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A third collection of 18 classic tales of the weird and supernatural by some of the best known writers in these genres.

The first collection of the exploits of A.J. Raffles and his friend Bunny Manders was published as The Amateur Cracksman in 1899. The characters of Raffles and Bunny were possibly inspired by his brother-in-law's creations, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, although they are on the opposite side of the law.

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author known for his works of horror and the fantastic. He is recognized as an influence on modern writers of supernatural fiction. Holy Terrors (published in 1946, a year before his death) is a collection of 14 short stories of which nine are very short and are included in this recording. They are: “The Rose Garden”, “Psychology”, “The Soldier's Rest”, “The Cosy Room”, “The Ceremony”, “Holy Things”, “The Turanians”, “The Happy Children”, and “Munitions of War”.

Guy de Maupassant (1850 - 1893) is recognized as one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of its finest exponents. From the humorous to the tragic to the gruesome, with an economy and precision of language, his stories can delight or disturb. Here are 10 of them.

Oscar Wilde's classic comic ghost story was the first of his short stories to be published, in February 1887. It relates the experiences of Mr. Hiram B. Otis, an American minister, and his family when they move into Canterville Chase, an ancient pile haunted by the previous owner's dead ancestor, Sir Simon. Of course, Mr. Otis declares, "There is no such thing, sir, as a ghost", and all of Sir Simon's hauntings have no effect on the skeptical American family, with the exception of the daughter, Virginia, despite his most strenuous efforts.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was born in Dublin, Ireland and is acknowledged as an influential writer in the genre of gothic and supernatural fiction of the 19th century. Many of his short stories were originally published in various magazines. Here are six of them: “The White Cat of Drumgonnial”, “Dickon the Devil”, “The Drunkard's Dream”, “The Secret of the Two Plaster Casts”, “The Vision of Tom Chuff”, and “An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House”. 

Barry Pain was noted for his humorous tales of “Eliza” and her husband, but his tales of the weird and supernatural are equally noteworthy. This volume, More Tales in the Dark, contains eight of them.  

H. G. Wells, best known for his science fiction novels, wrote many short stories which had the same engaging qualities as his major works. Strange, disturbing, but full of wit and humour, here are nine of them: "The Moth", "In the Avu Observatory", "The Stolen Bacillus", "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid", and five more.

The delicious, biting wit of Saki's short stories satirizing Edwardian high society are some of the funniest and most delightful exquisite literary miniatures. In this first volume, there are 22 glittering examples. Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Monro. He was born in Burma in 1870, where his father was a senior official in the Burma police. From the age of two, he lived with two maiden aunts and his grandmother in Devon and was educated in Exmouth and at the Bedford Grammar School.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is of course famous for his creation of the great Sherlock Holmes. The stories of the master detective are justifiably well known but he also wrote many short stories which are not so well known but deserve to be. The four stories in this recording were first published singly in magazines, principally The Strand. They later appeared in the collection “The Great Keinplatz Experiment and Other Tales of Twilight and the Unseen” in 1919. They are: “The Brown Hand”, “Playing with Fire”, “How It Happened”, and “De Profundis”. 

The author of the famous Alice books also wrote many poems notably in the humorous and nonsense genres. "The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in Eight Fits)", published in 1876 and possibly his best known and most accomplished verse, is presented here together with another of his longer poems, "Phantasmagoria" and "Melancholetta", "Sea Dirge", "Size and Tears", plus five poems from Alice.

collection of favorite classic poems by some of our best loved poets, including Robert Browning, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, John Keats, William Butler Yeats, Thomas Love Peacock, Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Shakespeare, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and others.

The story follows the eponymous hero and his tutor Doctor Pangloss through a series of adventures and misfortunes, all the time doggedly attempting, against the odds, to adhere to the doctor's philosophy that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds".

M. R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. The six stories in Volume Two are: "The Ash Tree", "Martin's Close", "Lost Hearts", "The Tractate Middoth", "After Dark in the Playing Fields", and "Wailing Well".

M.R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic in his time but today is remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. The seven stories in this Volume One are: "A School Story", "Rats", "A Warning to the Curious", "Two Doctors", "The Haunted Doll's House", "Casting the Runes", "There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard".

Here is a collection of nine tales of the macabre and the supernatural from the acknowledged master of these genres. They are: "The Black Cat", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", "The Premature Burial", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Oval Portrait", "Berenice", and "Ligeia".

George and Weedon Grossmith were born in London into a theatrical family, and it was natural that they should both take up careers on the stage. Weedon initially studied art but later joined his brother, George, in the theatre.

E. Nesbit is rightly best known for her children's books, but she also wrote works for adults, including short stories in the genres of the uncanny, macabre, and supernatural. There are five of these in this collection. 

The Toys of Peace and Other Papers by "Saki" (H. H. Munro) is a collection of 33 "papers" or short stories, which were originally published separately in various journals and later issued in one volume in 1919, three years after the writer's death in the Great War. They are some of the most delightful of literary miniatures.

Nicholas Goade, the Scotland Yard detective, takes a well earned rest after his recent work in arresting single-handed a notorious criminal who had for five years defied the police forces of New York and London. He has been awarded a cheque for $25,000 and six months leave of absence and is enjoying a touring holiday in the West of England in his ancient Ford car with his companion Flip, a small, fat, white dog. But his holiday soon becomes “a busman's holiday”, as he himself puts it, as at each turn he is called upon to deal with crimes.