The Horror novels on Arthur's Classic Novels

Arthur's Classic Novels: Complete Horror Fiction Writers

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Ambrose G. Bierce

The Damned Thing By Ambrose G. Bierce
By the light of a tallow candle which had been placed on one end of a rough table a man was reading something written in a book. It was an old account book, greatly worn; and the writing was not, apparently, very legible, for the man sometimes held the page close to the flame of the candle to get a stronger light on it. The shadow of the book would then throw into obscurity a half of the rooms, darkening a number of faces and figures; for besides the reader, eight other men were present.

Moxon's Master by Ambrose Bierce
For several weeks I had been observing in him a growing habit of delay in answering even the most trivial of commonplace questions. His air, however, was that of preoccupation rather than deliberation: one might have said that he had 'something on his mind.'

Cobwebs From an Empty Skull by Ambrose Bierce
"Madam, I have just swallowed a dose of powerful bane, and in accordance with instructions upon the label, have come out of my hole to die. Will you kindly direct me to a spot where my corpse will prove peculiarly offensive?"

The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Vol 1. by Ambrose Bierce
As far as I could see there were no grass, no weeds, no flowers; the earth was covered with a kind of lichen, uniformly blue. Instead of rocks, great masses of metals protruded here and there

Collected Works Ambrose Bierce, Vol 2 by Ambrose Bierce
The father lifted his leonine head, looked at the son a moment in silence, and replied: "Well, go, sir, and whatever may occur do what you conceive to be your duty. Virginia, to which you are a traitor, must get on without you.

Famous Modern Ghost Stories by Ambrose Bierce and others

Write it Right by Ambrose Bierce
some words and phrases are disallowed on the ground of taste. As there are neither standards nor arbiters of taste, the book can do little more than reflect that of its author, who is far indeed from professing impeccability.

Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce
The man was Halpin Frayser. He lived in St. Helena, but where he lives now is uncertain, for he is dead. One who practices sleeping in the woods with nothing under him but the dry leaves and the damp earth, and nothing over him but the branches from which the leaves have fallen and the sky from which the earth has fallen, cannot hope for great longevity

An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck.

Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce
Then the Material Interest found a tongue, and by a strange coincidence it was its own tongue. "I don't think you are very good walking," it said. "I am a little particular about what I have underfoot. Suppose you get off into the water."

My Favorite Murder by Ambrose Bierce
May it please your Honor, crimes are ghastly or agreeable only by comparison. If you were familiar with the details of my client's previous murder of his uncle you would discern in his later offense (if offense it may be called) something in the nature of tender forbearance

Algernon Blackwood

An Egyptian Hornet by Algernon Blackwood
The word has an angry, malignant sound that brings the idea of attack vividly into the mind. There is a vicious sting about it somewhere -- even a foreigner, ignorant of the meaning, must feel it. A hornet is wicked; it darts and stabs; it pierces, aiming without provocation for the face and eyes.

The House of the Past by Algernon Blackwood
One night a Dream came to me and brought with her an old and rusty key. She led me across fields and sweet smelling lanes, where the hedges were already whispering to one another in the dark of the spring, till we came to a huge, gaunt house with staring windows and lofty roof half hidden in the shadows of very early morning.

The Man Whom the Trees Loved By Algernon Blackwood
He knew why in an oak forest, for instance, each individual was utterly distinct from its fellows, and why no two beeches in the whole world were alike. People asked him down to paint a favourite lime or silver birch, for he caught the individuality of a tree as some catch the individuality of a horse.

The Extra Day By Algernon Blackwood
A wonderful stranger was already on the way. They rarely spoke of it--it was just a great, passionate expectancy tucked away in the deepest corner of their hearts.

Sand by Algernon Blackwood
Wind was stirring about the world. It blew against his windows, but at first so faintly that he hardly noticed it. Then, with an abrupt rise and fall like a wailing voice that sought to claim attention, it called him. He peered through the window into the blurred darkness, listening.

A Prisoner in Fairyland By Algernon Blackwood
Just now he was very important into the bargain, for he had a secret from his wife that he meant to divulge only at the proper moment. He had known it himself but a few hours.

The Garden of Survival By Algernon Blackwood
It will surprise and at the same time possibly amuse you to know that I had the instinct to tell what follows to a Priest, and might have done so had not the Man of the World in me whispere

The Centaur By Algernon Blackwood
"There are certain persons who, independently of sex or comeliness, arouse an instant curiosity concerning themselves. The tribe is small, but its members unmistakable.

The Damned By Algernon Blackwood
I saw her tired eyes gazing into the dreariness of Oakley Street and felt a pang strike through me. After a pause, in which again she said no word

Running Wolf By Algernon Blackwood
'Ran short of grub,' was the explanation offered; but to another friend he had mentioned briefly, 'flies' and to a third, so Hyde learned later, he gave the excuse that his half-breed 'took sick', necessitating a quick return to civilisation.

Three John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood
"I believe you have read my thoughts already," she said; "your intuitive knowledge of what goes on in other people's minds is positively uncanny."

Three More John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood
And this, in turn, made him think of the great barnlike room on the top floor where all slept together in wooden cots, and he heard in memory the clamour of the cruel bell that woke them on winter mornings

The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood
A considerable number of hunting parties were out that year without finding so much as a fresh trail; for the moose were uncommonly shy, and the various Nimrods returned to the bosoms of their respective families

The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood
And, perhaps, with houses the same principle is operative, and it is the aroma of evil deeds committed under a particular roof, long after the actual doers have passed away, that makes the gooseflesh come and the hair rise.

Famous Modern Ghost Stories by Algernon Blackwood and others
Whether it was due to the slanting sunlight, or the refraction from the wonderfully illumined water, I cannot say, but, whatever the cause, I found it difficult to focus my sight properly upon the flying apparition.

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
The change came suddenly, as when a series of bioscope pictures snaps down on the streets of a town and shifts without warning into the scenery of lake and forest. We entered the land of desolation on wings

A Victim Of Higher Space by Algernon Blackwood
"He come alone, sir, in a closed cab. He pushed by me before I could say a word--making no noise not what I could hear. He seemed to move very soft----"

The Man Whom the Trees Loved by Algernon Blackwood
There was nothing else in the wide world that he could paint; flowers and landscapes he only muddled away into a smudge; with people he was helpless and hopeless;

The Transfer by Algernon Blackwood
The child began to cry in the early afternoon -- about three o'clock, to be exact. I remember the hour, because I had been listening with secret relief to the sound of the departing carriage.

Running Wolf by Algernon Blackwood
When he first set eves on Medicine Lake he was struck by its still, sparkling beauty, lying there in the vast Canadian backwoods; next, by its extreme loneliness

Wayfarers by Algernon Blackwood

The Tryst by Algernon Blackwood

Transition by Algernon Blackwood

The Terror of the Twins by Algernon Blackwood

The Singular Death of Morton by Algernon Blackwood

The Other Wing by Algernon Blackwood

The Occupant of the Room by Algernon Blackwood

Max Hensig by Algernon Blackwood

The Listener by Algernon Blackwood

Keeping His Promise by Algernon Blackwood

The House of the Past by Algernon Blackwood

The Goblin's Collection by Algernon Blackwood

First Hate by Algernon Blackwood

Clairvoyance by Algernon Blackwood

The Attic by Algernon Blackwood

Accessory Before The Fact by Algernon Blackwood

Mary E. Braddon

The Cold Embrace by Mary E. Braddon
He was an orphan, under the guardianship of his dead father's brother, his uncle Wilhelm, in whose house he had been brought up from a little child; and she who loved him was his cousin--his cousin Gertrude, whom he swore he loved in return.

Phantom Fortune by Mary E. Braddon
Lord Denyer was an important personage in the political and diplomatic world. He had been ambassador at Constantinople and at Paris, and had now retired on his laurels, an influence still, but no longer an active power in the machine of government.

The Shadow in the Corner by M. E. Braddon
It was a good old house, nevertheless, substantially built in the days when there was no stint of stone and timber--a good old grey stone house with many gables, deep window-seats, and a wide staircase, long dark passages, hidden doors in queer corners, closets as large as some modern rooms, and cellars in which a company of soldiers might have lain perdu.

The Cold Embrace by Mary E. Braddon
He was an orphan, under the guardianship of his dead father's brother, his uncle Wilhelm, in whose house he had been brought up from a little child; and she who loved him was his cousin--his cousin Gertrude, whom he swore he loved in return.

Phantom Fortune by Mary E. Braddon
Lord Denyer was an important personage in the political and diplomatic world. He had been ambassador at Constantinople and at Paris, and had now retired on his laurels, an influence still, but no longer an active power in the machine of government.

Fenton's Quest by Mary E. Braddon
It was a face that a man could scarcely look upon once without finding his glances wandering back to it afterwards; not quite a perfect face, but a very bright and winning one.

Aurora Floyd by Mary E. Braddon
laboring-men's cottages, gleaming white from the surrounding foliage; solitary roadside inns with brown thatched roofs and moss-grown stacks of lop-sided chimneys; noble mansions hiding behind ancestral oaks;

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary E. Braddon
At the end of this avenue there was an old arch and a clock-tower, with a stupid, bewildering clock, which had only one hand; and which jumped straight from one hour to the next, and was therefore always in extremes.

Headlong Hall by Mary E. Braddon
"Surely," said Mr Foster, "you cannot maintain such a proposition in the face of evidence so luminous. Look at the progress of all the arts and sciences -- see chemistry, botany, astronomy

The Shadow in the Corner by Mary E. Braddon
This spacious old mansion was given over to rats and mice, loneliness, echoes, and the occupation of three elderly people: Michael Bascom, whose forebears had been landowners of importance in the neighbourhood

Charlotte's Inheritance by Mary E. Braddon
These, with a pale young lady who gave music lessons in the quarter, were all the feminine inmates of the mansion; and amongst these Gustave Lenoble was chief favourite.

The Lovels Of Arden by Mary E. Braddon
She had felt herself very lonely in the French school, forgotten and deserted by her own kindred, a creature to be pitied; and hers was a nature to which pity was a torture.

Birds Of Prey by Mary E. Braddon
She was in the habit of watching Mr. Sheldon rather curiously at all times, for she had never quite got over a difficulty in realising the fact that the black-eyed baby with whom she had been so intimate could have developed into this self-contained inflexible young man

Run To Earth by Mary E. Braddon
Don't I owe you my life? How many more of my countrymen passed me by as I lay on that hospital-bed, and left me to rot there, for all they cared?

At Chrighton Abbey by Mary E. Braddon
Out of respect for the traditions and prejudices of my race, I made it my business to seek employment abroad, where the degradation of one Chrighton was not so likely to inflict shame upon the ancient house to which I belonged

Calidore by Mary E. Braddon
Then turning towards the rocks he spread open his arms and invoked the Nymphs, the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the fields, the springs, the woods, and the sea-shore, by the several appellations of Oreads, and Naiads, and Limniads, and Limoniads, and Ephydriads, and Dryads and Hamadryads.

The Misfortunes of Elphin by Mary E. Braddon
Watchtowers were erected along the embankment, and watchmen were appointed to guard against the first approaches of damage or decay. The whole of these towers, and their companies of guards, were subordinate to a central castle

Eveline's Visitant by Mary E. Braddon
It was at a masked ball at the Palais Royal that my fatal quarrel with my first cousin André de Brissac began. The quarrel was about a woman.

Good Lady Ducayne by Mary E. Braddon
Bella Rolleston had made up her mind that her only chance of earning her bread and helping her mother to an occasional crust was by going out into the great unknown world as companion to a lady.

The Shadow in the Corner by Mary E. Braddon
He was a fanatic in his love of scientific research, and his quiet days were filled to the brim with labours that seldom failed to interest and satisfy him.

Fenton's Quest by Mary E. Braddon
It was a face that a man could scarcely look upon once without finding his glances wandering back to it afterwards; not quite a perfect face, but a very bright and winning one.

F. Marion Crawford

An American Politician by F. Marion Crawford
"Mrs. Wyndham," began Vancouver again after a pause, "I have an idea -- do not laugh, it is a very good one, I am sure."

Claudius by F. Marion Crawford
"Yes, I am certainly very old," he said again, rapping absently on the arm of the chair with the pen he held. But the fingers that held the instrument were neither thin nor withered, and there was no trembling in the careless motion of the hand.

The Little City Of Hope by F. Marion Crawford
Such was the position when John Henry sat down upon the lid of Pandora's box in a sunny corner of the Central Park and reflected on Mr. Burnside's remark that "there was plenty of hope about."

Whosoever Shall Offend by F. Marion Crawford
it was much pleasanter to drown in the end than never to have had the chance of swimming in the big stream at all, and bumping sides with the really big fish, and feeling oneself as good as any of them.

Don Orsino by F. Marion Crawford
But there have been other and greater deaths, beside which the mortality of a whole society of noblemen sinks into insignificance. An empire is dead and another has arisen in the din of a vast war, begotten in bloodshed

A Roman Singer by F. Marion Crawford
He was an ugly little boy, with a hat of no particular shape and a dirty face. He had great black eyes, with ink-saucers under them, calamai, as we say, just as he has now. Only the eyes are bigger now, and the circles deeper.

By the Waters of Paradise by F. Marion Crawford
"It's the Woman of the Water," she used to say; and sometimes she would threaten that if I did not go to sleep the Woman of the Water would steal up to the high window and carry me away in her wet arms.

The Children of the King by F. Marion Crawford
Sail straight across the wide gulf of Salerno, and when you are over give the Licosa Point a wide berth, for the water is shallow and there are reefs along shore.

Saracinesca by F. Marion Crawford
But my business is with Rome, and not with Europe at large. I intend to tell the story of certain persons, of their good and bad fortune, their adventures, and the complications in which they found themselves placed during a period of about twenty years.

A Tale of a Lonely Parish by F. Marion Crawford
The weather was warm and sultry, the trees were all in full leaf and Cambridge was deserted. Only a few hard-reading men, who stayed up during the Long, wandered out with books at the backs of the colleges or strayed slowly through the empty courts, objects of considerable interest to the youths who had come up for the entrance examination

Taquisara by F. Marion Crawford
"I thank you with all my heart!" she cried. "It is a proof of affection which I shall never forget! You will live a hundred years--a thousand, if God will it! But the mere wish to leave me your fortune is a token of love and esteem which I shall know how to value."

The Primadonna by F. Marion Crawford
When the accident happened, Cordova was singing the mad scene in Lucia for the last time in that season, and she had never sung it better.

The Upper Berth F. Marion Crawford
Everybody stopped talking. Brisbane's voice was not loud, but possessed a peculiar quality of penetrating general conversation, and cutting it like a knife. Everybody listened. Brisbane, perceiving that he had attracted their general attention, lit his cigar with great equanimity.

For the Blood is the Life
"Perhaps it is. But the inexplicable part of the matter is that it makes no difference whether the moon is rising or setting, or waxing or waning. If there's any moonlight at all, from east or west or overhead, so long as it shines on the grave you can see the outline of the body on top."

Katharine Lauderdale by F. Marion Crawford
"For that matter," said Bright, "the fact is about as illusory as the illusion itself. If you insist upon being considered as one of the Lauderdale tribe, we're glad to have you on your own merits -- but you'll get nothing out of it but the glory --"

The Heart of Rome
She was not pleased, and spoke with excessive coldness when she asked if Donna Clementina was at home. The porter stood motionless beside the cab, leaning on his broom. After a pause he said in a rather strange voice that Donna Clementina was certainly in, but that he could not tell whether she were awake or not.

Sant' Ilario
Anastase was an artist by nature and no amount of military service could crush the chief aspirations of his intelligence. He had not abandoned work since he had joined the Zouaves, for his hours of leisure from duty were passed in his studio.

In The Palace Of The King
Inez sat opposite her sister, at the other end of the table, listening. She knew what Dolores was doing, how during long months her sister had written a letter, from time to time, in little fragments, to give to the man she loved, to slip into his hand at the first brief meeting or to drop at his feet in her glove

The Witch Of Prague A Fantastic Tale
He who loves with his whole soul has a knowledge and a learning which surpass the wisdom of those who spend their lives in the study of things living or long dead, or never animate. They, indeed, can construct the figure of a flower from the dried web of a single leaf

The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford
I have often heard it scream. No, I am not nervous, I am not imaginative, and I never believed in ghosts, unless that thing is one. Whatever it is, it hates me almost as much as it hated Luke Pratt, and it screams at me.

Greifenstein by F. Marion Crawford
Poverty is too insignificant a word to describe the state in which the mother and daughter lived, and had lived for many years. They had no means of subsistence whatever beyond the pension accorded to the widow of Lieutenant von Sigmundskron, 'fallen on the field of honour,' as the official report had expressed it, in the murderous war with France.

Via Crucis A Romance of the Second Crusade
In the morning, and after dinner, and before sunset, she came every day to the little garden under the west wall of the manor, and looked long toward the road--not that she wished Sir Raymond back, nor that she cared when Gilbert came, but she well knew that the return of either would mean that the fighting was over, and that Sir Arnold, too, would be at leisure to go home.

Mr. Isaacs
In spite of Jean-Jacques and his school, men are not everywhere born free, any more than they are everywhere in chains, unless these be of their own individual making. Especially in countries where excessive liberty or excessive tyranny favours the growth of that class most usually designated as adventurers

Man Overboard!

Marzio's Crucifix and Zoroaster

Marietta

A Cigarette-Maker's Romance

The Children of the King by F. Marion Crawford

The White Sister

J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Aungier Street by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
I had never pretended to conceal from poor Tom my superstitious weakness; and he, on the other hand, most unaffectedly ridiculed my tremors. The sceptic was, however, destined to receive a lesson, as you shall hear.

Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu
The forest opens in an irregular and very picturesque glade before its gate, and at the right a steep Gothic bridge carries the road over a stream that winds in deep shadow through the wood. I have said that this is a very lonely place. Judge whether I say truth. Looking from the hall door towards the road, the forest in which our castle stands extends fifteen miles to the right, and twelve to the left.

The Room In The Dragon Volant by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
I was exactly three-and-twenty, and had just succeeded to a very large sum in consols and other securities. The first fall of Napoleon had thrown the continent open to English excursionists, anxious, let us suppose, to improve their minds by foreign travel

The Familiar by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
some are simply visionaries, and propagate the illusions of which they complain from diseased brain or nerves. Others are, unquestionably, infested by, as we term them, spiritual agencies, exterior to themselves.

Mr. Justice Harbottle by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Thirty years ago an elderly man, to whom I paid quarterly a small annuity charged on some property of mine, came on the quarter-day to receive it. He was a dry, sad, quiet man, who had known better days, and had always maintained an unexceptionable character. No better authority could be imagined for a ghost story.

The Evil Guest by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu
It lay in the midst of a demesne of considerable extent, and richly wooded with venerable timber; but, apart from the sombre majesty of these giant groups, and the varieties of the undulating ground on which they stood, there was little that could be deemed attractive in the place.

Green Tea by J. Sheridan LeFanu
There is no doubt that Mr. Jennings' health does break down in, generally, a sudden and mysterious way, sometimes in the very act of officiating in his old and pretty church at Kenlis. It may be his heart, it may be his brain. But so it has happened three or four times, or oftener, that after proceeding a certain way in the service, he has on a sudden stopped short, and after a silence, apparently quite unable to resume, he has fallen into solitary, inaudible prayer, his hands and his eyes uplifted,

The Purcell Papers by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
As a mere child, he was a remarkably good actor, both in tragic and comic pieces, and was hardly twelve years old when he began to write verses of singular spirit for one so young. At fourteen, he produced a long Irish poem, which he never permitted anyone but his mother and brother to read.

Ghostly Tales Vol I
Vol II Vol III Vol VI Vol V

Two Ghostly Mysteries A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family; and The Murdered Cousin

Wylder's Hand

Madam Crowl's Ghost and The Dead Sexton

The Diamond Master by Jacques Futrelle
There were thirty or forty personally addressed letters, the daily heritage of the head of a great business establishment; and a plain, yellow-wrapped package about the size of a cigarette-box, some three inches long, two inches wide and one inch deep.

Jacques Futrelle

Robert Smythe Hichens

Robert Smythe Hichens, 1864 - 1950

British journalist and writer, best remembered now, perhaps, for his satire on Oscar Wilde, The Green Carnation [1894]. Or perhaps for his novels that were made into films (The Garden of Allah, The Paradine Case.) No, maybe he's now best known for "How Love Came to Professor Guildea," which has been frequently anthologized. Or perhaps he's best known for being someone else: the helmsman at the wheel of the Titanic when it struck the iceberg was also named Robert Hichens....

The Prophet of Berkeley Square Robert S. Hichens
The Prophet's butler, Mr. Ferdinand -- that bulky and veracious gentleman -- threw open the latticed windows of the drawing-room and let the cold air rush blithely in. Then he made up the fire carefully, placed a copy of Mr. Malkiel's Almanac, bound in dull pink and silver brocade by Miss Clorinda Dolbrett of the Cromwell Road, upon a small tulip-wood table

A Spirit In Prison Robert S. Hichens
There was a boat moving slowly towards her, not very far away. In it were three figures, all stripped for diving, and wearing white cotton drawers. Two were sitting on the gunwale with their knees drawn up nearly to their chins.

The Spell of Egypt Robert S. Hichens
Thoth, says the old legend, travelled in the Boat of the Sun. If you would love Egypt rightly, you, too, must be a traveller in that bark.
You must not fear to steep yourself in the mystery of gold, in the mystery of heat, in the mystery of silence that seems softly showered out of the sun. The sacred white lotus must be your emblem, and Horus, the hawk-headed, merged in Ra

In the Wilderness Robert S. Hichens
Sitting quietly by the fire with her delightful edition of Dante, her left hand under her head, her tall figure stretched out in a low chair, Rosamund heard a bell ring below. It called her from the "Paradiso." She sprang up

The Green Carnation Robert S. Hichens
When I am good, it is my mood to be good; when I am what is called wicked, it is my mood to be evil. I never know what I shall be at a particular moment.

December Love Robert S. Hichens
She must, Craven thought, often have stood before a mirror and carefully "memorized" herself in all her variety and detail. As he sat there listening he could not help comparing her exquisite bloom of youth with the ravages of time so apparent in Lady Sellingworth

William Hope Hodgson

The Derelict by William Hope Hodgson
"The material," he said with conviction, "is inevitably the medium of expression of the life-force--the fulcrum, as it were; lacking which it is unable to exert itself, or, indeed, to express itself in any form or fashion that would be intelligible or evident to us. So potent is the share of the material in the production of that thing which we name life, and so eager the life-force to express itself, that I am convinced it would, if given the right conditions, make itself manifest even through so hopeless seeming a medium as a simple block of sawn wood; for I tell you, gentlemen

The Boats Of The 'Glen Carrig' by William Hope Hodgson
Now we had been five days in the boats, and in all this time made no discovering of land. Then upon the morning of the sixth day came there a cry from the bo'sun, who had the command of the lifeboat

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson
It was the Joy of the Sunset that brought us to speech. I was gone a long way from my house, walking lonely-wise, and stopping often that I view the piling upward of the Battlements of Evening

The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson
Also, that she had twice had the sticks blown out of her, and her cargo shifted. Besides all these, a heap of other things that might happen to any packet, and would not be comfortable to run into.

The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
Far around there spreads a waste of bleak and totally inhospitable country; where, here and there at great intervals, one may come upon the ruins of some long desolate cottage—unthatched and stark.

Carnacki: The Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson
"Two days later, I drove to the house, late in the afternoon. I found it a very old place, standing quite alone in its own grounds. Anderson had left a letter with the butler, I found, pleading excuses for his absence

Captain Gault by William Hope Hodgson
But I had seen the look on his face, when I let off my careless squib about the corpse; and I know when a man's badly frightened.

The Find by William Hope Hodgson
'Van Dyll literally snatched it from him, tore off the paper and ran to the window to have a better light. There for nearly an hour, while we watched in silence, he examined the book

The Finding of the Graiken by William Hope Hodgson
When a year had passed, and still there was no news of the full-rigged ship Graiken, even the most sanguine of my old chum's friends had ceased to hope perchance, somewhere, she might be above water.

Out of the Storm by William Hope Hodgson
"Hush!" said my friend the scientist, as I walked into his laboratory. I had opened my lips to speak; but stood silent for a few minutes at his request.

From the Tideless Sea by William Hope Hodgson
Jock left the wheel for an instant, and ran into the little companionway. He emerged immediately with a pair of marine-glasses, which he pushed into the waiting hand.

The Haunted Jarvee by William Hope Hodgson
I went on the voyage primarily for my health, but I picked on the old Jarvee because Captain Thompson had often told me there was something queer about her.

Washington Irving

The Alhambra
At noon we halted in sight of Archidona, in a pleasant little meadow among hills covered with olive-trees. Our cloaks were spread on the grass, under an elm by the side of a bubbling rivulet; our horses were tethered where they might crop the herbage, and Sancho was told to produce his alforjas.

The Adventures of Captain Bonneville by Washington Irving
In consequence of the apathy and neglect of the American government, Mr. Astor abandoned all thoughts of regaining Astoria, and made no further attempt to extend his enterprises beyond the Rocky Mountains

Tales of a Traveller
I was once at a hunting dinner, given by a worthy fox-hunting old Baronet, who kept Bachelor's Hall in jovial style, in an ancient rookhaunted family mansion, in one of the middle counties. He had been a devoted admirer of the fair sex in his young days; but having travelled much, studied the sex in various countries with distinguished success, and returned home profoundly instructed, as he supposed, in the ways of woman

Astoria by Washington Irving
It was the fur trade, in fact, which gave early sustenance and vitality to the great Canadian provinces. Being destitute of the precious metals, at that time the leading objects of American enterprise, they were long neglected by the parent country.

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon including Legend of Sleepy Hollow
I was always fond of visiting new scenes, and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began my travels, and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city, to the frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town crier. As I grew into boyhood, I extended the range of my observations.

Rip Van Winkle
The old gentleman died shortly after the publication of his work, and now that he is dead and gone, it cannot do much harm to his memory to say that his time might have been much better employed in weightier labors. He, however, was apt to ride his hobby his own way; and though it did now and then kick up the dust a little in the eyes of his neighbors

M. R. James

Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad by M. R. James
"The site--I doubt if there is anything showing above ground--must be down quite close to the beach now. The sea has encroached tremendously, as you know, all along that bit of coast.

The Tractate Middoth by M. R. James
Garrett had a few moments to spare; and, thought he, 'I'll go back to that case and see if I can find the old man. Most likely he could put off using the book for a few days. I dare say the other one doesn't want to keep it for long.'

A Collection of Stories by M. R. James
'Oh, Parkins,' said his neighbour on the other side, 'if you are going to Burnstow, I wish you would look at the site of the Templars' preceptory, and let me know if you think it would be any good to have a dig there in the summer.'

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Vol 2 by M. R. James
'Yes; the crop is rather scanty, though. I imagine, if you were to investigate the cycle of ghost stories, for instance, which the boys at private schools tell each other, they would all turn out to be highly-compressed versions of stories out of books.'

Count Magnus by M. R. James
His besetting fault was pretty clearly that of over-inquisitiveness, possibly a good fault in a traveller, certainly a fault for which this traveller paid dearly enough in the end.

Mr. Humphries and His Inheritance by M. R. James
'I was just saying to Mr Humphreys, my dear,' said Mr Cooper, 'that I hope and trust that his residence among us here in Wilsthorpe will he marked as a red-letter day.'

Martin's Close by M. R. James
I asked, and John Hill (whose answer I cannot represent as perfectly as I should like) was not at fault. 'That's what we call Martin's Close, sir: 'tes a curious thing 'bout that bit of land, sir: goes by the name of Martin's Close, sir.

The Rose Garden by M. R. James
'My dear George, do allow me some common sense, and don't credit me with all your ideas about summer-houses. Yes, there will be plenty of sun when we have got rid of some of those box-bushes.

A Warning to the Curious by M. R. James
And young William, his son, who has only died fairly recently, took lodgings at the cottage nearest the spot; and I've no doubt hastened his end, for he was a consumptive

The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral by M. R. James
But how unsearchable are the workings of Providence! The peaceful and retired seclusion amid which the honoured evening of Dr Haynes's life was mellowing to its close was destined to be disturbed

W.W. Jacobs

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
"That's the worst of living so far out," bawled Mr. White, with sudden and unlooked-for violence; "of all the beastly, slushy, out-of-the-way places to live in, this is the worst. Pathway's a bog, and the road's a torrent. I don't know what people are thinking about. I suppose because only two houses on the road are let, they think it doesn't matter."

Ship's Company by W.W. Jacobs
A hasty search satisfied him that they were not in the room, and, pausing only to drape himself in the counterpane, he made his way into the next. He passed on to the others, and then, with a growing sense of alarm, stole softly downstairs and making his way to the shop continued the search.

Sailors' Knots by W.W. Jacobs
They went out separate, as the manager said it would be better for them not to be seen together, and Rupert, keeping about a dozen yards behind

At Sunwich Port by W.W. Jacobs
Regardless of the heat, which indeed was mild compared with that which raged in his own bosom, Captain Nugent, fresh from the inquiry of the collision of his ship Conqueror with the German barque Hans Muller, strode rapidly up the High Street in the direction of home.

Captains All by W.W. Jacobs
They talked it over that night between themselves, and next evening they went out fust and hid themselves round the corner. Ten minutes arterwards old Sam came out, walking as though 'e was going to catch a train;

Deep Waters by W.W. Jacobs
"It's a funny feeling and I can't explain it, but it always means good luck. Last time I had it an aunt o' mine swallered 'er false teeth and left me five 'undred pounds."

Dialstone Lane by W.W. Jacobs
He put down his pen and, rising, looked over the top of the blind at a girl who was glancing from side to side of the road as though in search of an address.

Lady of the Barge and Others by W.W. Jacobs
The master of the barge Arabella sat in the stern of his craft with his right arm leaning on the tiller. A desultory conversation with the mate of a schooner, who was hanging over the side of his craft a few yards off, had come to a conclusion owing to a difference of opinion on the subject of religion.

Night Watches by W.W. Jacobs
His neighbours regarded him with sympathetic eyes, and then, led by the furniture-remover, filed out of the room on tip-toe. The doctor, with a few parting instructions, also took his departure.

Odd Craft by W.W. Jacobs
It ain't for the want of trying either with some of 'em, and I've known men do all sorts o' things as soon as they was paid off, with a view to saving. I knew one man as used to keep all but a shilling or two in a belt next to 'is skin so that he couldn't get at it easy

Self-Help by W.W. Jacobs
"I might 'ave expected it," said the watchman at last. "I done that man--if you can call him a man--a kindness once, and this is my reward for it.

The Toll-House by W.W. Jacobs
"Well, there is the house," said Meagle, "a large house at an absurdly low rent, and nobody will take it. It has taken toll of at least one life of every family that has lived there

Short Cruises by W.W. Jacobs
His wife regarded him with a fixed and offensive stare. Her face was red and her eyes were blazing. It was hard to ignore her gaze; harder still to meet it.

Many Cargoes by W.W. Jacobs
"Yes, I've sailed under some 'cute skippers in my time," said the night-watchman; "them that go down in big ships see the wonders o' the deep, you know," he added with a sudden chuckle, "but the one I'm going to tell you about ought never to have been trusted out without 'is ma.

Jerome K. Jerome

The Cost Of Kindness by Jerome K. Jerome
Mrs. Pennycoop, gentlest of little women, laid her plump and still pretty hands upon her husband's shoulders. "Don't think, dear, I haven't sympathized with you. You have borne it nobly. I have marvelled sometimes that you have been able to control yourself as you have done, most times; the things that he has said to you

Tommy and Co. by Jerome K. Jerome
"I'm a poor old thing," it seemed to say. "I don't shine -- or, rather, I shine too much among these up-to-date young modes. I only hamper you. You would be much more comfortable without me."

Passing of the Third Floor Back by Jerome K. Jerome
The constable at the corner, trying to seem busy doing nothing, noticed the stranger's approach with gathering interest. "That's an odd sort of a walk of yours, young man," thought the constable.

Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
He said that if we were mean and cowardly and false-hearted enough to stoop to such a shabby trick, he supposed he couldn't help it; and that if I didn't intend to finish the whole bottle of claret myself

Told After Supper by Jerome K. Jerome
Christmas Eve is the ghosts' great gala night. On Christmas Eve they hold their annual fete.

They and I by Jerome K. Jerome
A good round-dozen oaths the Captain must have let fly before Dick and I succeeded in rolling her out of the room. She had only heard them once, yet, so far as I could judge, she had got them letter perfect.

Sketches In Lavender, Blue And Green by Jerome K. Jerome
The girl's face wrinkled with a laugh that aged her. In that moment it was a hard, evil face, and with a pang the elder woman thought of that other face, so like, yet so unlike

The Second Thoughts of An Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome
What a good time our ancestors must have had was borne in upon me when, on one occasion, I appeared in character at a fancy dress ball. What I represented I am unable to say, and I don't particularly care.

Paul Kelver by Jerome K. Jerome
I awake to find myself hurrying through noisy, crowded thoroughfares, where flaring naphtha lamps illumine fierce, patient, leaden-coloured faces; through dim-lit, empty streets, where monstrous shadows come and go upon the close-drawn blinds

Novel Notes by Jerome K. Jerome
I felt hurt at the implied sneer. I pointed out to her that there already existed a numerous body of specially-trained men employed to do nothing else but make disagreeable observations upon authors and their works

Tea-Table Talk by Jerome K. Jerome
It seems to me," said the Philosopher, "that, if anything, Love is being exposed to too much light. The subject is becoming vulgarised. Every year a thousand problem plays and novels, poems and essays, tear the curtain from Love's Temple

The Philosopher's Joke by Jerome K. Jerome
She supposed it was her husband who had been my informant: he was just that sort of ass. She did not say it unkindly. She said when she was first married, ten years ago, few people had a more irritating effect upon her than had Camelford;

The Soul Of Nicholas Snyders by Jerome K. Jerome
They said he had no soul, but there they were wrong. All men own--or, to speak more correctly, are owned by--a soul; and the soul of Nicholas Snyders was an evil soul.

The Love Of Ulrich Nebendahl by Jerome K. Jerome
Perhaps of all, it troubled most the Herr Pfarrer. Was he not the father of the village? And as such did it not fall to him to see his children marry well and suitably? marry in any case.

Malvina Of Brittany by Jerome K. Jerome
The Doctor never did believe this story, but claims for it that, to a great extent, it has altered his whole outlook on life.

Idle Ideas in 1905 by Jerome K. Jerome
"Charmed. Very hot weather we've been having of late--I mean cold. Let me see, I did not quite catch your name just now. Thank you so much. Yes, it is a bit close." And a silence falls, neither of us being able to think what next to say.

Mrs. Korner Sins Her Mercies by Jerome K. Jerome
It was a point with Mr. Korner always to be cheerful in the morning. "Greet the day with a smile and it will leave you with a blessing," was the motto Mrs. Korner, this day a married woman of six months and three weeks standing had heard her husband murmur before getting out of bed on precisely two hundred and two occasions.

Evergreens by Jerome K. Jerome
They are not the showy folk; they are not the clever, attractive folk. (Nature is an old-fashioned shopkeeper; she never puts her best goods in the window.) They are only the quiet, strong folk; they are stronger than the world

Dreams by Jerome K. Jerome
The most extraordinary dream I ever had was one in which I fancied that, as I was going into a theater, the cloak-room attendant stopped me in the lobby and insisted on my leaving my legs behind me.

John Ingerfield etc by Jerome K. Jerome
If you take the Underground Railway to Whitechapel Road (the East station), and from there take one of the yellow tramcars that start from that point, and go down the Commercial Road, past the George, in front of which starts -- or used to stand -- a high flagstaff

Stephen King

Different Seasons [ZIP] by Stephen King

Misery [ZIP] by Stephen King

Night Shift [ZIP] by Stephen King

Pet Sematary [ZIP] by Stephen King

Skeleton Crew [ZIP] by Stephen King

The Long Walk [ZIP] by Stephen King

The Running Man [ZIP] by Stephen King

The Stand [ZIP] by Stephen King

Thinner [ZIP] by Stephen King

H.P. Lovecraft

Dagon by H.P. Lovecraft
The change happened whilst I slept. Its details I shall never know; for my slumber, though troubled and dream-infested, was continuous. When at last I awakened, it was to discover myself half sucked into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family by H.P. Lovecraft
Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous.

Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family by H.P. Lovecraft
Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous.

The Spectre of Tappington by H.P. Lovecraft
His master read incredulity in his countenance. "Why, I tell you, Barney, I put them there, on that arm-chair, when I got into bed; and, by Heaven! I distinctly saw the ghost of the old fellow they told me of

The White Ship by H.P. Lovecraft
From far shores came those white-sailed argosies of old; from far Eastern shores where warm suns shine and sweet odors linger about strange gardens and gay temples.

Moons of Lovecraft by H.P. Lovecraft
What The Moon Brings
The Tomb
Beyond the Wall of Sleep
The Rats in the Walls
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The Picture in the House
The Terrible Old Man
The Nameless City
The Music OF Erich Zann
The Lurking Fear
Celephais
The Lurking Fear
Hypnos
Herbert West: Reanimator

Supernatural Horror In Literature by H.P. Lovecraft
The Oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. These facts few psychologists will dispute, and their admitted truth must establish for all time the genuineness and dignity of the weirdly horrible tale as a literary form.

The Terrible Old Man by H.P. Lovecraft
This old man dwells all alone in a very ancient house on Water Street near the sea, and is reputed to be both exceedingly rich and exceedingly feeble; which forms a situation very attractive to men of the profession of Messrs. Ricci, Czanek, and Silva, for that profession was nothing less dignified than robbery.

The Doom That Came to Sarnath by H.P. Lovecraft
There is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream, and out of which no stream flows. Ten thousand years ago there stood by its shore the mighty city of Sarnath, but Sarnath stands there no more.

The Cats of Ulthar by Howard Phillips Lovecraft
It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroe and Ophir.

Ex Oblivione by H.P. Lovecraft
When the last days were upon me, and the ugly trifles of existence began to drive me to madness like the small drops of water that torturers let fall ceaselessly upon one spot of their victims body, I loved the irradiate refuge of sleep. In my dreams I found a little of the beauty I had vainly sought in life, and wandered through old gardens and enchanted woods.

The Spectre of Tappington by H. P. Lovecraft
"It is very odd, though; what can have become of them?" said Charles Seaforth, as he peeped under the valance of an old-fashioned bedstead, in an old-fashioned apartment of a still more old-fashioned manor-house; "'tis confoundedly odd, and I can't make it out at all. Why, Barney, where are they?

The Crawling Chaos by H.P. Lovecraft and E. Berkeley
Presently I realised that the direct symbol and excitant of my fear was the hideous pounding whose incessant reverberations throbbed maddeningly against my exhausted brain. It seemed to come from a point outside and below the edifice in which I stood, and to associate itself with the most terrifying mental images.

The Street by H.P. Lovecraft
Men of strength and honour fashioned that Street: good valiant men of our blood who had come from the Blessed Isles across the sea. At first it was but a path trodden by bearers of water from the woodland spring to the cluster of houses by the beach. Then, as more men came to the growing cluster of houses and looked about for places to dwell

The White Ship by H.P. Lovecraft
I am Basil Elton, keeper of the North Point light that my father and grandfather kept before me. Far from the shore stands the gray lighthouse, above sunken slimy rocks that are seen when the tide is low, but unseen when the tide is high. Past that beacon for a century have swept the majestic barques of the seven seas.

Polaris by H.P. Lovecraft
Into the North Window of my chamber glows the Pole Star with uncanny light. All through the long hellish hours of blackness it shines there. And in the autumn of the year, when the winds from the north curse and whine

A Collection of Lovecraft by H.P. Lovecraft
Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places. For them are the catacombs of Ptolemais, and the carven mausolea of the nightmare countries. They climb to the moonlit towers of ruined Rhine castles, and falter down black cobwebbed steps beneath the scattered stones of forgotten cities in Asia. The haunted wood and the desolate mountain are their shrines

Nyarlathotep by H.P. Lovecraft
I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago. The general tension was horrible. To a season of political and social upheaval was added a strange and brooding apprehension of hideous physical danger; a danger widespread and all-embracing, such a danger as may be imagined only in the most terrible phantasms of the night. I recall that the people went about with pale and worried faces, and whispered warnings and prophecies which no one dared consciously repeat or acknowledge to himself that he had heard.

The Tree by H.P. Lovecraft
Close by is a tomb, once beautiful with the sublimest sculptures, but now fallen into as great decay as the house. At one end of that tomb, its curious roots displacing the time-stained blocks of Panhellic marble, grows an unnaturally large olive tree of oddly repellent shape; so like to some grotesque man

The Statement of Randolph Carter by H.P. Lovecraft
As I have said before, the weird studies of Harley Warren were well known to me, and to some extent shared by me. Of his vast collection of strange, rare books on forbidden subjects I have read all that are written in the languages of which I am master; but these are few as compared with those in languages I cannot understand.

Memory by H.P. Lovecraft
In the valley of Nis the accursed waning moon shines thinly, tearing a path for its light with feeble horns through the lethal foliage of a great upas-tree.

The Beast in the Cave by H.P. Lovecraft
I was lost, completely, hopelessly lost in the vast and labyrinthine recess of the Mammoth Cave. Turn as I might, In no direction could my straining vision seize on any object capable of serving as a guidepost to set me on the outward path.

The Garden Of Allah by Robert S. Hichens
But Domini with wide-open eyes, was staring from her big, square pillow at the red brick floor of her bedroom, on which stood various trunks marked by the officials of the Douane. There were two windows in the room looking out towards the Place de la Marine, below which lay the station.

Dr Duthoit's Vision by Arthur Machen
He was a middle-aged man when I was a little boy; but he suffered me to walk with him in his garden sloping down to the Wye, near a pleasaunce of the Vicars Choral, reciting sometimes the poems of Traherne

Novel of the White Powder by Arthur Machen
I thought that such relentless application must be injurious, and tried to cajole him from the crabbed textbooks, but his ardour seemed to grow rather than diminish

A Fragment of Life by Arthur Machen
Edward Darnell awoke from a dream of an ancient wood, and of a clear well rising into grey film and vapour beneath a misty, glimmering beat; and as his eyes opened he saw the sunlight bright in the room,

The Great Return Arthur Machen
There are strange things lost and forgotten in obscure corners of the newspaper. I often think that the most extraordinary item of intelligence that I have read in print appeared a few years ago in the London press.

The Novel of the Black Seal Arthur Machen
"Madam," replied Mr. Phillipps, "no one shall make me deny my faith. I will never believe, nor will I pretend to believe, that two and two make five

The Shining Pyramid Arthur Machen
"Yes, haunted. Don't you remember, when I saw you three years ago, you told me about your place in the west with the ancient woods hanging all about it, and the wild, domed hills, and the ragged land?

The Terror Arthur Machen
After two years we are turning once more to the morning's news with a sense of appetite and glad expectation. There were thrills at the beginning of the war

The White People by Arthur Machen
"Great people of all kinds forsake the imperfect copies and go to the perfect originals. I have no doubt but that many of the very highest among the saints have never done a 'good action' (using the words in their ordinary sense). And, on the other hand, there have been those who have sounded the very depths of sin, who all their lives have never done an 'ill deed.'"

The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen
But all the afternoon his eyes had looked on glamour; he had strayed in fairyland. The holidays were nearly done, and Lucian Taylor had gone out resolved to lose himself, to discover strange hills and prospects that he had never seen before. The air was still, breathless, exhausted after heavy rain, and the clouds looked as if they had been moulded of lead. No breeze blew upon the hill, and down in the well of the valley not a dry leaf stirred, not a bough shook in all the dark January woods.

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
The two men were slowly pacing the terrace in front of Dr. Raymond's house. The sun still hung above the western mountain-line, but it shone with a dull red glow that cast no shadows, and all the air was quiet

7B Coney Court Arthur Machen
to call a house haunted made it unlettable, and that in consequence of the statements in the interview the place once occupied by the poet had been empty on his hands for the last eighteen months.

The Bowmen Arthur Machen
On this dreadful day, then, when three hundred thousand men in arms with all their artillery swelled like a flood against the little English company

The Three Impostors Arthur Machen
The two stood at the hall door, grinning evilly at each other; and presently a girl ran quickly down the stairs and joined them. She was quite young, with a quaint and piquant rather than a beautiful face

Out of the Earth Arthur Machen
They write me letters, some in kindly remonstrance, begging me not to deprive poor, sick-hearted souls of what little comfort they posses amidst their sorrows.

The Inmost Light Arthur Machen
One evening in autumn, when the deformities of London were veiled in faint blue mist, and its vistas and far-reaching streets seemed splendid, Mr. Charles Salisbury was slowly pacing down Rupert Street

The Hill of Dreams Arthur Machen
But all the afternoon his eyes had looked on glamour; he had strayed in fairyland. The holidays were nearly done, and Lucian Taylor had gone out resolved to lose himself

The Angels of Mons Arthur Machen
On this dreadful day, then, when three hundred thousand men in arms with all their artillery swelled like a flood against the little English company, there was one point above all other points in our battle line that was for a time in awful danger

Mrs. Oliphant

A Beleaguered City by Mrs. Oliphant
It was on a summer evening about sunset, the middle of the month of June, that my attention was attracted by an incident of no importance which occurred in the street, when I was making my way home

A Little Pilgrim by Mrs. Oliphant
When I call her a little Pilgrim, I do not mean that she was a child; on the contrary, she was not even young. She was little by nature, with as little flesh and blood as was consistent with mortal life; and she was one of those who are always little for love.

Jeanne d'Arc by Mrs. Oliphant
But Frenchmen were not Frenchmen, they were Burgundians, Armagnacs, Bretons, Provençaux five hundred years ago. The interests of one part of the kingdom were not those of the other.

The Secret Chamber by Mrs. Oliphant
I was about to say that no ghost-story I ever heard of has been so steadily and long believed. But this would be a mistake, for nobody knew even with any certainty that there was a ghost connected with it. A secret chamber was nothing wonderful in so old a house. No doubt they exist in many such old houses

The Open Door, and the Portrait by Mrs. Oliphant
It was within reach of Edinburgh; and my boy Roland, whose education had been considerably neglected, could go in and out to school; which was thought to be better for him than either leaving home altogether or staying there always with a tutor. The first of these expedients would have seemed preferable to me

Old Lady Mary by Mrs. Oliphant
She was very old, and therefore it was very hard for her to make up her mind to die. I am aware that this is not at all the general view

A Little Pilgrim by Mrs. Oliphant
All was quiet in the house: soft breathing of the sleepers, soft murmuring of the spring wind outside, a wintry moon very clear and full in the skies, a little town all hushed and quiet

A Beleaguered City by Mrs. Oliphant
At this moment the tinkle of a little bell warned all the bystanders of the procession which was about to pass, carrying the rites of the Church to some dying person.

Thomas Love Peacock

Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock
The abbey of Rubygill stood in a picturesque valley, at a little distance from the western boundary of Sherwood Forest, in a spot which seemed adapted by nature to be the retreat of monastic mortification, being on the banks of a fine trout-stream, and in the midst of woodland coverts, abounding with excellent game. The bride, with her father and attendant maidens, entered the chapel; but the earl had not arrived. The baron was amazed, and the bridemaidens were disconcerted.

Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
Here the coach stopped, and the coachman, opening the door, vociferated -- "Breakfast, gentlemen;" a sound which so gladdened the ears of the divine, that the alacrity with which he sprang from the vehicle superinduced a distortion of his ankle

Calidore by Thomas Love Peacock
Then turning towards the rocks he spread open his arms and invoked the Nymphs, the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the fields, the springs, the woods, and the sea-shore, by the several appellations of Oreads, and Naiads, and Limniads, and Limoniads,

Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock
"It is strange," thought the baron, "that the earl should come in this martial array to his wedding;" but he had not long to meditate on the phenomenon,

Crotchet Castle by Thomas Love Peacock
a venerable family mansion, in a highly picturesque state of semi-dilapidation, pleasantly situated on a strip of dry land between the sea and the fens, at the verge of the county of Lincoln

The Last Day of Windsor Forest by Thomas Love Peacock
A still more solitary spot, which had especial charms for me, was the deep forest dell already mentioned, on the borders of Winkfield Plain. This dell, I think, had the name of the Bourne, but I always called it the Dingle.

The Misfortunes of Elphin by Thomas Love Peacock
when Uther Pendragon held the nominal sovereignty of Britain over a number of petty kings, Gwythno Garanhir was king of Caredigion. The most valuable portion of his dominions was the Great Plain of Gwaelod, an extensive tract of level land

Crotchet Castle by Thomas Love Peacock
a venerable family mansion, in a highly picturesque state of semi-dilapidation, pleasantly situated on a strip of dry land between the sea and the fens, at the verge of the county of Lincoln, had the honour to be the seat of Christopher Glowry, Esquire. This gentleman was naturally of an atrabilarious temperament, and much troubled with those phantoms of indigestion which are commonly called 'blue devils.'

Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal--the redness and the horror of blood.

The Cask of Amontillado
It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Vol. I
Edgar Allan Poe, An Appreciation, Life of Poe, by James Russell Lowell, Death of Poe, by N. P. Willis, The Unparalled Adventures of One Hans Pfall, The Gold Bug, Four Beasts in One, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, The Balloon Hoax, MS. Found in a Bottle, The Oval Portrait
The extraordinary details which I am now called upon to make public, will be found to form, as regards sequence of time, the primary branch of a series of scarcely intelligible coincidences, whose secondary or concluding branch will be recognized by all readers in the late murder of Mary Cecila Rogers, at New York.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Vol. II
The Purloined Letter, The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherezade, A Descent into the Maelstrom, Von Kempelen and his Discovery, Mesmeric Revelation, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The Black Cat, The Fall of the House of Usher, Silence -- a Fable, The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, The Imp of the Perverse, The Island of the Fay, The Assignation, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Burial, The Domain of Arnheim, Landor's Cottage, William Wilson, The Tell-Tale Heart, Berenice, Eleonora
There can be little question that most of the marvellous rumors afloat about this affair are pure inventions, entitled to about as much credit as the story of Aladdin's lamp; and yet, in a case of this kind, as in the case of the discoveries in California, it is clear that the truth may be stranger than fiction. The following anecdote, at least, is so well authenticated, that we may receive it implicitly.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Vol. III
Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, Ligeia, Morella, A Tale of the Ragged Mountains, The Spectacles, King Pest, Three Sundays in a Week
I remained three days and nights (as nearly as I could guess) in my hiding-place without getting out of it at all, except twice for the purpose of stretching my limbs by standing erect between two crates just opposite the opening. During the whole period I saw nothing of Augustus; but this occasioned me little uneasiness, as I knew the brig was expected to put to sea every hour, and in the bustle he would not easily find opportunities of coming down to me.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Vol. IV
The Devil in the Belfry, Lionizing, X-ing a Paragrab, Metzengerstein, The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq., How to Write a Blackwood article, A Predicament, Mystification, Diddling, The Angel of the Odd, Mellonia Tauta, The Duc de l'Omlette, The Oblong Box, Loss of Breath, The Man That Was Used Up, The Business Man, The Landscape Garden, Maelzel's Chess-Player, The Power of Words, The Colloquy of Monas and Una, The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion, Shadow.--A Parable
The first action of my life was the taking hold of my nose with both hands. My mother saw this and called me a genius: my father wept for joy and presented me with a treatise on Nosology. This I mastered before I was breeched.

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Vol. V
Philosophy of Furniture, A Tale of Jerusalem, The Sphinx, Hop Frog, The Man of the Crowd, Never Bet the Devill Your Head, Thou Art the Man, Why the Little Frenchman Wears his Hand in a Sling, Bon-Bon, Some words with a Mummy, The Poetic Principle, Old English Poetry
In the internal decoration, if not in the external architecture of their residences, the English are supreme. The Italians have but little sentiment beyond marbles and colours.

Sax Rohmer

The Yellow Claw by Sax Rohmer
He hesitated when about to open the outer door, raising his hands to his dishevelled hair and unshaven chin. The flap of the letter- box dropped; and the girl outside could be heard stifling her laughter.

Chinatown by Sax Rohmer
In the saloon bar of a public-house, situated only a few hundred yards from the official frontier of Chinatown, two men sat at a small table in a corner, . . . One was a thick-set and rather ruffianly looking fellow, not too cleanly in either person or clothing, and, amongst other evidences that at one time he had known the prize ring, possessing a badly broken nose.

The Green Eyes Of Bâst by Sax Rohmer
I often stopped for a chat at this point and I was acquainted with most of the men of P. division on whom the duty devolved from time to time. It was a lonely spot at night when the residents in the neighborhood had retired

The Quest of the Sacred Slipper by Sax Rohmer
I was not the only passenger aboard the S.S. Mandalay who perceived the disturbance and wondered what it might portend and from whence proceed. A goodly number of passengers were joining the ship at Port Said

The Golden Scorpion by Sax Rohmer
(He) awoke with a start and discovered himself to be bathed in cold perspiration. The moonlight shone in at his window, but did not touch the bed, therefore his awakening could not be due to this cause. He lay for some time listening for any unfamiliar noise which might account for the sudden disturbance of his usually sound slumbers. In the house below nothing stirred

Bat Wing Sax Rohmer

Breath of Allah Sax Rohmer

Brood Of The Witch-Queen Sax Rohmer

Fire Tongue Sax Rohmer

Kerry's Kid Sax Rohmer

Lure of Souls by Sax Rohmer

Tcheriapin by Sax Rohmer

The Daughter Of Huang Chow by Sax Rohmer

The Death-Ring of Sneferu by Sax Rohmer

The Hand Of The Mandarin Quong by Sax Rohmer

The House Of Golden Joss by Sax Rohmer

The Key Of The Temple Of Heaven by Sax Rohmer

The Mysterious Mummy by Sax Rohmer

The Pigtail Of Hi Wing Ho by Sax Rohmer

The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer
To say that I was perplexed conveys no idea of the mental chaos created by these extraordinary statements, for into my humdrum suburban life Nayland Smith had brought fantasy of the wildest. I did not know what to think, what to believe.

Fire-Tongue by Sax Rohmer
Some of Paul Harley's most interesting cases were brought to his notice in an almost accidental way. Although he closed his office in Chancery Lane sharply at the hour of six, the hour of six by no means marked the end of his business day.

The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer
There were no lights to be seen in any of the windows, which circumstance rather surprised me, as my patient occupied, or had occupied when last I had visited her, a first-floor bedroom in the front of the house. My knocking and ringing produced no response for three or four minutes; then, as I persisted, a scantily clothed and half awake maid servant unbarred the door and stared at me stupidly in the moonlight.

Dope by Sax Rohmer
Monte Irvin, alderman of the city and prospective Lord Mayor of London, paced restlessly from end to end of the well-appointed library of his house in Prince's Gate. Between his teeth he gripped the stump of a burnt-out cigar. A tiny spaniel lay beside the fire, his beady black eyes following the nervous movements of the master of the house.

Mary Shelley

Sir Bertrand A Fragment
AFTER this adventure, Sir Bertrand turned his steed towards the woulds, hoping to cross these dreary moors before the curfew. But ere he had proceeded half his journey, he was bewildered by the different tracks, and not being able, as far as the eye could reach

Mathilda by Mary Shelley
It was on my sixteenth birthday that my aunt received a letter from my father. I cannot describe the tumult of emotions that arose within me as I read it.

Proserpine and Midas by Mary Shelley
We will first therefore consider the revelation of Mount Sinai. Taking the fact plainly it happened thus. The Jews were told by a man whom they believed to have supernatural powers that they were to prepare for that God

The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The principal thing that I should wish to be impressed on my reader's mind is, that whether my hero was or was not an impostor, he was believed to be the true man by his contemporaries. The partial pages of Bacon, of Hall, and Holinshed and others of that date, are replete with proofs of this fact.

The Heir of Mondolfo by Mary Shelley
In the beautiful and wild country near Sorrento, in the Kingdom of Naples, at the time it was governed by monarchs of the house of Anjou, there lived a territorial noble, whose wealth and power overbalanced that of the neighboring nobles.

The Invisible Girl by Mary Shelley
She was reading one of those folio romances which have so long been the delight of the enthusiastic and young; her mandoline was at her feet -- her parroquet perched on a huge mirror near her; the arrangement of furniture and hangings gave token of a luxurious dwelling, and her attire also evidently that of home and privacy

Falkner; A Novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Treby was almost unknown; yet, whoever visited it might well prefer its sequestered beauties to many more renowned competitors. Situated in the depths of a little bay, it was sheltered on all sides by the cliffs. Just behind the hamlet the cliff made a break

The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelly
Am I, then, immortal? This is a question which I have asked myself, by day and night, for now three hundred and three years, and yet cannot answer it. I detected a gray hair amidst my brown locks this very day-- that surely signifies decay. Yet it may have remained concealed there for three hundred years--for some persons have become entirely white headed before twenty years of age.

The Mourner by Mary Shelly
Our boat has floated long on the broad expanse; now let it approach the umbrageous bank. The green tresses of the graceful willow dip into the waters, which are checked by them into a ripple.

The Evil Eye by Mary Shelley
Who in the mutilated savage could recognise the handsomest amongst the Arnaoots? His habits kept pace with his change of physiognomy

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
These reflections have dispelled the agitation with which I began my letter, and I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven, for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose

The Parvenue by Mary Shelley
Am I evil-minded - am I wicked? What have been my errors, that I am now an outcast and wretched? I will tell my story - I let others judge me; my mind is bewildered, I cannot judge myself.

The Dream by Mary Shelley
She glided hastily from the bower: with swift steps she threaded the glade and sought the castle. Once within the seclusion of her own apartment she gave way to the burst of grief that tore her gentle bosom like a tempest

Valperga by Mary Shelley
Lombardy and Tuscany, the most civilized districts of Italy, exhibited astonishing specimens of human genius; but at the same time they were torn to pieces by domestic faction, and almost destroyed by the fury of civil wars.

Valerius The Reanimated Roman by Mary Shelley
"I have promised to relate to you, my friend, what were my sensations on my revival, and how the appearance of this world - fallen from what it once was - struck me when the light of the sun revisited my eyes after it had deserted them many hundred years.

M. P. Shiel

Prince Zaleski by M. P. Shiel
'Mechanics!' cried Zaleski, starting upright for a moment, 'mechanics to agricultural labourers! Why not elementary chemistry? Why not elementary botany?

Vaila by M. P. Shiel
Their are minds precisely so sensitive as a cupful of melted silver; every breath will roughen and darken them: and what of the simoon, tornado?

The Bride by M. P. Shiel
It was on the night of his arrival at No. 13, that he for the first time saw Rachel, Annie's younger sister. Both girls, in fact, were named "Rachel" -- after a much-mourned mother of Mrs.

The Stone of the Edmundsbury Monks by M. P. Shiel
A day or two after I had reached the desolate old mansion which the prince occupied, knowing that he might sometimes lie induced to take an absorbing interest in questions that had proved themselves too profound

The S S by M. P. Shiel
The coffin is not too strait for lawless nuptial bed; and the sweet clods of the valley will prove no barren bridegroom of a writhing progeny.

The Race of Orven by M. P. Shiel
I reached the gloomy abode of my friend as the sun set. It was a vast palace of the older world standing lonely in the midst of woodland, and approached by a sombre avenue of poplars and cypresses

The Pale Ape by M. P. Shiel
It was on the fourth forenoon, a day of "the Indian summer," that my pupil took me to see the apes. There were three of them -- two chimpanzees, one gibbon -- in three rooms of wire-netting close to the east line of cliffs

Many a Tear by M. P. Shiel
He spoke with no little solemnity, though I must say that when he went on to tell me the facts, he left me utterly unconvinced of this "arm of the Almighty"; and I hope that by this time he, too, has nobler thoughts with regard to Margaret Higgs.

The Case of Euphemia Raphash by M. P. Shiel
"The Doctor, sir--saw him with my own eyes--he is on foot-- must have passed through the north park gates, and is at this moment coming up the drive!"

The Lord of the Sea by M. P. Shiel
Within three months of that night, one midnight the people of Prague rose and massacred most of the Jewish residents; the next day the flame broke out in Buda-Pesth; and within a week had become a revolution.

Bram Stoker

Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker
Whilst we were talking, we heard a sort of sound between a yelp and a bark. It was far away; but the horses got very restless, and it took Johann all his time to quiet them.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania;

The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker
"Indeed," Richard Salton went on, "I am in hopes that you will make your permanent home here. You see, my dear boy, you and I are all that remain of our race, and it is but fitting that you should succeed me when the time comes.

The Dualitists by Bram Stoker
phraim Bubb sat cowering on the stairs, and tried with high-strung ears to catch the strain of blissful music from the lips of his first-born. There was silence in the house

The Judge's House by Bram Stoker
"When the time for his examination drew near Malcolm Malcolmson made up his mind to go somewhere to read by himself. He feared the attractions of the seaside

The Man by Bram Stoker
The voice of the speaker sounded clearly through the hawthorn tree. The young man and the young girl who sat together on the low tombstone looked at each other.

The Lady Of The Shroud by Bram Stoker
A strange story comes from the Adriatic. It appears that on the night of the 9th, as the Italia Steamship Company's vessel "Victorine" was passing a little before midnight the point known as "the Spear of Ivan,

The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker
Again, the light skiff, ceasing to shoot through the lazy water as when the oars flashed and dripped, glided out of the fierce July sunlight into the cool shade of the great drooping willow branches

Emile C. Tepperman

The Suicide Squad--Dead or Alive by Emile C. Tepperman

The Suicide Squad and the Murder Bund by Emile C. Tepperman

The Suicide Squad Reports For Death by Emile C. Tepperman

Suicide Squad - Targets For The Flaming Arrows by Emile C. Tepperman

War Masters From The Orient by Emile C. Tepperman

Married For Murder by Emile C. Tepperman

A Half Interest in Hell by Emile C. Tepperman

A Cue For The Corpse by Emile C. Tepperman

Raiders Of The Red Death by Emile C. Tepperman

In This Corner - Death by Emile C. Tepperman

Manchu Skull by Emile C. Tepperman

A Coffin For the Avenger by Emile C. Tepperman

Calling Justice Inc by Emile C. Tepperman

Cargo of Doom by Emile C. Tepperman

Death To the Avenger by Emile C. Tepperman

To Find a Dead Man by Emile C. Tepperman

The Murder Monster by Emile C. Tepperman

Various

Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
This name may appear at first sight not to be truly Cambrian, like those of the Rices, and Prices, and Morgans, and Owens, and Williamses, and Evanses, and Parrys, and Joneses; but, nevertheless

The Room in the Tower by E. F. Benson
It was when I was about sixteen that a certain dream first came to me, and this is how it befell. It opened with my being set down at the door of a big red-brick house, where, I understood, I was going to stay. The servant who opened the door told me that tea was being served in the garden

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
I reckon that if there were such a thing as a ghost in Europe, we'd have it at home in a very short time in one of our public museums, or on the road as a show."

The Plattner Story by H.G. Wells
Photographs may be fudged, and left-handedness imitated. But the character of the man does not lend itself to any such theory. He is quiet, practical, unobtrusive and thoroughly sane, from the Nordau standpoint.

From Weird tales from Northern Seas from the Danish of Jonas Lie
There could be very little doubt that the lonely Kvalholm was haunted. Whenever her husband was away, Karen heard all manner of uncanny shrieks and noises, which could mean no good. One day, when she was up on the hillside, mowing grass to serve as winter fodder for their couple of sheep, she heard, quite plainly, a chattering on the strand beneath the hill, but look over she durst not.

Oh, Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad by M.R. James
"I might walk home to-night along the beach," he reflected--"yes, and take a look--there will be light enough for that--at the ruins of which Disney was talking. I don't exactly know where they are, by the way; but I expect I can hardly help stumbling on them."

The Little Room by Madelene Yale Wynne
"The India cotton was the regular blue stamped chintz, with the peacock figure on it. The head and body of the bird were in profile, while the tail was full front view behind it. It had seemed to take mamma's fancy, and she drew it for me on a piece of paper as she talked. Doesn't it seem strange to you that she could have made all that up, or even dreamed it?

The Old Nurse's Story by Mrs. Gaskell
The afternoon was closing in, and the hall, which had no fire lighted in it, looked dark and gloomy; but we did not stay there a moment. The old servant, who had opened the door for us, bowed to Mr. Henry, and took us in through the door at the further side of the great organ, and led us through several smaller halls and passages into the west drawing-room, where he said that Miss Furnivall was sitting.

The Sand-Man by Ernst T.W. Hoffman
As soon as I saw this Coppelius, therefore, the fearful and hideous thought arose in my mind that he, and he alone, must be the Sand-man; but I no longer conceived of the Sand-man as the bugbear in the old nurse's fable

Captain Gault by William Hope Hodgson
I met a rum sort of customer ashore in 'Frisco to-day. At least, I was the customer, and he, as a matter of fact, was the shopman. It was one of those Chinese curio shops, that have drifted down, somehow, near to the water front. By the look of him, he was half Chinaman, a quarter negro, and the other quarter badly mixed. But his English was quite good, considering.

The Horla by Guy de Maupassant
Whence come those mysterious influences which change our happiness into discouragement, and our self-confidence into diffidence? One might almost say that the air, the invisible air, is full of unknowable Forces, whose mysterious presence we have to endure.

Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton
In the days when New York's traffic moved at the pace of the drooping horse-car, when society applauded Christine Nilsson at the Academy of Music and basked in the sunsets of the Hudson River School on the walls of the National Academy of Design, an inconspicuous shop with a single show-window was intimately and favourably known to the feminine population of the quarter bordering on Stuyvesant Square.

The Diamond Lens by Fitz-James O'Brien
From a very early period of my life the entire bent of my inclinations had been towards microscopic investigations. When I was not more than ten years old, a distant relative of our family, hoping to astonish my inexperience, constructed a simple microscope for me, by drilling in a disk of copper a small hole, in which a drop of pure water was sustained by capillary attraction.

The Demon Spell by Hume Nisbet
I did not believe in the return of spirits, yet, thinking to be amused, consented to attend at the hour appointed. At that time I had just returned from a long sojourn abroad, and was in a very delicate state of health, easily impressed by outward influences, and nervous to a most extraordinary extent.

The Adventure Of The German Student by Washington Irving
On a stormy night, in the tempestuous times of the French Revolution, a young German was returning to his lodgings, at a late hour, across the old part of Paris. The lightning gleamed, and the loud claps of thunder rattled through the lofty narrow streets--but I should first tell you something about this young German.

The Wind in the Rose-Bush by Mary E. Wilkins
The boy dragged the trunk up the fine gravel walk, but before he reached the steps leading up to the piazza, for the house stood on a terrace, the front door opened and a fair, frizzled head of a very large and handsome woman appeared.

The Phial Of Dread by Fitz Hugh Ludlow
I believe that I am now safe. This part of Columbia Street is not much visited by any people who ever knew me. The other end is in Grand Street. I doubt whether any of my acquaintance have vivid recollection of that end either.

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Matilda made signs to Isabella to prevent Hippolita's rising; and both those lovely young women were using their gentle violence to stop and calm the Princess, when a servant, on the part of Manfred, arrived and told Isabella that his Lord demanded to speak with her.

The Weird Violin by Anonymous
Turning out of the busiest street, he ambled into a comparatively quiet thoroughfare, and, throwing away an inch of cigar-end, produced a new havannah, lighting up with every sign of enjoyment. Now, it was part of his rule, when out on these refreshing excursions, to avoid music shops, and he had already passed half-a-dozen without doing more than barely recognise them.

Wake Not The Dead by Johann Ludwig Tieck
"Wilt thou for ever sleep? Wilt thou never more awake, my beloved, but henceforth repose for ever from thy short pilgrimage on earth? O yet once again return! and bring back with thee the vivifying dawn of hope to one whose existence hath, since thy departure, been obscured by the dunnest shades.

The Seed from the Sepulcher by Clark Ashton Smith
"It's a queer sort of place, pretty much as the legends describe it." He spat quickly into the fire, as if the act of speech had been physically distasteful to him, and, half averting his face from the scrutiny of Thone, stared with morose and somber eyes into the jungle-matted Venezuelan darkness.

The Thames Valley Catastrophe by Grant Allen
It can scarcely be necessary for me to mention, I suppose, at this time of day, that I was one of the earliest and fullest observers of the sad series of events which finally brought about the transference of the seat of Government of these islands from London to Manchester.

The Shadows of the Dead by Louis Becke
Slowly they paddled over the glassy surface, and as the little craft cut her way noiselessly through the water, the dying sun turned the slopes of vivid green on Mont Buache to changing shades on gold and purple light, and the dark blue of the water of the reef-bound lagoon paled and shallowed and turned to bright transparent green with a bottom of shining snow-white sand

Saunderson and the Dynamite by Louis Becke
Saunderson was one of those men who firmly believed that he knew everything, and exasperated people by telling them how to do things; and Denison, the super-cargo of the Palestine, hated him most fervently for the continual trouble he was giving to everyone, and also because he had brought a harmonium on board

Everybody's Chance by John Habberton
There was no chance of any kind for any of the natives. Young men were afraid to marry, and young women were afraid to marry them; for what girl wanted to go through the routine of drudgery in which she had pitied her own mother

The Devil's Pool by George Sand
the peasant is too abject, too wretched, and too fearful of the future to enjoy the beauty of the country and the charms of pastoral life. To him, also, the yellow harvest-fields, the rich meadows, the fine cattle represent bags of gold

The Tractate Middoth by M. R. James
Mr Eldred, still a prey to anxiety, betook himself in a cab to Mr Garrett's address, but the young man was not yet in a condition to receive visitors. He was better, but his landlady considered that he must have had a severe shock.

Wake Not The Dead by Johann Ludwig Tieck
Wilt thou for ever sleep? Wilt thou never more awake, my beloved, but henceforth repose for ever from thy short pilgrimage on earth? O yet once again return! and bring back with thee the vivifying dawn of hope to one whose existence hath, since thy departure, been obscured by the dunnest shades.

The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral by M. R. James
'It might have been augured that an existence so placid and benevolent would have been terminated in a ripe old age by a dissolution equally gradual and calm. But how unsearchable are the workings of Providence! The peaceful and retired seclusion amid which the honoured evening of Dr Haynes's life was mellowing

Sir Bertrand by Anne Barbauld
Sir Bertrand turned his steed towards the woulds, hoping to cross these dreary moors before the curfew. But ere he had proceeded half his journey, he was bewildered by the different tracks, and not being able, as far as the eye could reach, to espy any object but the brown heath surrounding him, he was at length quite uncertain which way he should direct his course.

The Return by Walter de la Mare
And in spite of a peculiar melancholy that had welled up into his mind during these last few days, he had certainly smiled with a faint sense of the irony of things on lifting his eyes in an unusually depressed moodiness to find himself looking down on the shadows and peace of Widderstone.

Wake Not The Dead by Johann Ludwig Tieck
"Wilt thou for ever sleep? Wilt thou never more awake, my beloved, but henceforth repose for ever from thy short pilgrimage on earth? O yet once again return! and bring back with thee the vivifying dawn of hope to one whose existence hath, since thy departure, been obscured by the dunnest shades.

The Wondersmith by Fitz-James O'Brien
A clean street is terribly prosaic. There is no food for thought in carefully swept pavements, barren kennels, and vulgarly spotless houses. But when I go down a street which has been left so long to itself that it has acquired a distinct outward character, I find plenty to think about.

The Werewolf by Clemence Housman
The great farm hall was ablaze with the fire-light, and noisy with laughter and talk and many-sounding work. None could be idle but the very young and the very old -- little Rol, who was hugging a puppy, and old Trella, whose palsied hand fumbled over her knitting.

Zanoni by Edward Bulwer Lytton
With that the old gentleman condescended to enter into a very interesting, and, as it seemed to me, a very erudite relation, of the tenets of the Rosicrucians, some of whom, he asserted, still existed, and still prosecuted, in august secrecy, their profound researches into natural science and occult philosophy.

Horror: A True Tale by John Berwick Harwood
I was but nineteen years of age when the incident occurred which has thrown a shadow over my life: and, ah me! how many and many a weary year has dragged by since then! Young, happy, and beloved I was in those long-departed days.

The Blindman's World by Edward Bellamy
Most astronomers have a specialty, and mine was the study of the planet Mars, our nearest neighbor but one in the Sun's little family. When no important celestial phenomena in other quarters demanded attention, it was on the ruddy disc of Mars that my telescope was oftenest focused.

The Hall Bedroom by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
I am a person of considerable ingenuity, and have inventive power, and much enterprise when the occasion presses. I advertised in a very original manner, although that actually took my last penny

The Angel at the Grave by Edith Wharton
The village street on which Paulina Anson's youth looked out led to all the capitals of Europe; and over the roads of intercommunication unseen caravans bore back to the elm-shaded House the tribute of an admiring world.

The Alchemist
Thus isolated, and thrown upon my own resources, I spent the hours of my childhood in poring over the ancient tomes that filled the shadow-haunted library of the chateau, and in roaming without aim or purpose through the perpetual dust of the spectral wood that clothes the side of the hill near its foot.

The Book of the Damned by Charles Hoy Fort
The little harlots will caper, and freaks will distract attention, and the clowns will break the rhythm of the whole with their buffooneries -- but the solidity of the procession as a whole: the impressiveness of things that pass and pass and pass, and keep on and keep on and keep on coming.

Mr. Gray's Strange Story by Louisa Murray
At that moment a shadow, as if from the wild flight of a bird, passed before the window at which I sat, and swift as an arrow from a bow Celia darted out of the verandah. Till then I had seen and heard all that passed in a sort of stupor

Luella Miller by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
She had been dead for years, yet there were those in the village who, in spite of the clearer light which comes on a vantage-point from a long-past danger, half believed in the tale which they had heard from their childhood.

The Horror Of The Heights by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Joyce-Armstrong Fragment was found in the field which is called Lower Haycock, laying one mile to the westward of the village of Withyham, upon the Kent and Sussex Border.

The Ghost Whistle by Eugene K. Jones
Uncle Bob Holman, habitat the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, feared neither God nor the devil. His profession was moonshining, his chief recreation taking potshots at his feudal enemies

The Deserted House by Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann
all agreed in the belief that the actual facts of life are often far more wonderful than the invention of even the liveliest imagination can be.

The Derelict by William Hope Hodgson
"The material," he said with conviction, "is inevitably the medium of expression of the life-force--the fulcrum, as it were; lacking which it is unable to exert itself

The Cremona Violin By Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann
It was at this stage of the proceedings that I came to H----; and it was highly amusing to see how hundreds of people stood round about the garden and raised a loud shout whenever the stones flew out and a new window appeared where nobody had for a moment expected it.

Captain Gault by William Hope Hodgson
"I belong to the Nameless Ones, we call them. They are a brotherhood also, an' have live for two t'ousand years.

Carnacki The Ghost Finder by Eugene K. Jones
"I examined the seals on all the doors, as I went along, and found them right; but when I got to the Grey Room, the seal was broken

Fred M. White

The Mystery of the Four Fingers by Fred M. White
The beautifully decorated saloon had a sprinkling of well-dressed men and women already dining decorously there. Everything was decorous about the Great Empire Hotel. No thought had been spared in the effort to keep the place quiet and select.

The River of Death by Fred M. White
The drought had lasted since April. Tales came up from the provinces of stagnant rivers and quick, fell spurts of zymotic diseases. For some time the London water companies had restricted supplies

The Four Days' Night by Fred M. White
The chance he was waiting for seemed to have come at last. November had set in, mild and dull and heavy. Already there had been one or two of the dense fogs under which London periodically groans and does nothing to avert.

The Invisible Force by Fred M. White
In the flare of the blue arc lights a dozen men were working on the dome of the core. Something had gone wrong with a water-main overhead, the concrete beyond the steel belt had cracked, and the moisture had corroded the steel plates, so that a long strip of the metal skin had been peeled away, and the friable concrete had fallen on the rails.

The Crimson Blind by Fred M. White
David Steel dropped his eyes from the mirror and shuddered as a man who sees his own soul bared for the first time. And yet the mirror was in itself a thing of artistic beauty--engraved Florentine glass in a frame of deep old Flemish oak.

The Dust of Death by Fred M. White
Hubert asked no unnecessary questions. He knew Fillingham, the great portrait painter, well enough by repute and by sight also, for Fillingham's house and studio were close by. There were many artists in the Devonshire Park district

A Bubble Burst by Fred M. White
there was a tremendous "boom." Nothing like it had ever been seen in the history of commerce. It was the golden hour of the promoter. Yet, for the most part, the schemes promised well.

The Four White Days by Fred M. White
There had been no sign of any abatement in the gripping frost, but the wind had suddenly shifted to the east, and almost immediately snow had commenced to fall. But as yet there was no hint of the coming calamity.

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
He had known life in other forms than those of pastoral simplicity, having mingled in the gay and in the busy scenes of the world; but the flattering portrait of mankind, which his heart had delineated in early youth, his experience had too sorrowfully corrected.

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