The Queen of Spades is decidedly one of Pushkin's gloomier tales, which inspired several movie adaptations and a magnificent opera by Tchaikovsky. Its determined but misguided protagonist stakes his life on a very old secret that might or might not even exist - with dire consequences.

Ivan Turgenev's "Ghosts" is a rare venture into the supernatural for this writer, and all the more precious for it. The story has all the beauty of Turgenev's language, all the power of his description, and a decidedly chilling feel of a true ghost story.

A spooky, chilling tale from Nikolai Leskov, based on a true incident.

A reminder from Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy that one might take great caution when pursuing hidden treasure.

The superstition upon which this tale is founded is very general in the East. Among the Arabians, it appears to be common: it did not, however, extend itself to the Greeks until after the establishment of Christianity; and it has only assumed its present form since the division of the Latin and Greek churches. At which time, the idea becoming prevalent that a Latin body could not corrupt if buried in their territory, it gradually increased, and formed the subject of many wonderful stories,...

A reminder from the master storyteller Alexander Kuprin - sometimes, there are but a few steps between your own front door and unimaginable horror.

While somewhat outdated and steeped in the prejudice of the day, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin fable "The lost conscience" is nevertheless a worthy tale to ponder and a great study of a mind seeking to discard its inhibitions (not in a good way).

These two fascinating pieces about the Mistress of the Copper Mountain come from Pavel Petrovich Bazhov's much larger collection of stories collected over many years and based on the lore of the Ural Mountains.

Alexander Grin is known for his strange and chilling tales, and this one is certainly one of the oddest of them all. The author would like us to consider, what would happen if a creation not only outsmarted its creator but became truly dangerous.

One day, a courier who deems himself quite the romantic hero, decides to follow a beautiful stranger... only to be plunged into a nightmare vortex in space and time.

Khoma Brut had no idea the trouble he would be in when he asked for shelter at a lonely hut belonging to an old woman. Enjoy this quirky and spooky tale by Nikolai Gogol.

A true horror classic of Ukrainian literature, Nikolai Gogol's "Terrible Revenge" raises the notions of terror, betrayal, and revenge to an entirely new level.