Classic Literature Dark

Lacy Logan thought she had a normal life. She was healthy, happy, and about to start her own paranormal investigations business...until she met the man in black. In a matter of days, she was fighting for her life, questioning her sanity, and hoping to uncover a secret from her past that would allow her to slay a demon.

Fifty-One Tales is a collection of fantasy short stories by Irish writer Lord Dunsany, a major influence on J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin and others. Each story is a short vignette, a single moment of strangeness or horror in the face of death.

This was the book that launched a genre. Modern fantasy collections trace their lineage back to Lord Dunsany, and this was his first work that today's listeners would recognise in tone and settings.

Written in 1905, this is Vernon Lee’s final genuinely weird tale, and it tells the 18th-century legend of Sister Benvenuta, a nun who wrote letters to a model of infant Christ. Whilst unexpectedly funny in places, this short story has dark undertones.

When a broken effigy of Christ washes up on a beach in Flanders, it is displayed in the local church. Strange miracles start drawing people to the town to worship, but then these unexplainable events start to turn sinister.

Barry Pain was noted for his humorous tales of “Eliza” and her husband, but his tales of the weird and supernatural are equally noteworthy. This volume, More Tales in the Dark, contains eight of them.

Christmas may come but once a year but evil, intrigue and malevolence are everyday events. Within this volume Christmas is a time when these dark forces form and coalesce to take life and liberty from people who may and who may not deserve the spin of its wheel. Some are merely evil, others have the beginnings of a conscience that displays itself in a dialogue with the devil, or perhaps only themselves. But, in this volume Christmas takes a ringside seat to the horrors of the human heart.

"A Dark Brown Dog" is an unexpected Stephen Crane jewel. Crane is best known for three short stories, "The Open Boat", thought by many to be the best short story ever written; "The Blue Hotel"; and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky". "A Dark Brown Dog" is the first cousin of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, in being set in the rough, tough world of the New York Bowery of the late 19th century.

A palm reader notifies Lord Arthur that murder is in his future. But not his murder - he’s the murderer. This really throws a wrench into his wedding plans, for Lord Arthur is soon to be married to the most beautiful lady in London. In fact he loves her so much, he decides to postpone the wedding until his business is done. Now, for a tasteful homicide....

A young boy finds a homeless dog desperate for love and brings him into his home. What is frightening about Crane's take on this typical relationship, a boy and his dog, are the parallels between the young boy's treatment of the dog and his abusive, alcoholic father's treatment of those around him.

Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) was an English author of 21 novels and numerous short stories and features. His humorous works have been ranked with Jerome K Jerome, and W.W. Jacobs, his detective stories with Conan Doyle, his politico-science fiction with H.G. Wells and his supernatural stories with Algernon Blackwood. In his stories of detection, Bramah hit on the idea of a blind detective, Max Carrados, whose triumphs are all the more amazing because of his disability.

This is an unabridged audio recording of M R James' excellent ghost story "After Dark in the Playing Fields". Read by David Collings, this is sure to scare and delight in equal measure.