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Weird Fiction developed early in the Nineteenth Century with the bizarre supernatural annals of Hoffmann, Poe, and O’Brien, but the peak of its philosophy began percolating in the grotesqueries of Arthur Machen (“The White People”), Robert W. Chambers (“The Yellow Sign”), and Ambrose Bierce (“The Damned Thing”), but it can arguably be said to first express its unique worldview in the following tale. Before Lovecraft penned “The Call of Cthulhu” and William Hope Hodgson publi

H. G. Wells’ last truly great piece of short speculative fiction is probably the following tale. After World War One his writing became increasingly didactic, political, and preachy. Following his Darwinist instincts, he began advocating that mankind band together under a universal world order, put aside its potentially self-destructive campaigns of war and commerce, and strive to organize a pure utopia. While his ambitions were noble, they did not lend themselves to creating

“Dracula’s Guest” was provocative almost as soon as it was released in 1914, and it has remained highly controversial since then – increasing in intrigue until roughly the 1970s when a sort of consensus was arrived at by scholars. The primary reason for this debate is the question of what its relationship was to the 1897 novel. There are a variety of ways in which it has been interpreted: 1. As a deleted first chapter which could be read as canonical; 2. As a revised or rejec

Robert Louis Stevenson was raised in a devout Presbyterian household, his father was a devoted Tory, and his family was proud of his trajectory to join the law profession, but in 1867 he attended Edinburgh University, and his parents’ love was deeply tested as their son became increasingly attracted to what they considered radical philosophies. Things came to a boil in 1873 when his father was crushed to learn that his son – a self-described “red-hot socialist” – had embraced

The women of Poe’s tales are often polar opposites from the men who adore them. Like Berenice, the extroverted sensualist (who is mutilated by Egaeus, the reclusive intellectual) they represent what Jung would call the Anima to their male foils: the feminine, communal, earthy element of their own natures which they avoid, deny, or otherwise repress, until they are plunged into schizophrenic relationships with their own bifurcated psyches. These women are poised to provide un

Most famous in O’Brien’s oeuvre is the following episode: “What Was It?” In the original publication (which we have included), references...

In just four pages, Nesbit mastered one of the more overlooked horror subgenres, a brand of fiction – popular with female Victorian writers – which could be called the Cassandra Tale: a dark story involving a clairvoyant vision which is fatefully (and tragically) dismissed. It was a genre to which she would return several other times, but which was almost perfectly performed in this story written as filler for her landmark collection, Grim Tales. This very short sketch – almo

Another frequently anthologized excerpt from The Three Imposters, “The Novel of the Black Seal” leant its pacing and style to M. R. James as well as H. P. Lovecraft. For James’ part, it has an uncanny resemblance to some of his most respected ghost stories (specifically “Count Magnus,” “A Warning to the Curious,” “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas,” “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,” and “A View from a Hill”), virtually inventing the trope of the loner academic whose dis

While “Sleepy Hollow” may be Irving’s pop culture masterpiece – indelibly leaving its imprint on the American celebration of Halloween –...

None of Hoffmann’s tales excels in literary merit, psychological scope, or popular influence quite as sensationally as “The Sandman.” While “Nutcracker and the King of Mice” has secured more attention in the genres of fantasy and children’s literature, “The Sandman” reigns in the hearts of horror aficionados as his unparalleled masterpiece. Dark, swirling, and dizzy, it is a brilliant parable of predestination and freewill. Adored and analyzed by Freud, and mimicked by filmma

Since its publication in 1898, Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" has absorbed our collective imaginations. It is a story that pits...

Unquestionably, “The Voice in the Night” is Hodgson’s most famous short story. It is also his most frequently adapted work. While only three of the Carnacki stories were ever filmed (for television), this tale—his only other widely adapted work—has reached the screen twice: first as a haunting 1958 television anthology episode and, more famously, as the Japanese horror classic Matango. Although only loosely based on Hodgson's narrative, Matango has long been celebrated by Hod

“Moonlight, in a familiar room, falling so white upon the carpet, and showcasing all its figures so distinctly, -- making every object so minute visible, yet so unlike a morning or noontide visibility, -- is a medium the most suitable for a romance-writer to get acquainted with his illusive guests. There is the little domestic scenery of the well-known apartment; the chairs with each its separate individuality; the centre-table, sustaining a work-basket, a volume or two, and

Revenge is one of the most persistent and potent themes in J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s supernatural fiction. Whether delivered by spectral agents such as Ultor de Lacy or “The Familiar,” or meted out as divine justice in tales like The Tyrone Family and Mr. Justice Harbottle, retribution in Le Fanu’s world often emerges from the shadows of the afterlife to punish transgressions left unatoned. His stories warn that those who stray beyond the moral boundaries of mortal life will inev

Like other exemplars of the five respective genres of literary horror (Frankenstein/ Monsters, Dracula/ Vampires, Jekyll and Hyde/ Shapeshifters, Haunting of Hill House/ Haunted Places), The Turn of the Screw – literature’s most highly respected Ghost Story – has a fascinating genesis. Mary Shelley and Robert Louis Stevenson were both inspired by horrifying nightmares, and Shirley Jackson blended a photograph of an ominous-looing mansion with her own mental health struggles,

“The Brown Man’s Servant” belongs to that same category of tales as J. S. Le Fanu’s “The Familiar,” M. R. James’ “Casting the Runes,” and “Count Magnus,” and – to degrees – H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu.” It is a story of pursuit and hopelessness – of poor decisions and impossible escape. Jacobs’ horror stories often deal with the concept of fate and the snares of mortality. “The Monkey’s Paw,” “Jerry Bundler,” and “The Toll-House” all follow the idea that once havin

On a steamy afternoon in the summer of 2008, I found myself looking over the guardrail of an unremarkable concrete bridge thirty miles north of New York City, watching the thick, black water of a lazy brook drift into the shadows of dogwoods and tulip trees beyond. Above me, to my left, the 320 year old Dutch Church rested – grim and disinterested – on a green knoll where, just 50 yards behind it, Washington Irving’s unassuming, white gravestone gazes sleepily down at the old

“A Tropical Horror” occupies a fascinating place in the early career of William Hope Hodgson, appearing as only his second published work of fiction. That such a vivid and accomplished piece should emerge so early in his writing life is remarkable, for the story already contains many of the elements that would define Hodgson’s mature imagination: isolated men confronted by incomprehensible forces, the fragility of human civilization, the terror of the ocean depths, and the se

Arthur Conan Doyle’s role in the evolution of the “malevolent mummy” trope was just as fundamental as Stoker’s contributions to the vampire, Stevenson’s to the werewolf, and Shelley’s to the science fiction monster. While “The Ring of Thoth” succeeded in breaking the mummy out of its quaint roles as a romantic curiosity or a satirical mouthpiece – bringing it into the realm of somber supernaturalism – “Lot No. 249” dragged it over the threshold into abject horror. The tale is

Charles Dickens’ first novel was an accidental international sensation. He had been given a prompt from the publisher Chapman & Hall that sound like nothing more than an assignment for a freshman writing course: come up with a narrative to go along with a series of comic illustrations of sporting life in the English countryside, engraved by Robert Seymour. The stories would connect the etchings into a broader narrative and fill in the gaps. What was produced, however, was suc

Romance has always had a dark side: something sinister, possessive, even fatal lurks behind the desire to attract and be attracted. For...

A rictus grin (known in medicine as a risus sardonicus) is a chilling postmortem phenomenon that leaves a corpse with a toothy smile during the early stages of decomposition. This is usually caused by tetanus or a neurotoxin, which cause the facial muscles to sustain a spasm, raising the eyebrows – as if in hilarious astonishment – and drawing the lips and cheeks back in an expression of manic humor. While the eponymous smirk of the following story may have a more supernatura

Far less ghoulish than the more famous supernatural tales included in The King in Yellow, “The Demoiselle D’Ys” (day-MWAH-zell DEESE) still manages to pack a powerful blow of awe, mysticism, and pathos. To speak about it in advance is – like so many of Chambers’ stories – to give too much away, but there are a few bits of information that can aid a first reading. Chambers adored the Breton countryside, and side several of his best known works there. Like New York and Paris, B

He was the godfather of modern horror, weird fiction, and fantasy, an inestimable influence on Poe, Dickens, and Hawthorne, de...