Volume 1This collection of short stories contains several gothic tales to bear macabre and chilling witness to writers as diverse as Thomas Hardy, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft. These tales are designed to unsettle you, just a little, as you sit back, and take in their words as they lead you on a walk to places you’d perhaps rather not visit on your own. Our stories are The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy, The Judges House by Bram Stoker, Hop Frog by Edgar Allan Poe an...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Deep within us is the dread of dying of moving on from life to another state of being. We assume it comes about through accident, perhaps even murder or disease that can be sudden or can take years to pull us into oblivion. But perhaps trumping all of these is the fear of being buried alive. The sheer terror of being totally trapped, unable to summon help and escape, fills one and all with a deeply unique terror.In this volume such icons as Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce and Honor...

It is commonly said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. That may be a way to fortify our reason and rationality but all too often it merely escalates the panic and irrationality so that every sentence we read or hear has the ability to shred nerves and common sense in next to no time.Why would we allow authors to do this to us? The truth is we enjoy it. Fear may be frightful but it is also enormous fun. Unless, of course, they take it too far. Which in many cases our clas...

To have logic, to reason things out, to have a sense of what is and isn’t and what can and can’t is one of the traits we identify with being human.Sad to say that sometimes there are some amongst us who lose touch with this function, are unable to bring order and control to their world. That is not only a tragedy for themselves but can also have horrific consequences on those around them.Our wordsmiths in this volume, including Leo Tolstoy, Anatole France, Charlotte Perkins...

It just keeps gnawing away. Really, it’s the only thing of interest in our world. If others would only see it that way, if they would only open their eyes and see things as they really are.In this volume our classic authors including Henry James, H G Wells, Anton Chekhov, Mary Shelley and others dig deeply into the narratives and characters who just can’t move on from this psychological addiction, who can’t let go of its ever present whispers.1 - Short Stories about Obsessi...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...

Literature is a world of words and wonder, able to take us on almost unimaginable journeys from the wild and fantastic to the grind and minutiae of life.An author’s ideas are his building blocks, his architecture of the mind, building a structure on which all else will rest; the narrative, the characters, the words - those few words that begin the adventure.In this series we look at some of our leading classic authors across two genres: the short story and the poem. In this...

A glance at the roll-call of authors in this volume brings a chill to the blood. Their plentiful talents conjure up the most diabolical of plots, the most evil of characters and the dread knowing that it will unfold its horrors into our fearful souls.1 - The Top Ten - American Horror2 - The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe3 - The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce4 - The Color Out of Space by H P Lovecraft5 - The Repairer of Reputations by Robert...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?The theme ...