British Library Tales of the Weird

The titular short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. A traditional psychological ghost story, ‘A Phantom Lover’ tells the story of an artist who is commissioned to paint...

During her lifetime Violet Paget, who wrote as Vernon Lee, was referred to as 'the greatest of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction', and yet today she remains on the periphery of the genre. This collection of her uniquely weird short...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Glimpses of the Unknown. Writer Cyril Glendinning is waiting for his big break. He is well reviewed by cultured newspapers but he makes very little money. Then he is commissioned to...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Evil Roots. The titular house in this short story sits not far from the state of Missouri. An old, run-down building, missing windows and doors, it has been overgrown with foliage,...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. ‘A Wicked Voice’ reuses the theme of music from beyond the grave from Vernon Lee’s first ghost story ‘Winthrop’s Adventure’. Here,...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection The Outcast and Other Dark Tales by E.F. Benson. ‘A Winter Morning’ is a dark story of longing and regret. It sees a widower, mourning both his wife and son, recall his son’s final...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Glimpses of the Unknown. Englishman Essart is enjoying his holiday in Portugal when he is enchanted by a mysterious fragrance. The scent makes him long for a woman and he finds...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection A Phantom Lover and Other Dark Tales by Vernon Lee. Written in diary entries from a Polish scholar, this short story features a mysterious femme fatale Medea who is responsible for...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection The Outcast and Other Dark Tales by E.F. Benson. It’s Christmas in the Chandler household and as the party gather around the fire, their host Everard recalls a ghostly tale from the...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection The Outcast and Other Dark Tales by E.F. Benson. An early exploration of electronic voice phenomena, ‘Billy Comes Through’ sees a widowed writer recall the curious phenomena that her...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection The Outcast and Other Dark Tales by E.F. Benson. Thomas Oulton has worked for a London banking house for 30 years and is widely respected by his colleagues, so when he seemingly...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Evil Roots. ‘Carnivorine’ follows the tale of Ellis Graham, who has been asked to find his friend’s lost son Julius. Ellis heads to Europe in his search, only to find Julius on the...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection The Outcast and Other Dark Tales by E.F. Benson. Concerned for their recently widowed friend Harry, Vincent and Tom join him in Egypt for a boat trip along the Nile. Whilst the...

Strangling vines and meat-hungry flora fill this unruly garden of strange stories, selected for their significance as the seeds of the villainous (or perhaps just misunderstood) 'killer plant' in fiction, film and video games. Step within to marvel at...

A Charlotte Riddell novella from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Haunted Houses. When his cousin Geoffrey dies, barrister Hercules Stafford Trevor agrees to act as his young widow’s guardian. But Trevor has troubles of his own when...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection From the Depths. An earthquake throws a ship and its crew into disarray in this short story from Morgan Robertson. But the waves become the least of their worries when they discover...

From atop the choppy waves to the choking darkness of the abyss, the seas are full of mystery and rife with tales of inexplicable events and encounters with the unknown. In this anthology we see a thrilling spread of narratives; sailors are pitched...

The titular short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection From the Depths. A Swedish freighter is on a special mission to locate and survey a number of wrecks after the First World War. The first on their list was torpedoed...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Glimpses of the Unknown. Henry Grimshaw prides himself on his dual personality. By night he is a socialite and eligible bachelor, by day he is a clothing factory tyrant, with...

A figure emerges from a painting to pursue a bitter vengeance; the last transmission of a dying man haunts the airwaves, seeking to reveal his murderer; a treasure hunt disturbs an ancient presence in the silence of a lost tomb. From the vaults of the...

From the once-popular yet unfairly neglected Victorian writer Charlotte Riddell comes a pair of novels which cleverly upholster the familiar furniture of the haunted house story. In 'An Uninhabited House', the hauntings are seen through the...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Glimpses of the Unknown. Ernest Roydon is distressed by a mysterious apparition that appears around his house. What he initially thinks is a trick of the light soon starts taking on...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection From the Depths. Most of Frank H. Shaw’s stories have a nautical theme and ‘Held by the Sargasso Sea’ is no exception. In this short story, Captain Chisholm’s pride and joy, The...

A short story from the British Library Tales of the Weird collection Glimpses of the Unknown. Written just after the end of the First World War, ‘Kearney’ follows Lieutenant Belden who seems to be haunted by one of his men who died in a terrible...