Subject: Classic Horror & Ghost Stories
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A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
With Dickens' famous words, Merry Christmas, everyone! "Bah!" said Scrooge. "Humbug!" unfolds a tale that renews the joy that is Christmas. Regardless of whether you read it out loud with your family and friends, or open the pages on a chill winter night to savor the story in isolation, Charles Dickens' A Christmas... read more »
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A Tale of the Ragged Mountains Edgar Allan Poe
A Tale of the Ragged Mountains highlights scientific theories of Poe's day, engages with British imperial history, and forecasts contemporary interest in psychoactive drugs, the transmigration of the soul, and the dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship. This is a short story partially based on Edgar Allan Poe's... read more »
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Hop-Frog Edgar Allan Poe
A dwarf is taken from his homeland and becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. Taking revenge on the king and his cabinet for striking his friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta, he dresses them as orangutans for a masquerade. In front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog murders them all before... read more »
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Northanger Abbey Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey tells the story of a young girl, Catherine Morland who leaves her sheltered, rural home to enter the busy, sophisticated world of Bath in the late 1790s. Austen observes with insight and humour the interaction between Catherine and the various characters whom she meets there, and tracks her growing... read more »
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The Abbot's Ghost Louisa May Alcott
Maurice Traherne is wrongly accused of fraud and gambling and must play a careful hand if he is to win his love, Octavia, from the grasp of other, less honorable men and retain the trust of those who had faith in him. Traherne is temporarily crippled saving the life of his well-born friend, Jaspar. Thus, Jaspar is... read more »
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The Black Cat Edgar Allan Poe
A study of the psychology of guilt, often paired in analysis with Poe's \"The Tell-Tale Heart\". In both, a murderer carefully conceals his crime and believes himself unassailable, but eventually breaks down and reveals himself, impelled by a nagging reminder of his guilt. A man overcome by alcohol sinks into wild... read more »
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The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allan Poe
Montressor, angry over insults by his friend Fortunato, a fellow nobleman, plots to murder him during Carnival when the man is drunk, by immurement, sealing him up alive behind walls of bricks. He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained, out of season, what he believes to be a pipe of Amontillado, about 130... read more »
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The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe
Follow the macabre events that sweep the narrator into the haunted world of Roderick Usher--a morbid recluse and slave to fear--whose descent into madness inevitably brings the great House of Usher to its most sinister fate. read more »
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The Haunted and the Haunters Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Lytton has presented a wicked and malicious persona that fulfills all demonic characteristics. This It is a fantastic epic romance is referred to as a ghost story as it is written in gothic style. The mysterious, exciting actions and shadowy atmosphere successfully ensnare reader's attention. read more »
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The Invisible Man H. G. Wells
Spine-tingling and entertaining, The Invisible Man is a science fiction classic–and a penetrating, unflinching look into the heart of human nature. To its author, H. G. Wells, the novel was as compelling as "a good gripping dream." But to generations of readers, the terrible and evil experiment of the demented... read more »
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The Island of Dr. Moreau H. G. Wells
A shipwreck in the South Seas, a palm-tree paradise where a mad doctor conducts vile experiments, animals that become human and then "beastly" in ways they never were before--it's the stuff of high adventure. It's also a parable about Darwinian theory, a social satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's... read more »
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The Lifted Veil George Eliot
The tale of a man who is incapacitated by visions of the future and the cacophony of overheard thoughts, and yet who can’t help trying to subvert his vividly glimpsed destiny, it is easy to read The Lifted Veil as being autobiographically revealing—of Eliot’s sensitivity to public opinion and her awareness... read more »
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The Lost Stradivarius J. Meade Falkner
Chilling in the extreme, The Lost Stradivarius is a classic tale of the supernatural. While practicing in his rooms in Oxford, gifted violinist John Maltravers notices a strange phenomenon: whenever a certain air is played, a mysterious presence seems to enter. Unable to rationalize this away, Maltravers becomes... read more »
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The Magician W. Somerset Maugham
The Magician is one of Somerset Maughams most complex and perceptive novels. Running through it is the theme of evil, deftly woven into a story as memorable for its action as for its astonishingly vivid characters. In fin de siècle Paris, Arthur and Margaret are engaged to be married. Everyone approves and... read more »
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The Masque of the Red Death Edgar Allan Poe
A thousand of the favored joined their decadent prince behind high walls and welded gates. They engaged in bizarre celebrations while the Red Death raged outside--until one cryptic figure showed them the true horror in The Masque of the Red Death. read more »
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The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka
In this, his most famous story, Kafka explores the notions of alienation and human loneliness through extraordinary narrative technique and depth of imagination. Gregor Samsa awakens one morning to find himself transformed into a repulsive bug. Trapped inside this hideous form, his mind remains unchanged—until he... read more »
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The Miraculous Revenge George Bernard Shaw
Recounting the misadventures of an alcoholic investigator while he probes the mystery of a graveyard—full of saintly corpses—that migrate across a stream to escape association with the body of a newly buried sinner..."A strange sight arrested me on the landing of the grand staircase. Through an open door I saw... read more »
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The Mystery of Choice Robert W. Chambers
These classic tales, centering on an American in Breton and a local French girl include stories about the murder of a butterfly collector and the haunting spirit of a renegade priest. An eerie and macabre collection of stories, which include; The Purple Emperor, Pompe Funebre, The Messenger, The White Shadow... read more »
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The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Edgar Allan Poe
A stowaway aboard the whaling ship Grampus, Arthur Gordon Pym finds himself bound on an extraordinary voyage to the high southern latitudes. Poes novel recounts the incredible adventures and discoveries of Pym and his companions. There is mutiny, appalling butchery, and the exquisite horror of cannibalism premature... read more »
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The Oval Portrait Edgar Allan Poe
Our protagonist takes refuge in an abandoned castle and discovers a room with a series of paintings accompanied by a small book describing them. His attention is attracted by an oval portrait depicting a young woman of rare beauty. The book tells of the artist falling in love with the gir and marrying her. It was... read more »
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The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux
The lights dim at the Paris Opera House. The exquisite Christine Daae enraptures the audience with her mellifluous voice. Immediately, Raoul de Chagny falls deeply in love. But the legend of the disfigured "opera ghost" haunts the performance, and as Raoul begins his pursuit of Christine, he is pulled into the... read more »
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The Pit and The Pendulum Edgar Allan Poe
Pit and The Pendulum is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. read more »
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The Premature Burial Edgar Allan Poe
Poe's short horror story on the theme of being buried alive, which was a common fear in this period and Poe took advantage of the public interest. The first-person unnamed narrator describes his struggle with "attacks of the singular disorder which physicians have agreed to term catalepsy," a condition where he... read more »
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The Red Room H. G. Wells
An unnamed protagonist chooses to spend the night in the remote Lorraine Castle, in a room that is said to be haunted; in an effort to disprove the various legends surrounding it. Despite ominous warnings from the three infirm custodians who reside there, he ascends to the "Red Room" to begin his night's vigil... read more »
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The Tell-Tale Heart Edgar Allan Poe
It takes much deception, betrayal, and madness to commit a murder. Even more madness to cover up that murder. In this haunting tale we follow the detailed planning involved to rid the world of an Evil Eye. Will the beating of the tell-tale heart reveal the truth to the police? read more »
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The Trial Franz Kafka
A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as... read more »
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Volume 1 Edgar Allan Poe
Volume two of the complete works in five volumes from one of the leaders of the American Romantics. Macabre parties in isolated castles … Gruesome bestial murders … Talking ravens, hellish black pits, innocents buried alive … Prepare to be chilled and enthralled by the haunting genius of the acknowledged... read more »
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Volume 2 Edgar Allan Poe
Volume two of the complete works in five volumes from one of the leaders of the American Romantics. Macabre parties in isolated castles … Gruesome bestial murders … Talking ravens, hellish black pits, innocents buried alive … Prepare to be chilled and enthralled by the haunting genius of the acknowledged... read more »
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Volume 3 Edgar Allan Poe
Volume three of the complete works in five volumes from one of the leaders of the American Romantics. Macabre parties in isolated castles … Gruesome bestial murders … Talking ravens, hellish black pits, innocents buried alive … Prepare to be chilled and enthralled by the haunting genius of the acknowledged... read more »
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Volume 4 Edgar Allan Poe
Volume four of the complete works in five volumes from one of the leaders of the American Romantics. Macabre parties in isolated castles … Gruesome bestial murders … Talking ravens, hellish black pits, innocents buried alive … Prepare to be chilled and enthralled by the haunting genius of the acknowledged... read more »