Серия книг «Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural» — 42 книги — стр. 2

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.

Horrific, horrendous, unspeakable, The Whitechapel Murderer, Jack the Ripper, stalked the streets of East London in 1888, slaughtering prostitutes and bewildering the police who…

The sixteenth-century Puritan Solomon Kane has a thirst for justice which surpasses common reason. Sombre of mood, clad in black and grey, he "never sought to analyse his motives and he never wavered once his mind was made up. Though he always acted on impulse, he firmly believed that all his actions were governed by cold and logical reasonings... A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things, and avenge all crimes against right and justice".
Immune to the attractions of the opposite sex, he seems drawn by some psychological distress beacon to places where he knows only that he will be called upon to defend the helpless or (more often) exact retribution on their behalf. Himself a Christian, possessed of enormous strength and skill in swordplay, he yet has little hesitation in calling upon the assistance of his Voodoo-practising friend N.Longa when strength, skill and Christian belief are not enough.

The sixteenth-century Puritan Solomon Kane has a thirst for justice which surpasses common reason. Sombre of mood, clad in black and grey, he "never sought to analyse his motives…

In the midst of a wood of evergreens on the banks of the Arno, a man - young, handsome, and splendidly attired - has thrown himself upon the ground, where he writhes like a stricken serpent. He is the prey of a demoniac excitement: an appalling consternation is upon him - madness is in his brain - his mind is on fire. Lightnings appear to gleam from his eyes - as if his soul were dismayed, and withering within his breast. "Oh! no -no!" he cries with a piercing shriek, as if wrestling madly - furiously - but vainly, against some unseen fiend that holds him in his grasp.
Aged and deserted, Fernand Wagner agrees to serve John Faust for the last year of his life. In return he is given youth, wealth and beauty - but at the terrible price of becoming a werewolf. He loves the glacial, beautiful, sesual Nisida, whose family history conceals a dreadful secret. Together they flee from Florence to a desert island: but dogged by the Inquisition, and by the might of the Ottoman Empire, they are finally forced to face the horror that lurks in the closet...

In the midst of a wood of evergreens on the banks of the Arno, a man - young, handsome, and splendidly attired - has thrown himself upon the ground, where he writhes like a…

Robert Murray Gilchrist is perhaps best known for his interest in topography, and for his stories set in Derbyshire's Peak District. But he was also a master of mystery and horror as this richly varied collection shows.
If you are looking for a conventional horror story, in which the supernatural element is paramount, try "The Crimson Weaver", "Dame Inowslad", "Witch In-Grain", or "A Night on the Moor". If you are more taken with the psychology of the participants, often allied to a fascination with the killing of friends or lovers, then "Francis Shackerley", "The Noble Courtesan", "Althea Swarthmore", and "My Friend" will be right up your street. For humour; we are offered the Peakland comedy of "The Panicle" or "A Witch in the Peak". And when it comes to love, there are the tragic and poignant tales we might expect ("The Return", "The Lost Mistress", "The Madness of Betty Hooton"), but also the engaging and unusual Bubble Magic - a story of romantic betrayal which hints at a happy ending.

Robert Murray Gilchrist is perhaps best known for his interest in topography, and for his stories set in Derbyshire's Peak District. But he was also a master of mystery and horror…

Lafcadio Hearn's fascinating and unsettling ghost stories are a reinterpretation of oriental legends, and folktales. They are a potent blend of weird beauty and horror.
Hearn, who referred to his narratives as "stories and studies of strange things", believed that the spectral world was part of the oriental landscape. Lakes, mountains, ruined castles and terraced fields were the natural locale of ghostly spirits, and their intervention in human affairs was part of the natural order of things. Hearn's apparitions are not a violent intrusion upon everyday reality; they are already a part of that reality, co-existing with the living. This collection contains the best of the work of this neglected master of the supernatural tale. Prepare to be charmed and chilled in equal measure.

Lafcadio Hearn's fascinating and unsettling ghost stories are a reinterpretation of oriental legends, and folktales. They are a potent blend of weird beauty and horror.
Hearn,…

Selected & Introduced by Mark Valentine.

The Gateway of the Monster...The Red Hand...The Ghost Hunter.
To Sherlock Holmes the supernatural was a closed book: but other great detectives have always been ready to do battle with the dark instead. This volume brings together sixteen chilling cases of these supernatural sleuths, pitting themselves against the peril of ultimate evil. Here are encounters from the casebooks of the Victorian haunted house investigators John Bell and Flaxman Low, from Carnacki, the Edwardian battler against the abyss, and from horror master Arthur Machen's Mr Dyson, a man-about-town and meddler in strange things.

Connoisseurs will find rare cases such as those of Allen Upward's 'The Ghost Hunter', Robert Barr's Eugene Valmont (who may have inspired Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot) and Donald Campbell's young explorer Leslie Vane, the James Bond of the jazz age, who battles against occult enemies of the British Empire. And the collection is completed by some of the best tales from the pens of modern psychic sleuth authors.

Selected & Introduced by Mark Valentine.

The Gateway of the Monster...The Red Hand...The Ghost Hunter.
To Sherlock Holmes the supernatural was a closed book: but other great…

"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 mustache 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" is 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.

"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 mustache were changed to…

With an Introduction by M.J. Elliot

'He was very fat indeed, yet he walked with the light dainty step of a woman. His cheeks were as chubby as a baby's, his skin ivory tinted, his black hair close-cropped, his amber eyes slanting.'

A family secret leads to murder in a house without locks... Someone is prepared to kill to procure a valuable set of pearls, and a parrot fluent in Chinese knows too much... A Scotland Yard Inspector is about to close his final case, but someone is prepared to kill to keep the mystery unsolved... Three very different crimes, with one thing in common... He's Honolulu's greatest detective - prepare to savour the wisdom of Charlie Chan. From Hawaii to San Francisco, no crime is too baffling, no clue too insignificant for Charlie.

Long out of print, Charlie Chan's first three cases, The House Without a Key, The Chinese Parrot, and Behind That Curtain, have been collected in one volume for your entertainment and bafflement.

With an Introduction by M.J. Elliot

'He was very fat indeed, yet he walked with the light dainty step of a woman. His cheeks were as chubby as a baby's, his skin ivory tinted,…

With an Introduction by Hilary Long.

Marjorie Bowen (1885-1952) spent the early part of her working life providing for a demanding and ungrateful family. We are lucky that she did so, since among the results were these short stories of rare quality. In their use of dreams, ancient anecdote, and ruined or dilapidated buildings ('Florence Flannery', 'The Fair Hair of Ambrosine') they are at times in the finest tradition of The Castle of Otranto and the Gothic revival which had chilled the blood of the British public a hundred and fifty years earlier.

But her stories are more subtle in their construction, and often use simple materials ('The Crown Derby Plate', Elsie's Lonely Afternoon'), interweaving their terror and mystery with the commonplace of everyday life. Their mastery of detail, sureness of expression and acute reading of human nature give them a sinister force, which is realistic and unnerving, yet at the same time tinged with pity and compassion.

With an Introduction by Hilary Long.

Marjorie Bowen (1885-1952) spent the early part of her working life providing for a demanding and ungrateful family. We are lucky that she…

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 Necronomican and prepare to face terrors beyond the wildest imaginings of all save H.P.Lovecraft.

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…

Rudyard Kipling, celebrated author of "The Jungle Book", the "Just So Stories" and other entertaining fictions, was also a master of the short story in which he was able to combine the strange and unnerving in order to draw the reader into the world of his own dark imaginings.
This collection presents the best of these strange tales in which ghosts, monsters and inexplicable happenings abound. From the exotic and magical locale of India, to the leafy suburbs of England and then to the blood-soaked trenches of the First World War, Kipling provides us with a chilling array of experiences and images which will linger long in the memory.
There is a timeless element to these tales which make them as relevant and as stimulating today as when they were first written.

Rudyard Kipling, celebrated author of "The Jungle Book", the "Just So Stories" and other entertaining fictions, was also a master of the short story in which he was able to…

Gertrude Atherton was born in San Francisco in 1857, and died in 1948. She eloped at the age of nineteen, took up writing against her husband's wishes, and after his death became a protegee of Ambrose Bierce, whose influence can be seen here in those stories, 'The Dead and the Countess', 'Death and the Woman' and 'The Striding Place', which have an overtly supernatural element. 'The Striding Place' was rejected by one editor as 'far too gruesome', but was in Atherton's view 'the best short story I ever wrote'. Elsewhere, ('The Greatest Good of the Greatest Number', 'The Tragedy of a Snob', and 'A Monarch of a Small Survey') the psychological takes precedence over the supernatural.

Gertrude Atherton was born in San Francisco in 1857, and died in 1948. She eloped at the age of nineteen, took up writing against her husband's wishes, and after his death became…

"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.

"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…

The late Victorians had an insatiable appetite for the macabre and sensational: stories of murder and suspense, ghosts, the supernatural and the inexplicable were the stuff of life to them. The two writers in this volume well represent the last decade of the nineteenth century, and are of interest in themselves as well as for their contribution to the chilling of the Victorian spine. Mrs. Alfred Baldwin attempted as a child to contact her dead sister through a séance, and took to writing when stricken by a mysterious illness six weeks after marriage. She was also the mother of the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. Lettice Galbraith is herself no less mysterious than the stories she wrote. She appeared on the literary scene in 1893, published a novel and two collections of stories in that year, a further story ( The Blue Room ) in 1897, and then nothing more. Readers of 'The Empty Picture Frame', 'The Case of Sir Nigel Otterburne', 'The Trainer's Ghost' and 'The Seance Room' will recognise the Victorian spirit at its finest.

The late Victorians had an insatiable appetite for the macabre and sensational: stories of murder and suspense, ghosts, the supernatural and the inexplicable were the stuff of…

This is a book that may have changed history - and still thrills today. One of the first and still one of the finest spy stories ever written, Erskine Childers' book introduced Edwardian readers to the idea of a 'secret service'. In an enthralling tale of a duel among the islands and sandbanks of the North Sea, two amateur investigators and yachtsmen discover sinister preparations off the German coast. At great peril both from an implacable enemy and furious storms at sea, they stake their lives on the strength of their doughty boat, the Dulcibella. Will they fight their way back to England in time to sound a warning? "The Riddle of the Sands" caused a sensation when it appeared in 1903, with statesmen and soldiers drawn into a debate about Britain's readiness to repulse a naval invasion. So strong was its impact that one critic later accused its author of almost single-handedly starting a European war. But its influence would not have been so great if it had not been so powerfully readable, a quality it keeps to this day. Ranked with the greatest work of John Buchan, Joseph Conrad and Ian Fleming, this vintage adventure has lost none of its force.

This is a book that may have changed history - and still thrills today. One of the first and still one of the finest spy stories ever written, Erskine Childers' book introduced…

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...

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…

Moving, his candle was instantly extinguished, and in the very moment of being left in the darkness he saw, standing in the doorway, a woman, resembling her who had haunted his dream overnight. He rushed with outstretched hands to seize her, but clutched only air. Night Shivers presents a treasure trove of the stories of Mrs J.H.Riddell, one of the greatest Victorian writers of ghost stories. These tales, many of which have been out of print for years, take the reader on fearful journeys into the gloomy haunts of old neglected houses, into a world of prophetic dreams, out onto the wild terrain of Ireland to encounter a frightful banshee and even down into Hell itself. In these fourteen short stories and one novella, The Uninhabited House, there is the distillation of the best and most effective of Riddell s spine-tingling supernatural fiction.

Moving, his candle was instantly extinguished, and in the very moment of being left in the darkness he saw, standing in the doorway, a woman, resembling her who had haunted his…

Irish-born playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett, one of the most individual voices of post-war literature, famously said:
'Personally, I have no bone to pick with graveyards, I take the air there willingly, perhaps more willingly than elsewhere, when take the air I must.'

In a similarly phlegmatic spirit, Wordsworth Editions presents this spellbinding collection of chilling Gothic tales of the macabre, all drawn from the rich and varied literary tradition of a culture long in thrall to things supernatural. The Irish, as William Butler Yeats remarked, 'any day prefer a ghost story or a fairy tale to The Times newspaper'. Featuring the imaginative writings of such towering masters of the genre as Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Patrick Kennedy, Thomas Crofton-Croker and George Moore, this volume of ghoulish masterpieces from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is an encapsulation of the arcane lore, magic realism and fantastic creativity of the Irish.

Irish-born playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett, one of the most individual voices of post-war literature, famously said:
'Personally, I have no bone to pick with graveyards, I…

This Wordsworth Edition is Edited by and includes an exclusive Introduction by Paul March–Russell.
May Sinclair was an innovator of modern fiction, a late Victorian who was also a precursor to Virginia Woolf. In her Uncanny Stories (1923), Sinclair combines the traditional ghost story with the discoveries of Freud and Einstein. The stories shock, enthral, delight and unsettle.
Two lovers are doomed to repeat their empty affair for the rest of eternity… A female telepath is forced to face the consequences of her actions… The victim of a violent murder has the last laugh on his assailant… An amateur philosopher discovers that there is more to Heaven than meets the eye.
Specially included in this volume is ‘The Intercessor’ (1911), Sinclair's powerful story of childhood and abandoned love, a tale whose intensity compares with that of the Brontës.

This Wordsworth Edition is Edited by and includes an exclusive Introduction by Paul March–Russell.
May Sinclair was an innovator of modern fiction, a late Victorian who was…