Classic Horror Fiction

Volume 11 begins with Doug's well-researched insight into the stories and their authors. This is followed by Edgar Allan Poe’s highly acclaimed gothic romance "Ligeia", Ambrose Bierce's haunting "A Fruitless Assignment", H. P. Lovecraft's dark and disturbing "Pickman's Model", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's sinister masterpiece "Blue John Gap", and more.

Volume 12 begins with Doug Bradley's well-researched insight into the stories and their authors. This is followed by what H. P. Lovecraft considered to be one of his best stories, "The Music of Eric Zann". "The Tool" by W. F. Harvey is a horrifying tale narrated by an inmate of a mental institution. Next Edgar Allan Poe revisits his terrifying fear of being buried alive in "The Premature Burial". Then an eavesdropper overhears five creepy and scary ghost stories in Charles Dickens "To Be Read at Dusk".

"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a narrative short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine before being included in the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840. The short story is a work of detective fiction and includes themes of madness, family, isolation, and metaphysical identities.

Rediscover the classics you hold dear, reborn with haunting and thrilling twists. This collection will transport you to a world where the known meets the unknown, where the familiar becomes strange, and where the literature come alive with a bone-chilling and exhilarating flair.

Erleben Sie den packenden Klassiker der Schauerliteratur Der Sandmann von E.T.A. Hoffmann, eindrucksvoll gelesen von Alexander Wohnhaas. In dieser düsteren Erzählung wird der junge Nathanael von einem mysteriösen Kindheitstrauma verfolgt, das sich in Form des unheimlichen Sandmanns zeigt. Zwischen Realität und Wahnsinn gefangen, versucht Nathanael, das Geheimnis seiner Vergangenheit zu entschlüsseln – doch das Grauen lässt ihn nicht los. Perfekt für Fans von psychologischem Horror und klassischen Erzählungen.

In The Shunned House, H. P. Lovecraft crafts a chilling tale of horror and the supernatural. The story follows the narrator and his uncle as they investigate a decaying, abandoned house that has a long history of death and illness associated with it. As they dig deeper into the mysteries surrounding the house, they uncover terrifying and otherworldly forces that defy explanation. The unsettling atmosphere, combined with Lovecraft’s masterful storytelling, creates an eerie, unforgettable journey into fear and the unknown.

Extraviado en una tormenta en un rocoso páramo inglés, un amable viajero llamado Lockwood queda fascinado con la historia que le narra Nelly acerca de Cumbres Borrascosas, una lóbrega mansión cercana. Mientras el viento ruge en el exterior, el fatigado visitante escucha la triste historia de Heathcliff, un criado, y su inocente amor por Cathy, un espíritu libre que nunca llegó a hacer realidad su fiera pasión por él, porque cuando Heathcliff volvió en su busca después de mucho tiempo intentando hacer fortuna, se encontró a Cathy ya casada con un joven de la alta sociedad.

Award winning narrator Mike Vendetti reads The Mask of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe, a Gothic short story that originally appeared in Graham's magazine in May of 1882. This short story later appears as The Masque of the Red Death. The Red death is fictitious, but it is likely that the disease was inspired by tuberculosis (or consumption, as it was known then), since Poe's wife, Virginia, was suffering from the disease at the time the story was written.

The Beast in the Jungle is a 1903 novella by Henry James, first published in the collection titled The Better Sort. The story addresses themes like fate, loneliness, love and death. The protagonist, John Marcher, anticipates an event that he believes will set him apart from other people. Marcher is frozen by his fears and a sense of impending doom. A haunting tale of egotism, fear of the unknown and unrequited love, the story warns that the only thing one has to fear is fear itself. John’s failure to reciprocate May Bartram’s love condemns him.

Based on Japanese literature and foldlore, Kwaidan contains 17 stories. The story of Loichi, the blind biwa player who was called to perform for the dead; of Muso, the journeying priest who encountered a man eating goblin; of the samurai who outwitted the ghost of a dead man. All these plus 14 other spooly tales are included in this collection.

A London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The work is commonly associated with the rare mental condition often called "split personality", referred to in psychiatry as dissociative identity disorder, where within the same body there exists more than one distinct personality. In this case, there are two personalities within Dr. Jekyll, one apparently good and the other evil.

Long acknowledged as a master of nightmarish vision, H.P. Lovecraft established the genuineness and dignity of his own pioneering fiction in 1931 with his quintessential work of supernatural horror, "At the Mountains of Madness". The deliberately told and increasingly chilling recollection of an Antarctic expedition's uncanny discoveries - and their encounter with an untold menace in the ruins of a lost civilization - is a milestone of macabre literature.

تتصاعد الأحداث حينما يقوم الراوي وزوجته بزيارة قبو بيتهم الجديد، حيث يدخل القط بين أقدام سيده ويكاد يتعثر ويسقط فيحاول السيد قتله بالفأس فتمنعه زوجته فيقتلها هي ويدفنها داخل نتوء جدار ويغلقه. تأتي الشرطة للتحقيق فلا تجد شيئاً ويختفي القط أيضاً، وفي اليوم الأخير من التحقيق، تكتشف الشرطة مكان الجثة بعد صدور عويل لا بشري وفوق رأسها المتعفن القط حيّاً، حيث دفنه الراوي مع جثة زوجته. تعتبر قصة القط الأسود قصة رعب، تمتزج بجوانب الغموض والظلام والشر.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is perhaps the most famous ghost story of all. For nearly 200 years, this tale has singlehandedly extended the haunting season from autumn through winter, and ghost lovers everywhere are happy about that. Traditionally, A Christmas Carol is told and retold each year in every form from plays to movies and TV shows. But, originally, the tale was read aloud as folks sat by the hearth, drinking mulled cider or hot cocoa as they warmed their hands at the fireplace. Many of us first heard the tale as children.

From Edgar Allan Poe—the master of the short story and lyric poem—comes this rare treasury of classics. The outstanding works "A Descent into the Maelstrom," "Annabelle Lee," "Eldorado," "The Bells," and "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall," illustrate Poe's meticulous sense of construction, with signature themes of romance and melancholy that characterized his short and troubled life.

Vincentio di Vivaldi has fallen in love with Ellena Rosalba. However, his proud and noble family vehemently oppose the match: they cannot allow him to wed someone with no money or social standing. Thus, his mother, the mean-spirited Marchesa, and her minion, the evil monk Father Schedoni, set in motion a malign plot that has Ellena kidnapped and imprisoned in a convent, to prevent a hasty marriage.

William Wilson est poursuivi, son existence durant, par son double (un pantin moraliste, sa conscience ?) qui intervient pour le remettre sur la bonne voie, chaque fois qu'il s'égare dans le mal... or, William Wilson est las de ce harcèlement. Il va donc réagir, mais tragiquement.

Nestled off the coast of Cuba and shielded by impenetrable reefs of razor-sharp rock, stands Diablo Caldera. To the rest of the world, the extinct, bowl-shaped volcano is hardly worth exploring. But the caldera has a secret. Its isolated saltwater lake has remained untouched since the fall of the dinosaurs.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (originally titled Notre Dame de Paris) is a Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story of Quasimodo, the Gypsy street dancer Esmeralda and Quasimodo's guardian the Archdeacon Claude Frollo in 15th century Paris. The novel sought to preserve values of French culture in a time period of great change, which resulted in the destruction of many French Gothic structures. The novel made Notre Dame de Paris a national icon and served as a catalyst for renewed interest in the restoration of Gothic form.

Dracula is the seminal gothic horror novel of its time as Bram Stoker introduced the world to the legendary vampire Count Dracula. Published in 1897 and told through a series of diary entries and letters, the story journeys into the dark world of Count Dracula through the eyes of several different narrators. The novel explores many themes, the role of women in Victorian culture, conventional and conservative sexuality, immigration, colonialism, post colonialism and folklore.