Irving’s most famous overt supernatural story — and one which makes no apologies for it — emerges, like most of his finest works, from the German literary tradition. In this case, it draws upon the legend of Doctor Faust. Desperately hungry for forbidden knowledge, this semi-historical alchemist was said to have sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for wisdom, power, and magical abilities. According to sixteenth-century German pamphlets, the scholar spent his middle years in indulgence and...

A wintry fantasia of Nature, Death, and the Sublime, “The Glamour of the Snow” features one of Blackwood’s most deceptively disturbing...

“Some Haunted Houses” is easily one of Bierce’s most entertaining series of tales. I recommend it as the ideal Hallowe’en reading choice...