Part Three of Eight. The main body of the instrument consisted of a wooden box in which the four above-named mirrors were placed so as to face each other, and to the box was attached a telescope-tube. Thus a ray of light coming from an outside object and entering the box would produce an […]
Here’s another short story by William Harrison Ainsworth, after “The Wanderings of an Immortal”, from his early collection December Tales (1823). It’s one of my favourites, as it’s a story of female strength and revenge. I do not love to credit tales of magic; Heaven’s music, which is order, seems unstrung, And this brave world […]
TW: Everything Yesterday I was at a friend’s place: we got together over some oysters and the plan was to have a cry together. Which we did. She had a nice bottle of Pigato, too, a wine from Liguria I’m usually fond of. Thing is, I didn’t feel like drinking. Didn’t feel much like eating […]
About a thousand feet below the summit of the Untersberg, and not very far from the top of one of its spurs, that reaches out into the valley through which runs the limpid stream coming from the renowned lake called the “Koenigsee,” there is a spacious cave, within an almost perpendicular slope of rocks, several […]
Yesterday my grandmother passed away. If you believe in this kind of stuff, she’s joined my mother and they’re currently harassing my grandfather over how many dogs he keeps and how many hours he spends pretending to work in the garden. I hope they have pubs and mountains up there but hey, if they don’t […]
…continuing from last week, a story by Henrietta Dorothy Huskisson aka H.D. Everett, from “The Death-Mask and Other Ghosts”. I did not like Dr. Vickers and his Italian lessons, and I had the impression Freda would have been better pleased by their intermission. On the third day she had a headache and charged me to […]
Just a quick bullet point update because I think it’s important that you get an understanding of where I’m at. my grandmother literally sent her body on strike because she doesn’t want to live anymore, and it’s a matter of days before she passes, maybe hours; one of my closest friends has troubles with her […]
Today’s story was written by Montague Rhodes James, known as M.R. James and it comes from the collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. I already published a story from the same collection for last year’s Advent Calendar. Enjoy. Everyone who has travelled over Eastern England knows the smaller country-houses with which it is studded—the rather […]
Who has ever occupied himself seriously with the investigation of the “night-side of Nature,” or studied the works of Theophrastus Paracelsus, and not become acquainted with the celebrated “Untersberg” (the “mountain of the lower world”) and its mysterious inhabitants, the fairies and gnomes? Like a gigantic outpost of the Austrian Alps, this snow-capped wing of […]
William Harrison Ainsworth (February 4, 1805 – January 3, 1882) was an English historical novelist known for his contributions to the Gothic genre and historical fiction. Born in Manchester, he initially trained as a lawyer but soon turned his focus to literature, where he found considerable success. Though his first published novel, Sir John Chiverton, […]