“A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, biting, clutching, covetous old sinner” is hardly hero material, but this is exactly what makes A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens such an unforgettable book and its hero, Ebenezer Scrooge such an extraordinarily enduring character. In the book's celebrated open...

M. R. James wrote his ghost stories to entertain friends on Christmas Eve, and they went on to both transform and modernize a genre. James harnesses the power of suggestion to move from a recognizable world to one that is indefinably strange, and then unforgettably terrifying. Sheets, pictures, carv...

Dracula tells the tale of a sinister Transylvanian aristocrat who seeks to retain his youth and strength by feeding off human blood. The author, Bram Stoker, a young Victorian theater professional, was probably inspired by the strange epidemic of vampirism that occurred in remote parts of Eastern E...

"Dracula's Guest" follows an Englishman (whose name is never mentioned, but is presumed to be Jonathan Harker) on a visit to Munich before leaving for Transylvania. It is Walpurgis Night, and in spite of the hotelier's warning to not return late, the young man later leaves his carriage and wanders t...

Mystery of the Sea is a novel with elements of adventure, supernatural and romance. Archie Hunter goes on a holiday to relax but finds he sees unusual things like spirits and ghosts. An old woman claims she sees them too and that they are both seers. She convinces Archie to help her solve the myster...

Malcolm Ross, a young barrister, is awakened in the middle of the night and summoned to the house of famous Egyptologist Abel Trelawny at the request of his daughter, Margaret, with whom Malcolm is enamored. Once Malcolm arrives at the house, he meets Margaret, Superintendent Dolan, and Doctor Winch...

Rupert Saint Leger inherits his uncle's estate worth more than one million pounds, on condition that he live for a year in his uncle's castle in the Land of the Blue Mountains on the Dalmatian coast. There Rupert tries to win the trust of the conservative mountaineer population by using his fortune ...

Set in Mercia, a small part of the English county of Derbyshire, the novel focuses on the events experienced by Adam Salton in the town he gradually discovers to be host to mysterious and inexplicable occurrences, which are further intensified with its equally eccentric residents. Exploring topics i...

Squire Stephen Norman is lord of the manor in Normanstead. He marries Margaret Rowly, younger sister of his friend Rowly (squire of the neighboring town). Desirous of an heir, Norman and Margaret have a baby girl and Margaret dies shortly after the birth. Norman promises her that he will love their ...

Robert Stevenson's "The Waif Woman" was unpublished at the time of his death; it was found among his papers. Writing of the fables which Stevenson began before he had left England and "attacked again, and from time to time added to their number" in 1893, Mr. Balfour (author of the Life of Stevenson)...