine Whirlwind in 1890, and Machen revised and extended it for its book publication (together with another story, "The Inmost Light") in 1894. On publication it was widely denounced by the press as degenerate and horrific because of its decadent style and sexual content, although it has since garnered a reputation as a classic of horror. Machen’s story was only one of many at the time to focus on Pan as a useful symbol for the power of nature and paganism... |
By: Herman Landon | |
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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: 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: Vernon Lee (1856-1935) | |
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A Phantom Lover
A Phantom Lover is a supernatural novella by Vernon Lee (pseudonym of Violet Paget) first published in 1886. Set in a Kentish manor house, the story concerns a portrait painter commissioned by a squire, William Oke, to produce portraits of him and his wife, the eccentric Mrs. Alice Oke, who bears a striking resemblance to a woman in a mysterious, seventeenth century painting. |
By: Henry James (1843-1916) | |
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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
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: Sewell Peaslee Wright (1897-1970) | |
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Astounding Stories 13, January 1931
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. |
By: Various | |
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Short Ghost and Horror Collection 046
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. | |
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 047
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. | |
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 048
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. Note: These stories are over a hundred years old so they may contain offensive ideas, reflecting the times. Listeners are particularly warned that the story "The Ghosts of Red Creek" contains racist language and depictions |
By: William Gilbert (1804-1890) | |
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Last Lords of Gardonal
Two brothers, born into money and power, are as cruel as the feudal age in which they live. But when the oppressed villagers seek help from a sorcerer, the wicked barons just may have met their match… This tale features a relatively early example in English fiction of a vampire and was first published in The Argosy in 1867. - Summary by Newgatenovelist |
By: Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) | |
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Great Ghost Stories
A great collection of 12 classic stories about ghosts and the supernatural. Included are stories by Thomas Hardy, Fitz-James O'Brien, and Margaret Oliphant. Recommended for fans of classic ghost stories of yesteryear. - Summary by Phyllis Vincelli |
By: Various | |
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Short Ghost and Horror Collection 049
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. Note: These stories are over a hundred years old so they may contain offensive ideas, reflecting the times. Listeners are particularly warned that the story "The Picture in the House" contains racist language. |
By: Ada Buisson (1839-1866) | |
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Horror Stories
Ada Buisson was a Victorian novelist and short story author. This collection includes her three horror stories, all of which were published in the journal Belgravia in 1867-1869. - Summary by Newgatenovelist |
By: Various | |
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Short Ghost and Horror Collection 050
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. | |
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 055
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. |
By: Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) | |
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Lost Valley
A set of twin brothers have spent every waking moment of their lives together and are terrified of separating. However, when both men set their desires upon a mysterious young woman, the deep bonds of their relationship become marred. |
By: Various | |
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30 Ghost Stories
17 short stories from the book twenty-Five Ghost Stories and 13 shorts from the book Indian Ghost Stories - Summary by Kirk Ziegler | |
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 056
A collection of twelve stories for Halloween. Enjoy some of the classics, like Poe and Lovecraft, but also some of the lesser-known contributors to Weird Tales. Have a Happy Spooky Halloween! |
By: Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) | |
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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: Various | |
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Short Ghost and Horror Collection 053
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. | |
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 052
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. | |
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 051
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. | |
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 054
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. |