Spider Horror

E. Nesbit is rightly best known for her children's books, but she also wrote works for adults, including short stories in the genres of the uncanny, macabre, and supernatural. There are five of these in this collection.

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.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated as a master of the gothic tale of the macabre and the supernatural, but he also wrote a number of humorous and satirical tales, seven of which are presented here.

M. R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. The six stories in Volume Two are: "The Ash Tree", "Martin's Close", "Lost Hearts", "The Tractate Middoth", "After Dark in the Playing Fields", and "Wailing Well".

It’s bad enough that its venom-dripping chelicerae can slice through flesh like warm butter. Worse? It’s right there under the bunk. It’s a fact now. To make it through the night, the children must obey the rules: don’t get out of bed, stay out of the shadows, and don’t wake the beast. But as the threats multiply, so do the rules of survival. And with the safety of dawn still hours away, the fun is just beginning.

Fans of The Twilight Zone, Tales of the Unexpected, or Hammer monster movies will enjoy this horror/comedy novella about Will, a man working in the nation’s biggest natural history museum, a dream come true for a man enamored with insects. That is until you learn he works in the gift shop. Following a series of events and mysteries beyond his control or understanding, Will tries harder and harder to cling to the freedom he doesn’t have, becoming tangled in the spider’s web from which he needs to escape.

The Screaming Skull is one of F. Marion Crawford's Uncanny Tales, which was first published, posthumously, in London in 1911 and was issued two weeks later in America as Wandering Ghosts.

Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was an American writer, born in Italy and educated in the United States. He also studied at the universities of Cambridge and Heidelberg. He was a prolific writer in many fields, but it was his novels that were most popular, commanding a large following. His stories of the macabre and supernatural are very highly regarded.

El valle de las arañas, quizás uno de los cuentos de H.G. Wells más conocidos, relata la invasión de una horda de arañas venenosas que amenaza con eliminar por completo a la humanidad. En este sentido, El valle de las arañas de H.G. Wells es, sin lugar a dudas, un verdadero clásico del relato fantástico, y posiblemente el mejor relato de terror de arañas de la época.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. “The Cask of Amontillado” is one of his terrifying tales of premature burial. In it, the narrator, Montresor, has suffered from “insults and injuries” from his “friend” Fortunato and plans to murder him while he is drunk at the carnival by luring him to a wine tasting in the cellars of his palazzo. He chains him to the wall in a niche that he seals up with mortar, thus entombing him alive.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is celebrated for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is one of his most famous. In it, the narrator tells how, without any motive, but merely because he is obsessed with his eye (“The eye of a vulture”), he murders an old man, and of the consequences when the murdered man's heart seeks revenge.

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 that were his most popular works. "Naboth's Vineyard" exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of supernatural and macabre tales.

M. R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. Here is one of them: "The Ash Tree".

M.R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge. and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories which are considered among the finest in the genre. Here is one of them: "The Tractate Middoth".

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is renowned for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. "William Wilson" is the disturbing story of a doppelganger and how he leads the eponymous narrator through a series of experiences that annoy, infuriate, and finally drive him to a violent reaction with a fatal conclusion.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is known for his tales of the macabre and the supernatural. "The Black Cat" is one of his most celebrated. In it the narrator tells of his growing hatred for his pet cat and how in a drunken rage he maims the animal by cutting out one of its eyes. Worse is to follow when, in an episode of alcohol-induced depravity, he kills the cat by hanging it from a tree, with the most horrifying of consequences.

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. The Sanctuary exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of supernatural and macabre tales, this one being particularly disturbing.

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. At the Farmhouse exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of supernatural and macabre tales.

E. Nesbit is best known for her children's books such as The Railway Children, the Psammead series, and the stories of the Bastable family. She was also a poet and wrote many works for adults including short stories in the genre of the supernatural and the macabre. "The Head" is one of her most strange and disturbing.

M. R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. Here is one of them: "A Warning to the Curious".