William Mudford ws born in 1782. He was a writer, essayist, translator and journalist.This short story was first published in 1830 and, it is claimed, influenced Edgar Allan Poe. Such was its impact that it was reprinted many times over the succeeding decades.He died in 1848.

Twenty ghostly tales from the supernatural masters of the Victorian age. Wimbourne Books presents the fourth in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 4 in the series spans the years 1835 to 1869 and includes stories from a wide range of male authors; English, Irish, Scottish and American. Includes tales by Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving. Readers new to this genre will discover ...

Twenty ghost stories from the supernatural masters of the Victorian age. Wimbourne Books presents the ninth in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 9 in the series contains stories published between 1841 and 1899, by British and American authors, including many not previously anthologized. Readers new to this genre will discover its pleasures; the Victorian quaintness, the sometimes shocking difference i...

Wimbourne Books presents the tenth in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 10 in the series spans the years 1838 to 1898 and includes stories from a wide range of authors; English, Irish, Scottish and American. Includes tales by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Nesbit and Margaret Oliphant. Readers new to this genre will discover its pleasures; the Victorian quaintness, the sometimes sho...

Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society.In literature the ambition is much narrower. In order to be known, to be popular, you had to be published. And for that people had to know you existed and your ideas worth reading. Obviously for most of humanity’s time people couldn’t read and texts couldn’t be publishe...

We all have fears. They may be irrational, dark or even logically coherent, but we all believe that, at some point, we will be subject to their grasp and punishment. Here our classic authors ladle up stories that both shock and resonate.1 - Short Stories Exploring People's Greatest Fears - An Introduction2 - The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe3 - The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell4 - The Iron Shroud by William Mudford5 - The Masque of...

We all have fears. They may be irrational, dark or even logically coherent, but we all believe that, at some point, we will be subject to their grasp and punishment. Here our classic authors ladle up stories that both shock and resonate.

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these mo

An author’s talents may seem obvious and indisputable as they move words and ideas into gathered phrases and stories.But where do these ideas and stories come from? A lonely thought that suddenly gathers form? An inspiration from a Muse? A suggestion from an everyday event?Perhaps in the case of their darker, more malevolent stories, other forces are at work. They help to nourish single words into sentences and paragraphs that ease themselves from the shadows and are sudden...

For some stories there is no happy resolving of the narratives and the characters struggle against the odds that are always destined to overwhelm them. In these stories our authors reveal and examine situations where the only possible outcome is sadness, and sometimes even worse.

An author’s talents may seem obvious and indisputable as they move words and ideas into gathered phrases and stories.But where do these ideas and stories come from? A lonely thought that suddenly gathers form? An inspiration from a Muse? A suggestion from an everyday event?Perhaps in the case of their darker, more malevolent stories, other forces are at work. They help to nourish single words into sentences and paragraphs that ease themselves from the shadows and are sudden...

There is something about the number 3.The Ancient Greeks believed 3 was the perfect number, and in China 3 has always been a lucky number, and they know a thing or two.Most religions also have 3 this and 3 that and, of course, in these more modern times, three’s a crowd may be too many, except when it’s a ménage à trois. It seems good things usually come in threes.Whatever history and culture says WE think 3, a hat-trick of stories, is a great number to explore them...