"This collection of chilling horror stories from the maestro of suspense contains nearly 20 of Edgar Allan Poe's best known stories"--Amazon.com

Curl up with this collection of classic scary stories from the masters of the genre. With dozens of stories of the macabre, fantastic, and supernatural, Classic Horror Tales is sure to keep readers on the edges of their seats. This collection of works by classic writers spans more than a century—from 19th-century trailblazers such as John William Polidori, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Washington Irving to 20th-century masters like Saki, Edith Wharton, and Franz Kafka. The fear of the unknown is a driving force in literature, and the horror genre surpasses all others in bringing this idea to the forefront of the reader's consciousness. A wide range of cultures and classes of society are represented in this volume, reminding us that dark forces lurk all around us—for even in broad daylight, a shadow exists somewhere.

Eerily vivid and yet never devoid of the beat of the human heart, Classic Tales of Horror presents the work of some of the world's most celebrated horror writers. This compilation is designed to provide both a gripping read and glimpses of life beyond the realm of the everyday. Spooks and inexplicable things that go bump in the night have long exercised creative imaginations and provided source material for our greatest story-tellers, as this memorable collection confirms. Included here are: The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley A Vine on a House by Ambrose Bierce Hurst of Hurstcote by Edith Nesbit The Bottle Imp by R. L. Stevenson Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker Wandering Willie's Tale by Sir Walter Scott The Lifted Veil by George Eliot Clarimonde by Théophile Gautier Thurlow's Christmas Story by John Kendrick Bangs

"This volume brings together 22 tales, the very best of [Lovecraft's] fiction"--Jacket.

Eleven classic whodunits starring master sleuths such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Father Brown. A superstar lineup of detectives—including Sherlock Holmes, C. Auguste Dupin, and Hercule Poirot—headlines this elegant leather-bound edition of classic mystery stories. Short stories such as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and G. K. Chesterton’s “The Blue Cross” are ideal for a cozy evening by the fire, while novels like Agatha Christie’s The Murder on the Links and Jules Verne’s An Antarctic Mystery will keep you engrossed for days. The eleven works in this volume are preceded by a scholarly introduction that explores the origins of the genre, as well as the development of the modern mystery story and the contributions made by each author. Works Included Short stories: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Edgar Allan Poe "The Adventure of the Creeping Man," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Blue Cross," G. K. Chesterton "The Coin of Dionysius," Ernest Bramah "The Anthropologist at Large," R. Austin Freeman "The Most Dangerous Game," Richard Connell Novels: The Murder on the Links, Agatha Christie Whose Body?, Dorothy Sayers The Thirty-nine Steps, John Buchan An Antarctic Mystery, Jules Verne Room 13, Edgar Wallace

Human beings are the only species to have evolved the trait of emotional crying. We weep at tragedies in our lives and in those of others - remarkably even when they are fictional characters in film, opera, music, novels, and theatre. Why have we developed art forms - most powerfully, music - which move us to sadness and tears? This question forms the backdrop to Michael Trimble's discussion of emotional crying, its physiology, and its evolutionary implications. His exploration examines the connections with other distinctively human features: the development of language, self-consciousness, religious practices, and empathy. Neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the brain have uncovered unique human characteristics; mirror neurones, for example, explain why we unconsciously imitate actions and behaviour. Whereas Nietzsche argued that artistic tragedy was born with the ancient Greeks, Trimble places its origins far earlier. His neurophysiological and evolutionary insights shed fascinating light onto this enigmatic part of our humanity.

With works by Truman Capote, William Faulkner, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Silverberg, Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker and dozens more, this is a spellbinding collection of 40 of the best of horror and supernatural tales.