Mystery & Supernatural Archives - Wordsworth Editions https://wordsworth-editions.com/series/mystery-supernatural/ Beautiful book collections at amazing prices! Wed, 06 Dec 2023 16:01:04 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 https://wordsworth-editions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/cropped-cropped-Wordsworth-logo-720-32x32.png Mystery & Supernatural Archives - Wordsworth Editions https://wordsworth-editions.com/series/mystery-supernatural/ 32 32 Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/classic-victorian-edwardian-ghost-stories/ Mon, 13 Mar 2017 09:09:32 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/classic-victorian-edwardian-ghost-stories/ This is a book to be read by a blazing fire on a winter’s night, with the curtains drawn close and the doors securely locked. The unquiet souls of the dead, both as fictional creations and as ‘real’ apparitions, roam the pages of this haunting selection of ghost stories by Rex Collings. Some of these stories... Read More

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This is a book to be read by a blazing fire on a winter’s night, with the curtains drawn close and the doors securely locked. The unquiet souls of the dead, both as fictional creations and as ‘real’ apparitions, roam the pages of this haunting selection of ghost stories by Rex Collings.

Some of these stories are classics while others are lesser-known gems unearthed from this vintage era of tales of the supernatural. There are stories from distant lands – ‘Fisher’s Ghost’ by John Lang is set in Australia and ‘A Ghostly Manifestation’ by ‘A Clergyman’ is set in Calcutta. In this selection, Sir Walter Scott (a Victorian in spirit if not in fact), keeps company with Edgar Allen Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu and other illustrious masters of the genre.

Stories include:

  • The Tapestried Chamber
  • The Spectre of Tappington
  • The Botathen Ghost
  • The Tell-Tale Heart
  • The Squire’s Story
  • The Story of the Bagman’s Uncle To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt
  • An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street
  • Narrative of a Ghost of a Hand
  • Fisher’s Ghost
  • The Traveller’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed
  • The Phantom Coach
  • Eveline’s Visitant
  • Markheim
  • Man-Size in Marble
  • The Canterville Ghost
  • The Haunted Doll’s House A School Story
  • Thurnley Abbey
  • In the Cliff Land of the Dane
  • Laura
  • The Story of Euphemia Hewit
  • A Ghostly Manifestation
  • Correspondence on ‘A Ghostly Manifestation’
  • Ghost in the Tower

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Collected Ghost Stories https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/collected-ghost-stories/ Sun, 02 Apr 2017 23:02:05 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/collected-ghost-stories/ With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. M.R. James is probably the finest ghost-story writer England has ever produced. The stories are classics of their genre. Among them are ‘Casting the Runes’, ‘Oh, Whistle and I’ll come to you, my lad’, ‘The Tractate Middoth’, ‘The Ash Tree’ and ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’. They are all designed... Read More

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With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.

M.R. James is probably the finest ghost-story writer England has ever produced. The stories are classics of their genre. Among them are ‘Casting the Runes’, ‘Oh, Whistle and I’ll come to you, my lad’, ‘The Tractate Middoth’, ‘The Ash Tree’ and ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’. They are all designed to instil that satisfying sense of unease in the heart of the reader.

‘There are some authors one wishes one had never read in order to have the joy of reading them for the first time. For me, M.R. James is one of these’. – Ruth Rendell

Stories include: Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook; Lost Hearts; The Mezzotint; The Ash Tree; Number 13; Count Magnus; ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’; The Treasure of Abbot Thomas; A School Story; The Rose Garden; The Tractate Middoth; Casting the Runes; The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral; Martin’s Close; Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance; The Residence at Whitminster; The Diary of Mr Poynter; An Episode of Cathedral History; The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance; Two Doctors; The Haunted Dolls’ House; The Uncommon Prayer-Book; A Neighbour’s Landmark; A View from a Hill; A Warning to the Curious; An Evening’s Entertainment; There was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard; Rats; After Dark in the Playing Fields; Wailing Well; Stories I Have Tried to Write.

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Dracula & Dracula’s Guest https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/dracula-and-draculas-guest/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 22:50:20 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/dracula-draculas-guest/ Dracula: Introduction and Notes by Dr David Rogers, Kingston University. ‘There he lay looking as if youth had been half-renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey, the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of... Read More

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Dracula: Introduction and Notes by Dr David Rogers, Kingston University.

‘There he lay looking as if youth had been half-renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey, the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst the swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood; he lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion.’

Thus Bram Stoker, one of the greatest exponents of the supernatural narrative, describes the demonic subject of his chilling masterpiece Dracula, a truly iconic and unsettling tale of vampirism.

Dracula’s Guest & Other Stories: Edited and Introduced by David Stuart Davies.

The above is followed with a rich collection of Stoker’s macabre tales including Dracula’s Guest (which was omitted from the final version of Dracula); a devilishly dangerous haunted room in The Judge’s House; a fatalistic tragedy in The Burial of the Rats; a terror of revenge from beyond the grave in The Secret of Growing Gold, and a surprising twist in the tail in The Gypsy’s Prophecy. Other strange and frightening episodes provide a feast of terror for those readers who like to be unnerved as well as entertained.

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Drug and Other Stories https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/drug-and-other-stories/ Thu, 23 Nov 2017 14:03:36 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/drug-and-other-stories/ This revised and expanded second edition brings together the uncollected short fiction of the poet, writer and religious philosopher Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). Of the fifty-four stories in the present volume, only thirty-five were published in his lifetime. Most of the rest appear in this collection for the first time. Crowley was a successful critic, editor... Read More

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This revised and expanded second edition brings together the uncollected short fiction of the poet, writer and religious philosopher Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). Of the fifty-four stories in the present volume, only thirty-five were published in his lifetime. Most of the rest appear in this collection for the first time.

Crowley was a successful critic, editor and author of fiction from 1908 to 1922. Like their author, his stories are fun, smart, witty, thought-provoking and sometimes unsettling. They are set in places in which he had lived, and knew well: Belle Epoque Paris, Edwardian London, pre-revolutionary Russia and America during the First World War.

The title story The Drug stands as one of the first accounts — if not the first — of a psychedelic experience. His Black and Silver is a knowing early noir discovery that anticipates an entire genre. Atlantis is a masterpiece of occult fantasy that can stand with Samuel Butler’s Erewhon. Frank Harris considered The Testament of Magdalen Blair the most terrifying tale ever written. This second edition adds several additional stories, including the Qabalistic allegory Ambrosii Magi Hortus Rosarum, featuring the author’s previously unpublished annotations.

Extensive editorial end-notes give full details about the stories.

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Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/ghost-stories-of-edith-wharton/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 23:03:10 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/ghost-stories-of-edith-wharton/ Selected & Introduced by David Stuart Davies. Traumatised by ghost stories in her youth, Pulitzer Prize winning author Edith Wharton (1862 -1937) channelled her fear and obsession into creating a series of spine-tingling tales filled with spirits beyond the grave and other supernatural phenomena. While claiming not to believe in ghosts, paradoxically she did confess... Read More

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Selected & Introduced by David Stuart Davies.

Traumatised by ghost stories in her youth, Pulitzer Prize winning author Edith Wharton (1862 -1937) channelled her fear and obsession into creating a series of spine-tingling tales filled with spirits beyond the grave and other supernatural phenomena. While claiming not to believe in ghosts, paradoxically she did confess that she was frightened of them. Wharton imbues this potent irrational and imaginative fear into her ghostly fiction to great effect.

In this unique collection of finely wrought tales Wharton demonstrates her mastery of the ghost story genre. Amongst the many supernatural treats within these pages you will encounter a married farmer bewitched by a dead girl; a ghostly bell which saves a woman’s reputation; the weird spectral eyes which terrorise the midnight hours of an elderly aesthete; the haunted man who receives letters from his dead wife; and the frightening power of a doppelganger which foreshadows a terrible tragedy.

Compelling, rich and strange, the ghost stories of Edith Wharton, like vintage wine, have matured and grown more potent with the passing years.

Stories include:

  • The Lady’s Maid’s Bell
  • The Eyes
  • Afterward
  • Kerfol
  • The Triumph of Night
  • The Duchess at Prayer
  • Miss Mary Pask
  • Bewitched
  • The Fulness of Life
  • Mr Jones
  • Pomegranate Seed
  • The Looking Glass
  • A Journey
  • All Souls’
  • A Bottle of Perrier

 

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Ghost Stories of Henry James https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/ghost-stories-of-henry-james/ Sun, 02 Apr 2017 22:59:05 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/ghost-stories-of-henry-james/ With an Introduction and Notes by Martin Scofield, University of Kent at Canterbury. Henry James was arguably the greatest practitioner of what has been called the psychological ghost story. His stories explore the region which lies between the supernatural or straightforwardly marvellous and the darker areas of the human psyche. This edition includes all ten... Read More

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With an Introduction and Notes by Martin Scofield, University of Kent at Canterbury.

Henry James was arguably the greatest practitioner of what has been called the psychological ghost story. His stories explore the region which lies between the supernatural or straightforwardly marvellous and the darker areas of the human psyche. This edition includes all ten of his ghost stories, and as such is the fullest collection currently available.

The stories range widely in tone and type. They include ‘The Jolly Corner’, a compelling story of psychological doubling; ‘Owen Wingrave’, which is also a subtle parable of military tradition; ‘The Friends of the Friends’, a strange story of uncanny love; and ‘The Private Life’, which finds a shrewd, high comedy in its ghostly theme.

The volume also includes James’s great novella The Turn of the Screw, perhaps the most ambiguous and disturbing ghost story ever written.

Stories include:

  • The Romance of Certain Old Clothes
  • The Ghostly Rental
  • Sir Edmund Orme
  • The Private Life
  • Owen Wingrave
  • The Friends of the Friends
  • The Turn of the Screw
  • The Real Right Thing
  • The Third Person
  • The Jolly Corner

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Gothic Short Stories https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/gothic-short-stories/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 21:03:17 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/gothic-short-stories/ Selected and Edited with an Introduction and Notes by David Blair, University of Kent at Canterbury. Late in the eighteenth century authors began to write ‘Gothic’ stories as a way of putting literature back in touch with the irrational, the supernatural and the bizarre, which had been neglected in the ‘Age of Reason’. This superb... Read More

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Selected and Edited with an Introduction and Notes by David Blair, University of Kent at Canterbury.

Late in the eighteenth century authors began to write ‘Gothic’ stories as a way of putting literature back in touch with the irrational, the supernatural and the bizarre, which had been neglected in the ‘Age of Reason’.

This superb new collection brings together stories from the earliest decades of Gothic writing with later 19th and early 20th century tales from the period in which Gothic diversified into the familiar forms of the ghost- and-horror-story. Work by writers such as Poe, Dickens, Hawthorne, Gaskell and M. R. James appears alongside that of anonymous writers from the start of the period and many lesser-known authors from Britain and America. Some of these stories, like the haunting ‘The Lame Priest’ are ‘lost masterpieces’ and several have never been anthologised before. Together they cover the spectrum of Gothic story-telling – tales of madness and violence, of shape-shifters and spectres, that express some of the deepest fears of the human mind – insanity, sexuality, death and the often terrible power of the past to catch up with the present.

In a lively, authoritative introduction David Blair provides fresh insights and a detailed commentary on the stories’ place in the complex traditions of Gothic writing in British and American literature.

Stories include:

  • Sir Bertrand: A Fragment
  • Captive of the Banditti
  • Extracts from Gosschen’s Diary: No. 1
  • The Parricide’s Tale
  • The Spectre Bride
  • The Tapestried Chamber
  • Berenice
  • A Madman’s Manuscript
  • Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter
  • Ethan Brand
  • The Old Nurse’s Story
  • The Body-Snatcher
  • The Yellow Wallpaper
  • The Death of Halpin Frayser
  • Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook
  • No. 252 Rue M. le Prince
  • The Lame Priest
  • Luella Miller
  • The Bird in the Garden
  • The Room in the Tower

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Haunted Hotel & Other Stories https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/haunted-hotel-and-other-stories/ Sat, 01 Apr 2017 16:11:16 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/haunted-hotel-other-stories/ Edited and with an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. ‘Have you ever heard of the fascination of terror?’ This is a unique collection of strange stories from the cunning pen of Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone. The star attraction is the novella The Haunted Hotel, a clever combination of... Read More

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Edited and with an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.

‘Have you ever heard of the fascination of terror?’

This is a unique collection of strange stories from the cunning pen of Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone. The star attraction is the novella The Haunted Hotel, a clever combination of detective and ghost story set in Venice, a city of grim waterways, dark shadows and death. The action takes place in an ancient palazzo coverted into a modern hotel that houses a grisly secret. The supernatural horror, relentless pace, tight narrative, and a doomed countess characterise and distinguish this powerful tale.

The other stories present equally disturbing scenarios, which include ghosts, corpses that move, family curses and perhaps the most unusual of all, the Devil’s spectacles, which bring a clarity of vision that can lead to madness.

Other Stories include:

  • The Dream Woman
  • Mrs Zant and the Ghost
  • A Terribly Strange Bed
  • Miss Jéromette and the Clergyman
  • The Dead Hand
  • Blow Up with the Brig!
  • Nine o’Clock
  • The Devil’s Spectacles

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Haunter of the Dark: Collected Short Stories Volume 3 https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/haunter-of-the-dark-collected-short-stories-volume-3/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 16:20:38 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/haunter-of-the-dark-collected-short-stories-volume-3/ Selected and Introduced by M J Elliott. ‘They were removing the stones quietly, one by one, from the centuried wall. And then, as the breach became large enough, they came out into the laboratory in single file; led by a stalking thing with a beautiful head made of wax.’ From the dark, mind-expanding imagination of... Read More

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Selected and Introduced by M J Elliott.

‘They were removing the stones quietly, one by one, from the centuried wall. And then, as the breach became large enough, they came out into the laboratory in single file; led by a stalking thing with a beautiful head made of wax.’

From the dark, mind-expanding imagination of H P Lovecraft, Wordsworth presents a third volume of tales penned by the greatest horror writer of the 20th Century.  Here are some of Lovecraft’s weirdest  flesh-creeping masterpieces, including Pickman’s Model, The Shunned House, his famous serial Herbert West – Reanimator, and several classic tales from the Cthulhu Mythos, in which mankind is subjected to the unimaginable terrors known only to those who have read from the forbidden Necronomicon.

Also included in this compelling collection are the complete Randolph Carter stories, chronicling his adventures in this world and the realm of his dreams, where he faces perils beyond comprehension.

Includes:

  • The Haunter of the Dark
  • Polaris
  • The Doom That Came to Sarnath
  • The Statement of Randolph Carter
  • The Cats of Ulthar
  • Celephaïs
  • The Other Gods
  • Herbert West – Reanimator
  • The Unnamable
  • The Shunned House
  • The Horror at Red Hook
  • Pickman’s Model
  • The Silver Key
  • The Strange High House in the Mist
  • The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
  • The Colour Out of Space
  • The History of the Necronomicon
  • Fungi from Yuggoth
  • The Shadow Over Innsmouth
  • The Dreams in the Witch House
  • The Thing on the Doorstep
  • The Shadow out of Time
  • Supernatural Horror in Literature

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Horror in the Museum: Collected Short Stories Volume 2 https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/horror-in-the-museum-collected-short-stories-volume-2/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 16:18:10 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/horror-in-the-museum-collected-short-stories-volume-2/ With an Introduction by M.J. Elliott. ‘My eyes, perversely shaken open, gazed for an instant upon a sight which no human creature could even imagine without panic, fear and physical exhaustion…’ A wax museum in London boasts a new exhibit, which no man has seen and remained sane… A businessman is trapped in a train... Read More

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With an Introduction by M.J. Elliott.

‘My eyes, perversely shaken open, gazed for an instant upon a sight which no human creature could even imagine without panic, fear and physical exhaustion…’

A wax museum in London boasts a new exhibit, which no man has seen and remained sane… A businessman is trapped in a train carriage with a madman who claims to have created a new and efficient method of capital punishment… A doctor plans a horrible revenge, using as his murder weapon an insect believed capable of consuming the human soul… Within these pages, some of H P Lovecraft’s more obscure works of horror and science fiction can be found, including several fantastic tales from his celebrated Cthulhu Mythos, No true Lovecraft aficionado dare be without this volume.

Includes:

  • The Green Meadow
  • Poetry and the Gods
  • The Crawling Chaos
  • The Horror at Martin’s Beach
  • Imprisoned with the Pharaohs
  • Two Black Bottles
  • The Thing in the Moonlight
  • The Last Test
  • The Curse of Yig
  • The Electric Executioner
  • The Mound
  • Medusa’s Coil
  • The Trap
  • The Man of Stone
  • The Horror in the Museum
  • Winged Death
  • Out of the Aeons
  • The Horror in the Burying-Ground
  • Till A’ the Seas
  • The Disinterment
  • The Diary of Alonzo Typer
  • Within the Walls of Eryx
  • The Night Ocean

The majority of the stories in this edition appeared previously in The Loved Dead (ISBN 9781840226225)

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In a Glass Darkly https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/in-a-glass-darkly/ Sun, 02 Apr 2017 23:04:21 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/in-a-glass-darkly/ With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was one of the great masters of Victorian of mystery and horror fiction, and can be regarded as the father of the modern ghost story. In a Glass Darkly (1872), one of his most celebrated volumes, purports to be the casebook of Dr... Read More

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With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was one of the great masters of Victorian of mystery and horror fiction, and can be regarded as the father of the modern ghost story. In a Glass Darkly (1872), one of his most celebrated volumes, purports to be the casebook of Dr Hesselius, a pioneer psychologist.

These five tales represent some of Le Fanu’s most accomplished work, which rises above the staid conventions of the age. Although drawing on Gothic conventions – the book features both ghosts and vampires – Le Fanu redefined the parameters of supernatural fiction. He had little interest in the crude depiction of other worldly phenomena in order to provide the reader with a pleasurable frisson of fear. Le Fanu concern rather lay in the examination of the results of supernatural experience on the psyche of his protagonist, in this he paved the way for the work of Henry James and M. R. James.

Included is ‘Carmilla’, a classic vampire story, pre-dating (but heavily influencing) Dracula by 26 years and establishing many of the traditional facets of the female vampire.

This volume is an indispensable cornerstone of modern horror and remains one of the finest collections of unsettling fiction in the language.

 

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Italian https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/italian/ Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:27:43 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/italian/ With an Introduction by Kathryn White. Ann Radcliffe, author of The Romance of the Forest and The Mysteries of Udolpho, is the high priestess of the gothic novel. In The Italian, first published in 1797, she creates a chilling, atmospheric concoction of thwarted lovers, ruined abbeys, imprisonment and dark passages, with an undercurrent of seething... Read More

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With an Introduction by Kathryn White.

Ann Radcliffe, author of The Romance of the Forest and The Mysteries of Udolpho, is the high priestess of the gothic novel. In The Italian, first published in 1797, she creates a chilling, atmospheric concoction of thwarted lovers, ruined abbeys, imprisonment and dark passages, with an undercurrent of seething sexuality and presents us with a cunning villain in the sinister monk Schedoni. A contemporary review commented on, ‘Radcliffe’s uncommon talent for exhibiting, with picturesque touches of genius, the vague and horrid shapes which imagination bodies forth…’

Radcliffe’s work was hugely influential and H.P. Lovecraft, early twentieth-century master of the uncanny, was impressed by the, ‘eerie touch of setting and action contributing artistically to the impression of illimitable frightfulness which she wished to convey.’ The novel remains a fascinating, engrossing and unnerving masterpiece of gothic fiction.

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Jack the Ripper https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/jack-the-ripper/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 12:43:30 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/jack-the-ripper/ Horrific, horrendous, unspeakable, The Whitechapel Murderer, Jack the Ripper, stalked the streets of East London in 1888, slaughtering prostitutes and bewildering the police who were hunting him. They never succeeded in apprehending him, and to this day the mystery of his identity remains an enigma. But he did leave clues to his identity, and numerous... Read More

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Horrific, horrendous, unspeakable, The Whitechapel Murderer, Jack the Ripper, stalked the streets of East London in 1888, slaughtering prostitutes and bewildering the police who were hunting him. They never succeeded in apprehending him, and to this day the mystery of his identity remains an enigma. But he did leave clues to his identity, and numerous theories have been entertained throughout the one hundred and twenty years since he held London’s East End in his grip of terror.

This book looks at the evidence left by the murderer and the reports and investigative papers which recorded the atrocities that the Ripper performed. It takes time to analyse the existing information and evaluate the letters sent to the police. It is the strongest and most powerful book ever written on the murders. It dispels a lot of myths attached to the Ripper, and eliminates a lot of the previously conjectured perpetrators, leaving only those who realistically could have been…Jack the Ripper.

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King in Yellow https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/king-in-yellow/ Sat, 01 Apr 2017 16:06:18 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/king-in-yellow/ With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. ‘I read it and reread it, and wept and laughed and trembled with horror which at all times assails me yet’. With its strange, imaginative blend of horror, science fiction, romance and lyrical prose, Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow is a classic masterpiece of weird fiction.... Read More

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With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.

‘I read it and reread it, and wept and laughed and trembled with horror which at all times assails me yet’.

With its strange, imaginative blend of horror, science fiction, romance and lyrical prose, Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow is a classic masterpiece of weird fiction. This series of vaguely connected stories is linked by the presence of a monstrous and suppressed book which brings fright, madness and spectral tragedy to all those who read it. An air of futility and doom pervade these pages like a sweet insidious poison. Dare you read it?

This collection has been called the most important book in American supernatural fiction between Poe and the moderns. H. P. Lovecraft, creator of the famed Cthulu mythos, whose own fiction was greatly influenced by this book stated that The King in Yellow ‘achieves notable heights of cosmic fear’.

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Lurking Fear: Collected Short Stories Volume 4 https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/lurking-fear-collected-short-stories-volume-4/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 16:14:36 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/lurking-fear-collected-short-stories-volume-4/ Selected and Introduced by M.J. Elliot. ‘The thing came abruptly and unannounced; a demon, rat-like, scurrying from pits remote and unimaginable, a hellish panting and stifled grunting, and then from that opening beneath the chimney a burst of multitudinous and leprous life – a loathsome night-spawned flood of organic corruption more devastatingly hideous than the... Read More

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Selected and Introduced by M.J. Elliot.

‘The thing came abruptly and unannounced; a demon, rat-like, scurrying from pits remote and unimaginable, a hellish panting and stifled grunting, and then from that opening beneath the chimney a burst of multitudinous and leprous life – a loathsome night-spawned flood of organic corruption more devastatingly hideous than the blackest conjurations of mortal madness and morbidity.’

Only the expansive imagination of H.P. Lovecraft could conceive the delicious and spine-tingling horrors you will find within the pages of this unique collection. In addition to such classics as ‘The Picture in the House’, ‘The Music of Erich Zann’ and ‘The Rats in the Walls’, this volume contains some fascinating rarities: examples of Lovecraft’s earliest weird fiction and material unpublished during his lifetime.

H.P. Lovecraft’s creation of the Cthulhu Mythos has influenced many modern authors, and still remains at the forefront of supernatural literature.

Includes:

  • The Lurking Fear
  • The Beast in the Cave
  • The Alchemist
  • The Tomb
  • Beyond the Wall of Sleep
  • Memory
  • The Transition of Juan Romero
  • The White Ship
  • The Terrible Old Man
  • Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
  • The Street
  • The Temple
  • The Tree
  • From Beyond
  • Nyarlathotep
  • The Picture in the House
  • Ex Oblivione
  • The Quest of Iranon
  • The Moon-Bog
  • The Outsider
  • The Music of Erich Zann
  • Hypnos
  • Azathoth
  • What the Moon Brings
  • The Rats in the Walls
  • He
  • In the Vault
  • Cool Air
  • The Descendant
  • The Very Old Folk
  • The Book
  • The Evil Clergyman

 

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Madam Crowl’s Ghost & Other Stories https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/madam-crowls-ghost-other-stories/ Sun, 02 Apr 2017 23:09:27 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/madam-crowls-ghost-other-stories/ Edited by M.R. James. In 1888 Henry James wrote ‘There was the customary novel by Mr Le Fanu for the bedside; the ideal reading in a country house for the hours after midnight’. Madam Crowl’s Ghost & Other Stories are tales selected from Le Fanu’s stories which mostly appeared in The Dublin University Magazine and... Read More

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Edited by M.R. James.

In 1888 Henry James wrote ‘There was the customary novel by Mr Le Fanu for the bedside; the ideal reading in a country house for the hours after midnight’.

Madam Crowl’s Ghost & Other Stories are tales selected from Le Fanu’s stories which mostly appeared in The Dublin University Magazine and other periodicals, and their haunting, sinister qualities still have an enormous appeal for the modern reader. The great M.R. James, who collected and introduces the stories in this book, considered that Le Fanu ‘stands absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories.’

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Monk https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/monk/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 22:35:06 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/monk/ With an Introduction by Kathryn White. Prepare to be shocked. This novel, written in 1796, is a Gothic festival of sex, magic and ghastly, ghostly violence rarely seen in literature. The Monk is remarkably modern in style and tells a breathless tale of temptation, imprisonment and betrayal. Matthew Lewis recounts the downfall of Ambrosio, the... Read More

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With an Introduction by Kathryn White.

Prepare to be shocked. This novel, written in 1796, is a Gothic festival of sex, magic and ghastly, ghostly violence rarely seen in literature. The Monk is remarkably modern in style and tells a breathless tale of temptation, imprisonment and betrayal. Matthew Lewis recounts the downfall of Ambrosio, the holier-than-thou monk seduced within the walls of a Madrid abbey until he heads for the utter corruption of the soul. Meanwhile, two sets of young lovers are thwarted and the reader thrills to pursuits through the woods by bandits and is chilled by the spectre of nuns imprisoned in vermin-ridden and skeleton-crowded vaults.

Late eighteenth-century audiences were polarised in opinion as to the novel’s merits. Lord Byron and the Marquis de Sade were impressed by Lewis’s daring, while Coleridge warned parents against The Monk‘s suitability for their sons or daughters, describing the novel as ‘poison for youth. If you want a novel that still terrifies, over two hundred years after it was written, there is none finer than The Monk.

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Night Terrors: The Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/night-terrors-the-ghost-stories-of-e-f-benson/ Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:14:40 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/night-terrors-the-ghost-stories-of-e-f-benson/ 'Look at that moth,' he said, 'and even while you look it has gone like a ghost, even as like a ghost it appeared. Light made it visible. And there are other sorts of light, interior psychical light which similarly makes visible the beings which people the darkness of our blindness.' 

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With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.

‘His body was pressed against the wall at the head of the bed, and the face was a mask of agonised horror and fruitless entreaty. But the eyes were already glazed in death, and before Francis could reach the bed the body had toppled over and lay inert and lifeless. Even as he looked, he heard a limping step go down the passage outside.’

E. F. Benson was a master of the ghost story and now all his rich, imaginative, spine-tingling and beautifully written tales are presented together in this bumper collection. The range and variety of these spooky narratives is far broader and more adventurous than those of any other writer of supernatural fiction. Within the covers of this volume you will encounter revengeful spectres, vampires, homicidal spirits, monstrous spectral worms and slugs and other entities of nameless dread. This is a classic collection that cannot fail to charm and chill.

Stories include:

  • The Room in the Tower
  • The Dust-Cloud
  • Gavon’s Eve
  • The Confession of Charles Linkworth
  • At Abdul Ali’s Grave
  • The Shootings Of Achnaleish
  • How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery
  • Caterpillars
  • The Cat
  • The Bus-Conductor
  • The Man Who Went Too Far
  • Between the Lights
  • Outside the Door
  • The Terror by Night
  • The Other Bed
  • The Thing in the Hall
  • The House with the Brick-Kiln
  • ‘And the Dead Spake – ’
  • The Outcast
  • The Horror-Horn
  • Machaon
  • Negotium Perambulans
  • At the Farmhouse
  • Inscrutable Decrees
  • The Gardener
  • Mr Tilly’s Séance
  • Mrs Amworth
  • In The Tube
  • Roderick’s Story
  • Reconciliation
  • The Face
  • Spinach
  • Bagnell Terrace
  • A Tale of an Empty House
  • Naboth’s Vineyard
  • Expiation
  • Home, Sweet Home
  • ‘And No Bird Sings’
  • The Corner House
  • Corstophine
  • The Temple
  • The Step
  • The Bed by the Window
  • James Lamp
  • The Dance
  • The Hanging of Alfred Wadham
  • Pirates
  • The Wishing-Well
  • The Bath-Chair
  • Monkeys
  • Christopher Comes Back
  • The Sanctuary
  • Thursday Evenings
  • The Psychical Mallards

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Phantom of the Opera https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/phantom-of-the-opera/ Mon, 03 Apr 2017 23:00:25 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/phantom-of-the-opera/ Based on the translation by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos and with an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. ‘… the shadow turned round; and I saw a terrible death’s-head, which darted a look at me from a pair of scorching eyes. I felt as if I were face to face with Satan…’ Erik, the Phantom of... Read More

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Based on the translation by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos and with an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.

‘… the shadow turned round; and I saw a terrible death’s-head, which darted a look at me from a pair of scorching eyes. I felt as if I were face to face with Satan…’

Erik, the Phantom of the Paris Opera House, is one of the great icons of horror literature. This tormented and disfigured creature has made his home in the labyrinthine cellars of this opulent building where he can indulge in his great passion for music, which is a substitute for the love and emotion denied him because of his ghastly appearance.

It is in the Opera House that he encounters Christine Daaé whom he trains in secret to become a great singer. Erik’s passionate obsession with a beautiful woman beyond his reach is doomed and leads to the dramatic tragic finale.

Gaston Leroux’s novel is a marvellous blend of detective story, romance and spine-tingling terror which has fascinated readers ever since the work was first published.

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Sweeney Todd – The String of Pearls https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/sweeney-todd-the-string-of-pearls/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 22:47:15 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/sweeney-todd-the-string-of-pearls/ Fully revised Second Edition. With a new Introduction and Bibliography by Dick Collins. The exploits of Sweeney Todd, ‘The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’, have been recounted many times in plays, films and musicals, but the origins of the character largely were forgotten for many years. The String of Pearls – the original tale of Sweeney... Read More

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Fully revised Second Edition. With a new Introduction and Bibliography by Dick Collins.

The exploits of Sweeney Todd, ‘The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’, have been recounted many times in plays, films and musicals, but the origins of the character largely were forgotten for many years. The String of Pearls – the original tale of Sweeney Todd, a classic of British horror – was first published as a weekly serial in 1846-7 by Edward Lloyd, the King of the Penny Dreadfuls. One of the earliest detective stories, it became an important source for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but it was after over 150 years of obscurity that it appeared first in book form in the Wordsworth edition published in 2005.

The one great mystery that has surrounded the book is who the author was – or was it possibly the work of more than one man? In his new introduction to this fully revised second edition, Dick Collins, by means of detailed research of contemporary records, has established finally the identity of the creator of this legendary figure.

So here is the original story of the terrifying owner of that famous London barber-shop, and the secret recipe for Mrs Lovett’s delicious pies…

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Tales of Mystery & the Macabre https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/tales-of-mystery-the-macabre/ Mon, 17 Jun 2019 14:25:07 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/tales-of-mystery-the-macabre/ With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. ‘In the great mirror opposite I saw myself, and right behind, another wicked fearful self, so like me my soul seemed to quiver within me, as though not knowing to which similitude of body it belonged’. Elizabeth Gaskell is better known today for her pioneering social novels such... Read More

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With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies.

‘In the great mirror opposite I saw myself, and right behind, another wicked fearful self, so like me my soul seemed to quiver within me, as though not knowing to which similitude of body it belonged’.

Elizabeth Gaskell is better known today for her pioneering social novels such as Mary Barton (1848) but she also wrote some fascinating tales of the supernatural and the macabre, which are collected here in this volume. The real charm of this dark anthology is its variety. Unlike so many writers of this kind of material, Gaskell allows the story to fit the style rather than the other way around and as result there is a charming freshness to each tale.

This remarkable author uses different voices, tones and topics to engage her readers and as you turn from one story to the next you cannot be quite sure what to expect.

Tales include:

  • The Old Nurse’s Story
  • The Squire’s Story
  • The Poor Clare
  • Lois the Witch
  • The Doom of the Griffiths
  • The Ghost in the Garden room
  • The Grey Woman
  • Curious, if True
  • Disappearances

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Tales of Mystery and Imagination https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/tales-of-mystery-and-imagination/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 22:44:22 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/tales-of-mystery-and-imagination/ With an Introduction by John S. Whitley, University of Sussex. This collection of Poe’s best stories contains all the terrifying and bewildering tales that characterise his work. As well as the Gothic horror of such famous stories as ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘The Premature Burial’ and ‘The... Read More

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With an Introduction by John S. Whitley, University of Sussex.

This collection of Poe’s best stories contains all the terrifying and bewildering tales that characterise his work. As well as the Gothic horror of such famous stories as ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, ‘The Premature Burial’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, all of Poe’s Auguste Dupin stories are included.

These are the first modern detective stories and include ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget’ and ‘The Purloined Letter’.

To start reading and sharing this classic through Book2Look – Click here

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Whisperer in Darkness: Collected Stories Volume I https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/whisperer-in-darkness-collected-stories-volume-i/ Tue, 04 Apr 2017 16:11:55 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/whisperer-in-darkness-collected-stories-volume-i/ Selected and Introduced by M.J. Elliott. That is not dead that can eternal lie And with strange aeons even death may die Millenia ago, the Old Ones ruled our planet. Since that time, they have but slumbered. But when a massive sea tremor brings the ancient stone city of R’lyeh to the surface once more,... Read More

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Selected and Introduced by M.J. Elliott.

That is not dead that can eternal lie And with strange aeons even death may die Millenia ago, the Old Ones ruled our planet. Since that time, they have but slumbered. But when a massive sea tremor brings the ancient stone city of R’lyeh to the surface once more, the Old Ones awaken at last.

The Whisperer in Darkness brings together the original Cthulhu Mythos stories of the legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Included in this volume are several early tales, along with the classics ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, ‘The Dunwich Horror’ and ‘At the Mountains of Madness’. Arm yourself with a copy of Abdul Alhazred’s fabled Necronomicon and prepare to face terrors beyond the wildest imaginings of all, save H.P. Lovecraft.

To start reading and sharing this classic through Book2Look – Click here

Includes:

  • Dagon
  • The Nameless City
  • The Hound
  • The Festival
  • The Call of Cthulhu
  • The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
  • The Dunwich Horror
  • The Whisperer in Darkness
  • At the Mountains of Madness

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Woman In White https://wordsworth-editions.com/book/woman-in-white/ Tue, 29 Jan 2019 13:10:57 +0000 http://wordsworth-editions.com/book/woman-in-white/ With an Introduction and Notes by Scott Brewster, University of Central Lancashire. Wilkie Collins is a master of mystery, and The Woman in White is his first excursion into the genre. When the hero, Walter Hartright, on a moonlit night in north London, encounters a solitary, terrified and beautiful woman dressed in white, he feels... Read More

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With an Introduction and Notes by Scott Brewster, University of Central Lancashire.

Wilkie Collins is a master of mystery, and The Woman in White is his first excursion into the genre. When the hero, Walter Hartright, on a moonlit night in north London, encounters a solitary, terrified and beautiful woman dressed in white, he feels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress.

The intricate plot is peopled with a finely characterised cast, from the peevish invalid Mr Fairlie to the corpulent villain Count Fosco and the enigmatic woman herself.

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