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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...

Rivaled in popularity only by “The Willows” – and the contest is a close one – Blackwood’s “The Wendigo” pairs finely with its older...

As with “The Stolen Body,” “The Inexperienced Ghost” (perhaps Wells’ most anthologized ghost story after “The Red Room” – with good...

Longtime readers of my reviews and my own short stories will probably know that I have a passion for two particular literary motifs:...

The iron maiden has a checkered history. Almost every source will promptly confess that it is essentially a 19th century invention before...

“I felt as a child feels when some fairy tale has been told it to conceal the truth it suspects…” — E. T. A. Hoffmann He was the...

One of Stevenson’s most shamefully underrated stories, Olalla (pronounced oh - LAH -yah ), is a masterpiece of erotic horror—among the most coquettishly ambiguous vampire tales in English—and an eerily prescient reflection of Jung’s later theories of the Self. At once philosophical and sensual, it stands as a bridge between the Dark Romanticism of Edgar Allan Poe and the psychological realism of the twentieth century. The novelette also represents one of the most brilliant h

Subtitled “An Imitation of the German,” this, the earliest of Poe’s supernatural tales, builds a unique atmosphere on a foundation of...

Edith Nesbit’s supernatural masterpiece – “Man-Size in Marble” – was first published in 1887, one year after “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll...

Written one year after “The Turn of the Screw,” the story which many consider Machen’s masterpiece shared several elements with Henry...

Most famous and proliferate of all Hoffmann’s tales, “Nutcracker and the King of Mice” was not, however , very well received by its...

CREPUSCULAR (Adj.) : of, resembling, or relating to twilight; (of an animal) appearing or active in twilight. Synonyms: Half-light,...

The last of James’ ghost stories, written six years before his death, is widely considered his best, after “Turn of the Screw.” “The...

No collection of Victorian Era ghost stories would be complete without a glance into the troubling relationship between Britain and her...