Showing results by narrator "A. Mason" in All Categories

"The Awful Reason of the Vicar's Visit" is a Story by G. K. Chesterton. First appeared in Harper's Weekly (May 28 & June 4, 1904) "Cherub" Swinburne is asked to investigate the mysterious assault on the Vicar of Chuntsey (in Essex). It is a mystery when a distressed reverend begins his tale of a monstrous outrage committed against him.

"Beyond the Wall of Sleep" is a science fiction short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1919 and first published in the amateur publication Pine Cones in October 1919. An intern in a mental hospital relates his experience with Joe Slater, an inmate who died at the facility a few weeks after being confined as a criminally insane murderer...

"Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" is a short story in the horror fiction genre, written by American author H. P. Lovecraft in 1920. The themes of the story are tainted ancestry, knowledge that it would be best to remain unaware of, and a reality which human understanding finds intolerable. The story begins by describing the ancestors of Sir Arthur Jermyn, a British nobleman.

The Club of Queer Trades is a collection of stories by G. K. Chesterton first published in 1905. Each story in the collection is centered on a person who is making his living by some novel and extraordinary means (a "queer trade", using the word "queer" in the sense of "peculiar"). To gain admittance one must have invented a unique means of earning a living and the subsequent trade being the main source of income.

"The Dreams in the Witch House" is a horror short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Cthulhu Mythos cycle. Written in January/February 1932, it was first published in the July 1933 issue of Weird Tales. Walter Gilman, a student of mathematics and folklore at Miskatonic University, rents an attic room in the "Witch House", a house in Arkham, Massachusetts that is rumored to be cursed. The house once harboured Keziah Mason, an accused witch who disappeared mysteriously from a Salem jail in 1692.

The Last Man is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, which was first published in 1826. The book tells of a future world that has been ravaged by a plague. The novel was harshly reviewed at the time, and, except for a 1924 silent film based on it, was virtually unknown - having been eclipsed by Shelley's more popular works - until a scholarly revival in the 1960s. It contains semi-biographical portraits of Romantic figures in Shelley's circle, particularly Shelley's late husband Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.

"The Painful Fall of a Great Reputation" is a Story by G. K. Chesterton. Basil Grant investigates Wimpole, the great raconteur.: Basil Grant and I were talking one day in what is perhaps the most perfect place for talking on earth - the top of a tolerably deserted tram-car. To talk on the top of a hill is superb, but to talk on the top of a flying hill is a fairy tale.

"The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown" is a Story by G. K. Chesterton. First appeared in Harper's Weekly (December 19th 1903) While investigating a case of assault brought by Major Brown, Rupert Grant, the private detective, and his brother Basil stumble upon the Adventure and Romance Agency, Limited, an agency that creates adventures for its clients. The story is notable for prefiguring the concept of the alternate reality game.

Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a short work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn (1640-1689), published in 1688 by William Canning and reissued with two other fictions later that year. It was also adapted into a play. The eponymous hero is an African prince from Coramantien who is tricked into slavery and sold to British colonists in Surinam where he meets the narrator. Behn's text is a first-person account of his life, love, rebellion, and execution.

Herland is a utopian novel from 1915, written by feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The book describes an isolated society composed entirely of women, who reproduce via parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction). The result is an ideal social order: free of war, conflict, and domination. It was first published in monthly installments as a serial in 1915 in The Forerunner, a magazine edited and written by Gilman between 1909 and 1916, with its sequel, With Her in Ourland beginning immediately thereafter in the January 1916 issue.

"Tom Tiddler's Ground" is the title of an 1861 short story by Charles Dickens, and the phrase "Tom Tidler's ground" appears in his novels Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield and Dombey and Son. Tom Tiddler's Ground, also known as Tom Tidler's Ground or Tommy Tiddler's Ground, is a longstanding children's game. One player, "Tom Tiddler," stands on a heap of stones, gravel, etc. Other players rush onto the heap, crying "Here I am on Tom Tiddler's ground, picking up gold and silver," while Tom tries to capture.

Brandt Wills tried to prevent a final cataclysmic war between Terra and Luna. He failed. Now he’s falling back to the totalitarian world of his birth, but he’s not alone. With advanced cybernetics, the AI computer ghost of Sharron, and a partly-tamed alien symbiont, he might even have a chance. All he has to do is land behind enemy lines, fight his way into the fortress-towers of the State of Terra, and find the location of the hidden laboratories of Singularity before the final war wipes all life from two worlds.

Thousands of Jews forcibly converted to Christianity in Spain and Portugal were subjected to religious persecution for continuing to adhere to their ancestral faith. The Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions lasted for centuries, and when their attention on Judaizers ended, they switched to other concerns, including Protestantism, bigamy, and blasphemy. The Inquisition typically conjures up images of intolerance, persecution, and violence, and rightly so. Many people think of it as a reflection of the spiritual, scholastic, and scientific darkness of the medieval period.

This early work by Ernest William Hornung was originally published in 1911 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. "The Camera Fiend" is a novel about a young man who travels to London to see a doctor for his asthma but while there becomes involved in a spot of trouble with unexpected consequences.

People started dying, and personalities started to change. Who was murdering people and dumping their bodies in Queen’s Park near the café? Why were the bodies mutilated? What did any of that have to do with Sam? If you like your BLT with a side of murder, manipulation, and massacre, where the tip you leave just might be a part of yourself, then welcome to the Amazing Bee Café.

The stationary was tinted pink, pulpy like craft paper, and smelled better than anything had a right to. It was a mail penned in letters so long and smooth, they could have hailed a cab. Since leaving the merchant marines, Mickey Fairfax had eked out a living renting dinghies to scuttle around Boston Harbor. When a wealthy acquaintance asks him to travel to Paris to deliver a blackmail payment, it sounded like a free vacation. But, when Mickey discovers he's given the money to the wrong woman, a hive of gangsters and the French police believe he's the key to finding her.

With the zombies dealt with and the terrible NaRti plague taken care of, and the girls training complete. The council has decided to award the team with a special dinner and award ceremony, and of course, the dinner will be catered by none other than club RATEOTU.

Poverty and sickness are on the rise, as the Order of the Enlightened Sun remains silent. In the two-year wake of the battle of Katahn, Stratia cries in pain and rage, desperate for answers or a place for their blame. But they are not alone in their anger! Fearing a repeat of ancient history, the Kasarin Empire sends an overwhelming army, led by the titan Zenen’Rol, to eradicate every Stratian. Now, Rylin, Ishell, and a handful of Lights, must defy the apathetic wishes of the Order, and defend Stratia.

Zack Collins: What I am supposed to do - inherit my British father’s wealth of 100 million pounds before it goes to his favorite charity, the Red Cross. The condition is that I marry and stay married for two years at least; half now and half at the end of the two-year mark. What I actually did - decided to marry a woman who my mother would never expect. Meaning, agreed to be my fake wife.

Most animals are more clever than people realize...especially mice and their friends...even if it does happen to be a lion! And they became friends almost by accident.