Classics Literature Horror

Something has stolen the darkling mage's face. Reports of arcane theft and violence are pouring in from all over Valero. They all have one thing in common: a perpetrator who looks exactly like Dustin Graves. But Dust has been hanging in the hideout, barely out of sight of his bloodthirsty companions. An impostor is clearly on the prowl, and soon a vampire clan, the Lorica, and even Dust's own allies are giving him hell for crimes he didn't commit.

The bloody-minded Montresor leads the pompous Fortunato deep into the catacombs, seeking the famed Amontillado wine. Here we have one of Poe’s most terrifying, and most “beloved” tales. Revenge and pomposity commingle beneath the river’s bed, leading to a delightfully sinister conclusion.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Signalman by Charles Dickens, Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and a bonus story, "The Monkey’s Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. More than 30 hours of great classic horror is brought to haunting new life by three A-list narrators whose performances are nothing short of electrifying.

The classic vampire story by Bram Stoker revolves around a struggle between good and evil, tradition and modernity, and lust versus chastity. The author didn’t invent vampires, but his novel has so captured the public’s imagination that he is rightly considered their popularizer. Listen and you will meet not only the Count himself, but heroes Jonathan Harker and Abraham Van Helsing, plus an array of madmen, psychiatrists, and fair maidens who cross paths with the fanged menace.

John Updike reads six stories he has selected from the hundred-odd he has published. "A&P", recounting a moral crisis on the checkout counter, is his most anthologized story. "Pigeon Feathers," the longest story included, tells of a fourteen-year-old boy's fear of death and the answer he finds...

A young musician in England who has been suffering from depression and a nervous ailment goes on holiday in order to recuperate. While abroad, she meets an Italian artist, Cellini, who gives her a special draught for relaxation. The young woman has divine visions under the influence of the strange potion which she longs to have again. Cellini takes her to a doctor who describes himself as an “electric physician,” and with his help she is able to experience more visions. With each vision she learns more about religion and the destiny of mankind, but it is not enough.

Collected here are four of the world's best-known and beloved tales of horror, suspense and terror: H.G. Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau," Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu," and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart."

Beneath the brilliance that was behind The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome was a dark side. A dark side which produced magnificent tales of the unseen influences in our lives, such as "Mr. Jones", "The Eyes", "Kerfol", "The Ladie's Maid's Bell", and "The Looking Glass".

The Beetle tells the tale of an evil, ancient Egyptian spirit seeking revenge on an up-and-coming British politician, Paul Lessingham. The shape-shifting creature that pursues Lessingham is possessed of hypnotic powers and takes different forms, both male and female, as well as morphing into a beetle - a figure that induces terror in its victims.

The first time Martha sees the house, she knows it's evil. So she's not surprised when she finds out that someone was murdered in it. She also thinks that someone is watching her. Martha's pretty certain that this Halloween is going to be the scariest of her life, and possibly her last.

This collection of classic horror stories is sure to give you goose bumps, raise the hair on the back of your neck, and put some fright in your night. Includes Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch, Coin of the Realm by Charles L. Grant, Something Had to be Done by David Drake, The Graveyard Rats by Henry Kuttner, The Small Assassin by Ray Bradbury, Calling Card by Ramsey Campbell, The Words of Guru by C.M. Kornbluth, and Passengers by Robert Silverberg.

In a world beyond the walls of sleep, Randolph Carter goes in search of an opulent and mysterious sunset city. First, he must go to Kadath, home of the Gods, where he hopes to be guided to the city of his dreams. No one has ever been to Kadath, and no one even knows how to get there - but that won't stop Carter from trying. In this masterful adaptation of Lovecraft's classic novella, I. N. J. Culbard captures Carter's journey through the dangerous and spectacular Dreamlands in beautiful, gripping detail.

The deadly dimensions over London have been sealed, and the monsters have departed. But word has come to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of a more terrifying creature still - the great Cthulhu has been sighted off the waters of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Only Holmes can defeat him. And in the muddy village of Innsmouth, surrounded by villagers who are more sea-monster than human, Holmes meets again his nemesis, Moriarty, and yet greater foes: Amelia Scarcliffe and Maria Fitzgerald, harbingers of Dagon, who have called forth Cthulhu.

Published a year before her death at the age of 30, Emily Bronte's only novel is set in the wild, bleak Yorkshire Moors. Depicting the relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights creates a world of its own, conceived with an instinct for poetry and for the dark depths of human psychology. Emily Jane Bronte was born July 30, 1818 at Thornton in Yorkshire. Emily's mother died in 1821 and her two eldest sisters died in 1825, leaving Emily, her brother and two sisters to be raised by their aunt. Later all three daughters were to publish poems and stories.

“I was sick, sick unto death with that long agony,” begins one of the most famous tales from the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Through the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, we follow the straying mind of the unnamed prisoner in his quest for hope in a world of darkness and despair. This episode skyrocketed The Classic Tales Podcast to number 3 on iTunes’ Top 100 Podcasts chart.

This exciting and bloodthirsty story tells of the sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge and his epic journey of transformation and redemption, brought about by a plague of ravenous zombies. After the supernatural visitations of the long-dead Jacob Marley, himself killed by zombies and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come he comes to realize that he is London's only hope. In a city under siege by the undead there is only one man with the character and sense of mind able to stand in their way.

Nate Temple has an appointment in Hell. One he can’t reschedule… After recent events, Nate took some much-deserved time off for a little rest and relaxation. But when he finally returns home to attend what should have been a celebration of love, he finds insidious fear infecting the streets of St. Louis. Paranoia. Chaos. Anarchy. It seems every supernatural family in town is sick and tired of Nate and wants to put him in his place. The worst part… all his friends seem to agree.

Visions have always been...my pasture. I almost think there is no wisdom comparable to that of exchanging the realities of life for dreams. Old castles, old pictures, old histories take one back into centuries that cannot disappoint. I waked one morning from a dream of which all I could recover was that I had thought myself in an ancient castle and that on the uppermost banister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armour. In the evening I sat down to write, without knowing in the least what I intended to say or relate.

Actor David Ian Davies' telling of Poe's Gothic horror tale "The Tell-Tale Heart" captures this classic narrative of the unnamed murderer in all its exquisite vileness, its self-effacing insanity that poses rationality where none exists.

The powerful sense of evil – darkness, creepy hairy presences, cloaks, hoods, talons and tentacles – pervades these classic ghost stories by M.R. James. A Cambridge scholar himself, James explored what happens when academics dabble in things they don’t understand and unleash forces of which they know nothing.