Ancient Horror

Charles Boswell's short story "Monsters of Monarchy", Terror Tales, May 1940 features Roman emperor Caligula (12 BCE-24 CE), one of the most notorious Roman emperors. Known for his incestuous relationship with his sisters, and for his cruelty and madness, which culminated in Caligula naming his horse Roman consul and declaring himself a god. Caligula's brief reign and life turn into a complex and fascinating story of a boy-emperor thoroughly unprepared for the throne, who, in the early years of the Roman Empire, tried to make Rome an absolute monarchy but failed.

Among the ancient artifacts concealed in a London Victorian mansion lies an ornate human-sized sarcophagus which houses the body of an ancient Egyptian sorceress dead for centuries...or is she?

There's a legend in this valley about a ghostly horseman that rides by night. There are many such legends and for schoolteacher Ichabod Crane the darkness of night holds a special fascination...and fear. For often there is truth in stories, especially ghost stories. And one fated night, Ichabod Crane will discover that the horseman of the legend is indeed... headless!

Stylish gentlemen and ladies await their carriages in the Victorian London night. But lurking in the shadows is one of the creatures of the night, one who brings chilling fear to those he encounters, a man who cannot die yet must prey upon the blood of others to prolong his doomed existence...the vampire Dracula.

Algernon Henry Blackwood (March 14, 1869 - December 10, 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The following recording includes the short stories "The Olive" and "Ancient Lights."

Even before the birth of Christ and many centuries before the expeditions of the great Spanish conquistadors, there lived a group of American Indians called the Timucua. Their ancient shell mounds, piled high from countless feasts and everyday meals, survive to this day. One tribe of the Timucuan Federation made its home near the mouth of the Manatee River in southwest Florida. Here, the unspoiled river emptied into the crystal green waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Experience one of Poe’s classics with crisp, clear audio. Orange Island Book Shop is proud to present Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales like you’ve never heard them before.

"The Middle Toe of the Right Foot", a ghost story by the writer and Civil War soldier Ambrose Bierce, was first published in The San Francisco Examiner in 1890. A man named Manton had murdered his children, and his wife who lacked the middle toe of her right foot. A decade later, he returns to the area; and having been recognized, is provoked to a duel in the dark, to be held at the scene of the crime. When the time of the duel comes, no antagonist appears, and Manton stands alone in the haunted darkness. The next day, they found his corpse, throttled by terror, crouching in a corner.

"Bayou's Hex" is a tale of voodoo. An ancient curse and chant open Pandora's box in a Louisiana tavern...and all hell breaks loose.