Classic Horror Fiction

Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, the novel's influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for many theatrical, film and television interpretations since its publication. Required listening for any fan of the genre!

The governess begins seeing a man around the house, and a woman down by the lake. The maid of the house tells the governess that the descriptions sound like the former governess and the valet. Strange things begin to happen, leading the governess to believe that the family is haunted. She is convinced that the ghosts are pandering to the children; yet the children deny being able to see or hear anything unusual.

The main character of the story is Detective Thomas Malone, of Irish descent, who is tracking down Robert Suydam, a wealthy Dutch citizen suspected of engaging in forbidden practices.

"Olalla" is a dark tale of love, secrets, and heritage. In a Spanish house full of secrets, a Scottish soldier falls in love with the beautiful Olalla. But will their love survive the family's dark secrets? This is a story that will draw you into its intriguing web and won't let you escape.

Um arruinado y borracho Fettes se encuentra en una taberna de mala muerte con un viejo doctor londinense muy reputado de apellido Macfarlane y allí ambos recuerdan las circunstancia en que se conocieron. Fettes fue un alumno destacado del doctor K., instruido para ser su segundo auxiliar de prácticas en cirugías. Como ayudante, tuvo que anfrentarse a la realidad nocturna y a negociar con hombres sin escrúpulos.

El pozo y el péndulo (título original en inglés: The Pit and the Pendulum) es uno de los cuentos más famosos y celebrados de Edgar Allan Poe. Está considerado como uno de los relatos más espeluznantes dentro de la literatura de terror, pues transmite el abandono, la desorientación, el desconcierto y la desesperanza de una persona que sabe que va a morir.

This ghost story is about a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted.

The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James that first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly magazine. Classified as both Gothic fiction and a ghost story, the novella focuses on a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. A cornerstone text of academics who subscribed to New Criticism, the novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive. Narrated by Michael Ward, and intended as a companion to the Kindle edition.

The Turn of the Screw has been described by many critics as the most sophisticated and terrifying ghost story in the English language. It is considered one of the great intellectual "spook tales" of all time. The story concerns a naive young governess who is hired to take care of two children in a large mansion in the English countryside. Everything is going fine, until she discovers that the children are not as innocent as they seem.

One of the most daunting ghost stories to ever be written, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw follows the transformation of Miles (age 10) and Flora (age eight) from well-behaved children to deceitful liars. When a governess comes to their country estate to look after the children, she and Flora are separately visited by a ghost; however Flora denies the experience and Miles claims to never have been visited by one, even when evidence supports an evil plot between the children and the ghosts.

Sleepy Hollow, a supposedly haunted glen on the outskirts of Tarry Town, is home to a particularly ghoulish fiend - the Headless Horseman - who is said to be the specter of a fallen soldier. Ichabod Crane, a schoolmaster from Connecticut, competes with local hero Abraham 'Brom Bones' Van Brunt for the affections of the young, beautiful, and wealthy Katrina Van Tassel.

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic Lucia novels. In his own day, it was his ghost stories which were his most popular works. This collection of 10 stories exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of ghostly and macabre tales.

The Turn of the Screw, a novella written by Henry James, is often considered the prototypical ghost story. The story begins: “The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child.”

In these wonderful short stories, Washington Irving created two of the earliest, most endearing and enduring characters in all of American literature. Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane (not to mention the Headless Horseman) will keep you smiling as they wrestle with the strange and fantastic forces, characters and events that baffle and terrify.

Doug Bradley's Spine Chillers, Volume 2, presents four classic stories from the masters of horror literature. It kicks off with Charles Dickens' friend and collaborator Wilkie Collins' eerie tale of a man's dream of his own murder that comes too true, 'The Dream Woman'. Second on the bill is the master of American literature Edgar Allan Poe's classic story of doomed love 'The Oval Portrait'.

Widely recognized as one of literature's most gripping ghost stories, this classic tale of moral degradation concerns the sinister transformation of two innocent children into flagrant liars and hypocrites. The story begins when a governess arrives at an English country estate to look after Miles, aged 10, and Flora, eight. At first, everything appears normal, but then events gradually begin to weave a spell of psychological terror.

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer, poet, editor and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre, and is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature. Poe was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story and considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre, as well as a significant contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction.

In The Dunwich Horror, Lovecraft lays further ground in the Cthulu mythos. Alongside The Dunwich Horror are the stories "Dagon", "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Lurking Fear", "Imprisoned with the Pharoahs", "The Music of Erich Zann", "Randolph Carter", "In the Walls of Eryx", and "The Transition of Juan Romero".

After Edward, a rising young author, pens a savage review of the new novel by the world-famous O.M. Tyrell, he is surprised to receive an invitation to visit the old man at his villa in the south of France. The night of their meeting, Tyrell dies, and soon after, Edward's career mysteriously starts to soar as he earns fame, fortune and critical acclaim. But despite his achievements, Edward seems haunted, even tormented.

Strangling vines and meat-hungry flora fill this unruly garden of strange stories, selected for their significance as the seeds of the villainous (or perhaps just misunderstood) 'killer plant' in fiction, film and video games. Step within to marvel at Charlotte Perkins Gilman's giant wisteria and H.G. Wells' hungry orchid; hear the calls of the ethereal women of the wood and the frightful drone of the moaning lily; and do tread carefully around E. Nesbit's wandering creepers. Every strain of vegetable threat can be found within this new collection.