Download or read book The Servant Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Robin Maugham and published by Valancourt Books. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this dark, haunting tale, Richard Merton recounts the story of his close friend, Tony, a young lawyer recently returned from the war, and the subtle, sinister destruction of his personality by his servant, Barrett. Seeking ease and comfort, Tony hires Barrett to cater to his needs, not realizing that his new servant has a hidden agenda. As Barrett gradually and insidiously leads his employer into physical and moral degradation, the roles of master and servant will become grotesquely reversed. Robin Maugham's modern classic The Servant (1948) was hailed by The New York Times as 'a masterpiece of writing' and was adapted for a celebrated 1963 film version directed by Joseph Losey and scripted by Harold Pinter. This new edition includes a preface by Maugham from the 1973 edition explaining the origins of the novel and a new introduction by William Lawrence. 'A highly skilled portrait . . . succeeds as a horror story of considerable brightness and sharpness.' - Kirkus Reviews 'It's shocking, brilliantly written, completely absorbing.' - Chicago Daily News 'The story has a quiet and absolutely terrifying inevitability . . . reminiscent of Henry James himself.' - News Chronicle 'An exquisite work of art . . . a masterpiece of observation and craftsmanship.' - Sheffield Telegram 'One of those little story gems you seldom come across these days ... a plausible picture of human collapse told with insight and considerable skill.' - New York World Telegram

Download or read book The Servant written by Robin Maugham and published by . This book was released on 1989-01 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Now You Know Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Michael Frayn and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terry, the charismatic director of a British campaign for open government, has a direct approach to official secrets and women alike. The only person who can resist his brash frankness is Hilary, a serious and dedicated young civil servant in the Home Office, who happens to know the truth about a big police cover-up. Until one morning she turns up at the campaign's offices with a brown envelope marked Private and Confidential. What eventually emerges from that envelope will change the lives of everyone involved. The theme of Michael Frayn's eighth novel, Now You Know (1992) is the difficult counterbalance of openness and personal privacy. As timely as ever in today's WikiLeaks era, it is, like all of Frayn's work, both thought-provoking and very funny. This edition features a new introduction by the author. 'Entertaining enough to keep you up half the night.' - Chicago Tribune 'Unabashed joy in the language . . . refreshing vitality. Serious issues are being examined here, and with superb intelligence.' - James Wilcox, The New York Times Book Review 'A tremendously thought-provoking story, skillfully crafted.' - The Milwaukee Journal

Download or read book The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories Volume One written by John Blackburn and published by Valancourt Books. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, you will encounter tales of ghosts, haunted houses, witchcraft, vampirism, lycanthropy, and sea monsters. Stories of cruelty and vengeance, of a body that refuses to be cremated, a deranged performer with one last shocking show, a frozen corpse that may not be dead. With stories ranging from frightening to horrific to weird to darkly funny, by a lineup of authors that includes both masters of horror fiction and award-winning literary greats, this is a horror anthology like no other. Spanning two hundred years of horror, this new collection features seventeen macabre gems, including two original tales and many others that have never or seldom been reprinted, by: Charles Birkin • John Blackburn • Michael Blumlein • Mary Cholmondeley • Hugh Fleetwood • Stephen Gregory • Gerald Kersh • Francis King • M. G. Lewis • Florence Marryat • Richard Marsh • Michael McDowell • Christopher Priest • Forrest Reid • Bernard Taylor • Hugh Walpole 'The things were there and they were hiding in the slime; waiting ... waiting to clutch and claw and savage’ - AUNTY GREEN by John Blackburn ‘The sound that came from her throat, a small, pleading cry of terror, was cut off before she’d hardly had a chance to utter it’ - OUT OF SORTS by Bernard Taylor ‘The words filled her with an indescribable fear, and she turned to run; but her way was blocked by a figure, gigantic in stature​ – and its monstrous shape moved towards her, and she knew it was the incarnation of evil itself ’ - THE TERROR ON TOBIT by Charles Birkin

Download or read book Benighted written by John Boynton Priestley and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lady Athlyne written by Bram Stoker and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-10-12 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

Download or read book The Mystery of the Sea written by Bram Stoker and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Benighted written by J. B. Priestley and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2023-01-01 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this classic novel of psychological terror, an unrelenting storm forces three travelers to take shelter in a sinister mansion. A powerful storm rages through the Welsh mountains, driving three travelers off the road. Philip Waverton, his wife, Margaret, and their friend Roger Penderel are desperate to get out of the torrential downpour. Their only option is a mysterious old mansion, home to the bizarre Femm family and their brutish butler, Morgan. Although the Femms have plenty rooms in their home, they are hesitant to allow guests to stay in them. Instead, Penderel and the Wavertons must settle in for the night by the ground-floor fireplace and hope the storm will pass by morning. But as the hours go by, their situation only gets worse. The storm intensifies, and the dark house begins revealing its secrets—like what lies behind the two locked doors on the top floor. Now the travelers can only pray they survive until morning . . . Published in 1927, Benighted served as the basis for the 1932 James Whale film The Old Dark House, starring Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, and Gloria Stuart. It was J. B. Priestly’s second novel. “Priestley’s book is a beautifully written affair, oftentimes thrilling and touching, that this reader found perfect company during a few recent stormy days in late October. . . . The novel will surely manage to chill the modern-day reader.” —Fantasy Literature

Download or read book The Day the Call Came written by Thomas Hinde and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'It would be hard to imagine a novel more quietly terrifying than this sunlit nightmare of a book.' - Robert Baldick, "Daily Telegraph" '[A]s profound as anything put out by names like Graham Greene, Patrick White and the rest. This establishes Thomas Hinde as one of our finest and most individual novelists. A superb book - deep, rapid, thrilling, disturbing.' - Anthony Burgess 'The cleverest book I have read this year . . . a macabre high comedy by an author whose lynx-eyed social observation is matched by his power to bring forth nightmares in broad daylight.' - Irving Wardle, "The Observer" The hero of Thomas Hinde's classic of paranoia is Harry Bale, a married father of two with a house in the suburbs and a penchant for gardening. Affable and mild-mannered, he is to all outward appearance perfectly ordinary. No one-not even his wife-knows what he is really up to. Harry is awaiting a call from his superiors on the radio transmitter hidden beneath the attic floorboards. There are signs the call will come soon: he has begun to receive sinister messages by letter and telephone, and he thinks he has uncovered a monstrous conspiracy involving his neighbours. But when one day the call finally does come and Harry receives his deadly assignment, nothing will ever be the same again. . . . Frightening in its implications and darkly humorous in its execution, Thomas Hinde's thriller "The Day the Call Came" (1964) earned rave reviews on its initial appearance but has been long out of print. This edition features a new introduction by Ramsey Campbell and the original jacket art by Victor Reinganum.

Download or read book The Castle of Ollada written by Francis Lathom and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In The Castle of Ollada, young Altador seeks to solve the mystery of the ancient Castle of Ollada and win the love of the beautiful Matilda. Why does his uncle, the Baron Garcia, refuse to inhabit the castle? And what is the bloodstained spectre that the servants have seen haunting its ruined halls? An immediate success when first published in 1795, The Castle of Ollada was the first novel by celebrated Gothic writer Francis Lathom, who wrote it at age twenty. This edition includes the unabridged text of the 1831 edition, as well as a new introduction revealing never before published information on the life and works of Francis Lathom. The complete text of two contemporary reviews is also included to illustrate the novel's reception when first published."--Publisher's website.

Download or read book Crime at Christmas written by C. H. B. Kitchin and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Crime at Christmas" by C. H. B. Kitchin. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Download or read book The Slype written by Russell Thorndike and published by . This book was released on 2013-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Slype is a dark passage, reputedly haunted, adjoining the ancient cathedral of Dullchester, and it plays a central role in this thrilling mystery. As the story opens, this sleepy cathedral city has a sinister visitor whose ominous pastime consists of cutting paper silhouettes depicting a corpse hanging from a gibbet. After his arrival, a series of terrifying events ensues: ghostly screams are heard to emanate from the Slype, and the town's residents begin disappearing one by one, inexplicably and without a trace. Young Daniel Dyke, Sergeant Wurren, and Inspector Macauley of Scotland Yard will have to join forces to unravel this deadly mystery and uncover a centuries-old secret ... before it's too late!

Download or read book Left to Themselves written by Edward Irenaeus Stevenson and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-05-28 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edward Prime-Stevenson (1858-1942) has been described by one critic as "the first modern gay American author," and his novel Imre: A Memorandum (1906) has been cited as the first openly gay American novel. But fifteen years earlier, Stevenson published another milestone work, Left to Themselves (1891), a young adult novel described by its author as "homosexual in essence," the first such book ever published.

Download or read book Italian Mysteries written by Francis Lathom and published by . This book was released on 1820 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Devil s Own Work Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Alan Judd and published by . This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "More chills in its little length than in a whole shelf of bestsellers." - Stephen King "At once moral fable, cautionary ghost story and inspired attack on the whole hellbent drift of modern letters, this is a splendid tale, splendidly told, which Ford or Henry James would have been glad to have written." - Robert Nye, "Guardian" "Wry and insightful . . . toys with the notion of demonic possession but becomes a thoroughly realistic and highly original story of revenge; a chilling cautionary tale." - Elaine Kendall, "Los Angeles Times" "A brief return to the world of Faust, Mephistopheles and the Devil pact. Mr. Judd . . . achieves a deep polish." - Robert Grudin, "The New York Times Book Review" After Edward, a rising young author, pens a savage review of the new novel by the world-famous O.M. Tyrell, he is surprised to receive an invitation to visit the old man at his villa in the south of France. The night of their meeting, Tyrell dies, and soon after, Edward's career mysteriously starts to soar as he earns fame, fortune and critical acclaim. But despite his achievements, Edward seems haunted, even tormented. His friend, the narrator, begins to put together the pieces of the story: an ancient, inscrutable manuscript, a beautiful, ageless woman who attaches herself to any writer who possesses it, and a bargain to achieve success at a terrible price . . . Winner of Britain's prestigious Guardian Fiction Prize, Alan Judd's modern classic "The Devil's Own Work" (1991) is, as Owen King writes in the new introduction to this edition, "a perfect novel about the demonic possession that is literary ambition." This edition also features a new afterword by the author, in which he reveals the inspirations for this haunting tale.

Download or read book In a Shallow Grave written by James Purdy and published by City Lights Publishers. This book was released on 1988-11-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Purdy does not celebrate the wonders of our lives; he digs under the flesh, deals with the howling of our nighttime existence, the rough arithmetic of our dreams. He is also a very funny writer, one who captures the particular idiom of women and men...

Download or read book The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories Volume 1 written by Pilar Pedraza and published by Valancourt Books. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if there were a whole world of great horror fiction out there you didn't know anything about, written by authors in distant lands and in foreign languages, outstanding horror stories you had no access to, written in languages you couldn't read? For an avid horror fan, what could be more horrifying than that? For this groundbreaking volume, the first of its kind, the editors of Valancourt Books have scoured the world, reading horror stories from dozens of countries in nearly twenty languages, to find some of the best contemporary international horror stories. The stories in this volume come from 19 countries on 5 continents and were originally written in 13 different languages. All 20 foreign language stories in this volume are appearing in English for the first time ever. The book includes stories by some of the world's preeminent horror authors, many of them not yet known in the English-speaking world.