Showing results for "Benson" in Short Stories

Mark Gatiss ( Sherlock, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones) reads chilling tales by the unsung master of the classic ghost story: E. F. Benson. There's nothing sinister about a London bus. Nothing supernatural could occur on a busy train platform. There's nothing terrifying about a little caterpillar. And a telephone, what could be scary about that? Don't be frightened of the dark corners of your room. Don't be alarmed by a sudden inexplicable chill.

A grisly spirit turns travelling companion for the unwitting passenger of a London bus; a repulsive neighbour returns from the grave, rejected by the very earth; an innocuous back garden becomes the stage for a nightmare encounter with druidic sacrifice. From deep in the British Library vaults emerges a new selection of E.F. Benson's most innovative, spine-tingling and satisfyingly dark 'spook stories'. Complete with an introduction exploring the fascinating story of Benson's life, and including the never-before-republished story 'Billy Comes Through'.

E. F. Benson fue novelista, biógrafo y escritor de cuentos de terror.

E. F. Benson fue novelista, biógrafo y escritor de cuentos de terror. Estudió en Temple Grove, East Sheen, Surrey, luego en Marlborough, y terminó sus estudios en el Kings College de Cambridge, donde se aficionó grandemente a la arqueología.

"Just room for one inside, sir," isn't quite as bone-chilling as hearing "room for one more, honey" in one of the Twilight Zone's most popular episodes, "Twenty Two." The Rod Serling masterpiece was inspired by E.F. Benson's "The Bus-Conductor". A ghost bears the chilling news instead of a recurring dream in Benson's chiller.

Fedora is dead, and movies will never be the same. A star since the early days of Hollywood, she survived the business for an unprecedented four decades before retiring to Crete. As the years wore on and her costars turned wrinkled and worn, Fedora's perfect features never faded. Now that she has finally passed, the secret to her longevity will be told - a shocking revelation that will raise her to the level of myth.

The Terror by Night is a short horror story published in 1912. The Terror by Night is a part of a short story collection The Room in the Tower and Other Stories also published in 1912. In the story, the first-person narrator and two others experienced a series of odd sensations, ultimately suggested to have been caused by a ghost. One of these proves more severe than the others.

Edward Frederic Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer. Benson was also known as a writer of atmospheric, oblique, and at times humorous or satirical ghost stories. Among the most significant works Edward Benson is the The Wishing Well (1929) and many more.

The Thing in the Hall, is a rather macabre and strange story - retold by Mike Vendetti - of two friends living in London, one of whom tempts fate by inviting a spirit to visit without limiting what type of spirit he is inviting. As we know, there are "evil" spirits just awaiting a home or a victim.

Caterpillars is a short story by Edward Frederic Benson about a man haunted by dreams of enormous caterpillars. In the beautiful Villa Cascana on the Italian Riviera, all is not as it seems.

The Cat is an odd story about a young man who suffers a severe shock reaction to the unexpected ending of his engagement. Initially he is thrown into a deep depression which lasts several months, but then all of a sudden something snaps in his brain and he undergoes a phenomenal transformation. Not only does his depression leave him, but he becomes suddenly upbeat and sees the world in richer colours and with greater clarity.

At the Farmhouse by Edward Frederic Benson tells the story of a landscape painter, who after twenty years of hideous marriage to an abusive and drunken local woman who is rumoured to be a witch, sets off to murder her. In his pocket is a ball of strong twine with which he will strangle her, and a box of matches with which he will set light to the farmhouse to destroy the evidence of his crime. After that he will be free... What happens when he reaches the farmhouse is gruesome, uncanny and totally unexpected.

The Sanctuary, a story of Satanism. "There was a thump on the ceiling overhead as if someone had fallen, and without a word we ran upstairs into Francis's bedroom. The door of the wardrobe where the vestments were kept was open, some lay on the floor. The panel was open, too, but within it was dark. In terror at what might meet our eyes, I felt for the switch and turned the light on..."

In the remote town of Firham-By-Sea, two holidaymakers are curious about the derelict Corner House and its mysterious owners. Upon investigation, they unveil the grim story of Mr and Mrs Labson.

A town that prides itself on its honesty finds itself severely tested. One of the demons Mark Twain always set out to slay was the myth that the citizens of the American republic are inherently more virtuous than others. By the invention of an elaborate hoax, a kind of giant practical joke, Twain has his hero turn the town of Hadleyburg inside out and, in the process, teach the hypocrites who dwell there a lesson in humility and moral realism.

Stephen Crane's fascinating story "The Blue Hotel" is seen by many as a study of fear. Crane used the stereotypical 1890's American West as his setting, and the story uses a card game to show how fear feeds upon itself. There are both inner fears and fears existing in reality, and the ways that they interact with each other make for a fascinating tale.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English romantic and gothic novelist who is most famous as the author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. She was married to the notable Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. She also wrote a number of shorter "tales of the unnatural", of which "The Mortal Immortal", a story of a man who will not die, is the most famous.