Description
Paperback.
Published in 2004 by Dover.
Assembled by an authority on vintage thrillers, these 17 Victorian-era stories of the macabre include works from around the world by both popular and lesser-known authors. Ambrose Bierce, Robert Barr, R. Murray Gilchrist, Mrs. H. H. Riddell, Richard Marsh, and Guy Boothby are among the more celebrated contributors to this collection — and the excellence of their tales is rivaled by rediscovered works by several long-neglected Gothic masters.
Hume Nisbet’s “The Haunted Station” unfolds amid an eerie setting in the Australian outback, while Bernard Capes’ stories center on a haunted prison cell and a green bottle with a soul trapped inside. Lady Dilke cautions against the hazards of seeking the solutions to life’s riddles, and Robert Barr’s “The Hour and the Man” demonstrates that revenge is not what it seems.
Discerning lovers of horror and suspense will take particular pleasure in the rarity of these tales, none of which have been reprinted since their original publication.
Contents
Editor’s Introduction (Tales from a Gas-Lit Graveyard) • (1979) • essay by Hugh Lamb
The Haunted Station • (1894) • novelette by Hume Nisbet
The Hour and the Man • (1894) • short story by Robert Barr
Nut Bush Farm (1884) • novelette by Mrs. J. H. Riddell [as by Mrs. Riddell]
The Man Who Coined His Blood Into Gold • (1893) • short story by J. H. Pearce
The Shrine Of Death • (1886) • short story by Lady Dilke and The Black Veil • (1886) • short story by Lady Dilke
The Ways of Ghosts • (1909) • article by Ambrose Bierce
The Fever Queen • (1903) • short story by Kate Prichard and Hesketh Prichard
The Permanent Stiletto • (1889) • short story by W. C. Morrow
The Houseboat • (1900) • short story by Richard Marsh
Dame Inowslad • (1894) • short story by R. Murray Gilchrist
The Mountain of Spirits • (1979) • short story by uncredited* and The Golden Bracelet • (1979) • short story by uncredited*
The Tyburn Ghost • (1896) • short story by The Countess of Munster
Remorseless Vengeance • (1902) • short story by Guy Boothby
The Green Bottle • (1902) • short story by Bernard Capes and An Eddy on the Floor • (1899) • novella by Bernard Capes
*Later identified as Gustavo Adolfo Becquer