Classics Literature Horror

An authentic, gothic reimagining of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, told from the villain' s perspective, that takes listeners deep into the seedy side of Victorian London and explores the nature of personality and of the subconscious. Mr. Hyde is trapped in Dr. Jekyll' s surgical cabinet, counting the days until he will face capture and be forced to make the ultimate choice about survival. Over the course of four days, he thinks back on what brought him to this moment, and he finally has the chance to tell the story of his brief but marvelous 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.

Hodgson’s finest short story is set at sea, where one dark, starless night a schooner is hailed by a voice from a nearby rowing boat. The passenger refuses to bring his craft alongside and insists that the crew put away their lantern. He has approached them to beg for food for his fiancée, who he has left behind upon an island, but dares not come any closer. The crew float a box of food to him, and with heartfelt thanks he rows away. But three hours later he returns....

"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.

When Woodsley, a young English painter, arrives in Barbados and finds no lodging available, he thinks himself fortunate to be invited to stay at Eltonsbrody, a mansion belonging to the eccentric widow Mrs Scaife. But behind the locked doors of the house’s disused rooms lurk terrible secrets, and soon strange and blood-curdling events begin to unfold. The tension builds towards a shocking and unforgettable conclusion, when the full horror of Eltonsbrody will be revealed.

Nato a Boston nel 1809, Edgar Allan Poe è considerato l'inventore del genere letterario del terrore e del mistero, nonché iniziatore del genere poliziesco. Nei suoi quarant'anni di vita travagliata scrisse centinaia di racconti pubblicati su varie riviste e fu Charles Baudelaire, suo grande ammiratore, che lo fece conoscere al pubblico europeo e che lo definì "uomo dalle facoltà sovracute".

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.

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'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For a century Bram Stoker's Dracula has reigned supreme as the undisputed masterpiece of horror writing. We have all grown up under the shadow of the elegant Count, at once an attractive, brutal and erotic creature of the night. The gothic tale of Frankenstein and his construction of a human being which runs amok, has, with the help of numerous films, become one of the most vivid horror stories.

"Io sono sempre l'invitta. Tu hai conosciuto sul mio corpo tutti i godimenti di cui ha sete il tuo desiderio senza fine; ed io mi vestirò delle menzogne che senza fine produrrà il tuo desiderio. (...) L'odore della mia pelle può dissolvere in te un mondo."

Few ghost stories are as chilling as the ones written by Victorian writers. Featuring work by H.G. Wells, Edith Wharton, F.G. Loring and Florence Marryat, this second volume of eight enduring stories, some well-known, others less familiar, transport you to a cosy fireside to hear tales of disembodied voices, haunted objects and unknown entities lurking in the shadows cast by candlelight.

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.

A young, inexperienced governess is charged with the care of Miles and Flora, two small children abandoned by their uncle at his grand country house. She sees the figure of an unknown man on the tower and his face at the window. It is Peter Quint, the master's dissolute valet, and he has come for Miles. But Peter Quint is dead....