The Castle of Otranto is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle – A Gothic Story. Set in a haunted castle, the novel merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since. The aesthetic of the book has shaped modern-day gothic books, films, art, music and the goth subculture.

Sherlock Holmes has disappeared into the Highlands, while Mycroft investigates the theft of the Mazarin diamond and Watson suspects a trap in an offer of $5 million to a former professor if he can find a third man surnamed Garrideb.

Head trainer John Mason from Shoscombe Old Place, a racing stable in Berkshire, comes to Sherlock Holmes about his master, Sir Robert Norberton, Baronet. Mason thinks he has gone mad. Sir Robert's sister, Lady Beatrice Falder, owns Shoscombe, but it will revert to her late husband's brother when she dies. The stable has a horse, Shoscombe Prince, who Sir Robert hopes will win the Derby. He would be out of debt if that actually happened.Mason is not quite sure what he wants Holmes t...

Neil Gibson, the Gold King and former senator from "some Western state", approaches Sherlock Holmes to investigate the murder of his wife Maria in order to clear his children's governess, Grace Dunbar, of the crime. It soon emerges that Mr Gibson's marriage had been unhappy and he treated his wife very badly. He had fallen in love with her when he met her in Brazil, but soon realised they had nothing in common. He became attracted to Miss Dunbar; since he could not marry her, he had attemp...

Faith, hope, and love, traditionally called theological virtues, are central to Christianity. This book renews faith, hope, and love in the context of the many contemporary challenges in many unique ways. It is an ecumenical collection of papers, equally divided between Catholic and Protestant positions, that seek to radically renew the classical doctrine of faith, hope, and love, and argues for their essential connection to the praxis of justice. It contains eight different approaches, ea...

In 1907, some time after his retirement to the Sussex Downs, Holmes goes for a walk and meets his friend Harold Stackhurst, headmaster of a local preparatory school called "The Gables". Shortly thereafter, Stackhurst's science teacher, Fitzroy McPherson, staggers up from the nearby beach, dressed in only his overcoat and trousers. He collapses at their feet, and dies shortly thereafter, having managed to scream the words "The Lion's Mane". He has long, narrow welts curving around his body;...

A thrilling and suspenseful short story featuring the renowned Sherlock Holmes and his remarkable companion, Doctor Watson, as they investigate the curious happenings at Three Gables.When an elderly woman, Mary Maberley, approaches Sherlock Holmes to ask for help, her case doesn’t seem interesting enough to appeal to him. Shortly after receiving her request, the masterful detective is threatened by a hired thug to stay away from the case, and he realises that there might be more to...

A man named Trevor Bennett, the personal secretary of one Professor Presbury, comes to Holmes with a most unusual problem. He is engaged to the professor's daughter, Edith, and the Professor is himself engaged to a young lady, Alice Morphy, although he himself is already 61 years of age. Their impending marriage has caused no scandal, but the trouble seems to have begun at about the time of the engagement. First, the professor suddenly left home for a fortnight without telling anyone of hi...

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes is the final set of twelve (out of a total of fifty-six) Sherlock Holmes short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle first published in the Strand Magazine between October 1921 and April 1927. These tales, puzzling to everyone else, prove no match for the observational skills of Sherlock Holmes.

The year is 1427. The Great Revolution has been raging for eight long years, effecting every aspect of life in the Isobellian Empire. Countless are dead, and thousands of families have been torn apart. But the Empire still has hope to be freed.Andreas Bellbrook is the Kingslayer: a prophesied hero destined by fate to steal the legendary sword Excelsior from the Black King Tiberius. With it, Andre will end the war by killing the Black King despite his immortality.But Tiberiu...

Book One of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars-Series. Easy, swank, pulp read about an omnipotent gentleman teleported to Mars, finding an outlandish society of ape-, tree- and lizardmen, red-, white-, yellowmen, brains on legs, strange bastions and curious apparatuses, where the strongest survives and women are needy beauties to be saved. Imaginative and enthralling.John Carter is mysteriously conveyed to Mars, where he discovers two intelligent species continually embroiled in warfare. ...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game, and the exchange of winnings. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel;[1] it draws on Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an impo...