Showing results by author "E.F. Benson" in All Categories

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic "Lucia" novels. In his own day it was his ghost stories which were his most popular works. The Sanctuary exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of supernatural and macabre tales, this one being particularly disturbing.

Taking a winter holiday in a splendid resort in the Swiss Alps our hero finds himself billeted in a surprisingly large room, furnished with two beds. He checks with the man at the bureau, but there’s no mistake: it’s all his, a veritable snip at 12 francs a night! What a stroke of luck! And what could possibly connect this alpine idyll with Boston, Massachusetts? E. F. Benson is well known for his Mapp and Lucia novels but his ghost and supernatural stories are marvellous jewels, combining elegant writing and moments of blood-curdling horror.

A spectacular collection of classic ghost stories from some of the masters of spooky fiction. 'On the Brighton Road' by Richard Middleton; 'A Ghost Story' by Mark Twain; 'The Everlasting Club' by Arthur Gray; 'The Snow' by Hugh Walpole; 'Rose Rose' by Barry Pain; 'The Ghost Ship' by Richard Middleton; 'The Bus Conductor' by E. F. Benson; 'The Tarn' by Hugh Walpole; 'The Diary of Mr. Poynter' by M. R. James.

Set in the remote Yorkshire Valleys, the narrator in this story returns to the holiday home of his childhood. He has inherited the house from his uncle and has come to oversee the renovations with a friend. However, it soon becomes apparent the house is haunted by a ghost with an awful secret.

When Darcy, recuperating from a serious illness, goes to stay with an old friend of his, Frank, in the New Forest, he discovers a puzzling change in the man. He appears to have become significantly younger and is also filled with exuberance and joy. Frank explains that he has spent the last six years studying Nature and has discovered a new philosophy of life around the joy of nature.

"Queen Lucia" (1920) is the first volume of E. F. Benson’s "Mapp and Lucia" 6-novel series. It is a comedy of manners, set in provincial Riseholme (Lincolnshire). Emmeline Lucas rules local society with the help of her friend Georgie Pillson, a position she fiercely protects from her rival Daisy Quantock. But this very situation is at risk, as a scandal breaks out and a famous Prima Donna arrives in the sleepy old hamlet.

The Horror Horn is set in the Swiss Alps and opens in the cosy lounge of a resort hotel, where a string ensemble strikes up with the sugary strains of Puccini. Our hero is further entertained to an unlikely yarn of savage sub-humans living near the Ungeheuerhorn, or Horror Horn, a forbidding mountain peak nearby. Next day, a skiing trip to St. Luigi in the next valley to lunch with a friend marks the start of an unexpectedly terrifying adventure. The Horror Horn is not a ghost story as such: the creatures in it are most definitely flesh and blood and they are hungry!

Over 50 great classic short stories, each around 20 minutes in length - perfect for short journeys, bedtime listening and those moments in between.... 'The Khitmatgar' by B. M. Croker, 'The Mummy of Thompson Pratt' by Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne, 'The Ghost at the Blue Dragon' by William J. Wintle, 'A Tropical Horror' by William Hope Hodgson, 'Miracles' by Barry Pain, 'The Dust That Was Barren' by P. C. Wren, 'His Unconquerable Enemy' by W. C. Morrow, 'A Tiger’s Skin' by W. W. Jacobs....

Thirty little gems by some of the world's great classic short story writers, including: 'The Flying Man' by H. G. Wells, 'Between Rounds' by O. Henry, 'A School Story' by M. R. James, 'A Pair of Silk Stockings' by Kate Chopin, 'A Deal in Ostriches' by H. G. Wells, 'The Piano Next Door' by Elia W. Peattie, 'Royal Visitors' by E. F. Benson, 'The Stolen Bacillus' by H. G. Wells, 'The Story of Chugoro' by Lafcadio Hearn, 'One Law for the Rich' by Stacy Aumonier, 'My Enemy and Myself' by Vincent O'Sullivan and more.

Edward Frederic Benson (1867 - 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer, best known as the true master of the gothic occult story. Gavon's Eve is a terrifying story of mysterious occult devil worship and witchcraft which pervades a remote rural district in Great Britain.

E. F. Benson's ghost story In The Tube is posited as an exposition of a vast metaphysical question that we as human beings cannot understand. Our suppositions of time and space are taken to task. This is fiction with historical significance.

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 themes and literary avenues that classic authors were so adept at creating.

In this volume your flesh may creep and crawl a little bit as our classic authors delve into the world of vampires. Some stories you may be familiar with but for most these will be new and unsettling experiences.

‘The Outcast’ tells the story of Mrs Bertha Acres, who is handsome and charming company, but inspires horror and dread in all who meet her, most notably her husband who killed himself after only a month of marriage. She starts afresh in a new village, but she is cursed to always be an outcast.

It’s Christmas in the Chandler household, and as the party gather around the fire, their host Everard recalls a ghostly tale from the previous Christmas in the misty forests of Scotland.

Bobby is an accomplished and charming pianist who has befriended a number of rich elderly widows and spinsters, each of which he refers to as 'aunt'. He already has his own Bechstein grand piano, plus another concert grand which was (touchingly but highly inconveniently) left to him by a late 'aunt'. Now various of his other 'aunts' are also keen to offload their grand pianos on him....

Six creepy horror stories of sinister, murderous and ghostly cats. 'The White Cat' by Hugh Walpole; 'The Cat' by E. F. Benson; 'The Cats of Ulthar' by H. P. Lovecraft; 'The Black Cat' by William James Wintle; 'The Grey Cat' by Barry Pain; 'The Black Cat' by Edgar Allan Poe.

A wonderful collection of spine-tingling, imaginative, terrifying but beautifully written tales to keep you hiding under the bedclothes this Halloween.

The unnamed narrator had planned the perfect getaway, at a charming Italian villa. But the moment he crosses its threshold, he senses something is amiss. When a bout of insomnia robs him of sleep one night, and he goes exploring, he stumbles across a heart-stopping sight: a room swarming with massive, mottled, luminescent caterpillars.

A gripping collection of classic stories in which the central figures are highly dangerous female characters - ranging from the creepy and unsettling to the utterly terrifying.