The Last True Gentleman On The Planet Earth, David Keyes
“Sumptuous, mystifying and wholeheartedly haunting…”
Is Dracula truly dead? Is the life of a model the model life? Could the Prince of Darkness actually be our saviour? And what does it mean to be popular in Japan? The much anticipated second volume of short stories written in David Keyes’ unique voice, these short stories invite you into worlds both haunting and haunted.
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I Do So Worry For All Those Lost At Sea, David Keyes
I Do So Worry For All Those Lost At Sea is the long-awaited short story collection by eccentric writer/artist David Keyes. "The story of a ghost, and the girl that haunts him...." Ghosts are haunted, girls fling themselves out of windows, wolves are cartographers, hares are pornographers, mermaids are rescued from carnival sideshows and everyone drinks cocktails and comments on the moon. Collected here for the first time are eleven short stories and a novella, The House of Sleep. Each story a slight variation on reality, each its own weather system, its own logic, surreal, beautiful and haunting, all recorded in Keyes' melancholic style. This, the second edition, contains a new, secret chapter and The Five Cocktails of Mr. B, a book of recipes.
Listen to the Author read chapter 8 here.
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Carmilla: A Vintage Vampire Edition, J. Sheridan Le Fanu
by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, with illustrations by Taeden Hall and an introduction by Daniel Richler
"For a hundred and forty years Carmilla has given readers’ bodies and souls a shake, because the vampire is beautiful but repulsive, to be resisted at all costs, because the narrative alternates so imaginatively between twittering girlies and an urgent need to reach for sharpened wooden stakes. Is there any reason it won’t continue to do so far into the future? Give it a read, and feel how it crawls under your skin." From the Foreword by Daniel Richler The goal of The House of Pomegranates Press is to produce arcane and magical little packages full of words that inform, disturb and most importantly, inspire. With Carmilla we begin our Vintage Vampire series. Over the next few years we intend to publish — beautifully — as many vintage vampire novels as we can. Why? Because since childhood we’ve been haunted by these stories. As we grew, our complicated messy brains morphed these stories and characters from esoteric shadows under our beds into real, tangible, existentialist demons. They walked amongst us, they became our friends, our lovers, our fears. We felt it was time to gather those demons, wrap them in lovely covers and place them into a modern context with intelligent introductions by fascinating people. And so here you have Carmilla beautifully illustrated by Taeden Hall with a foreword by the quite wonderful, erudite Mr. Daniel Richler. Who better than he to blend vampires, Victoriana, politics, feminism and girl school lesbianism? Enjoy.
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A Shadow Over Shanghai, A Cecil Herbert Woolley Mystery, David Keyes
This, the third instalment of the Cecil Herbert Woolley Mystery series follows Cecil, his beloved Clemency and their manservant Benedict as they travel to exotic and dangerous Shanghai to help the daughter of a former WW I colleague of Cecil’s. The time is the late 1920s and Shanghai is a hotbed of opium, violence and political unrest, but Woolley, a consulting Occult detective, finds more than politics are afoot. Ghosts, seances, dancehalls and the threat of war cast many a shadow over Shanghai.
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Dracula, Bram Stoker, Derek McCormack
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Famous Modern Ghost Stories, D. Scarborough
Originally published in 1921, editor Dorothy Scarborough compiles some of the most fascinating and eerie tales of the early 20th century. From her introduction: "Ghosts are the true immortals, and the dead grow more alive all the time. Wraiths have a greater vitality to-day than ever before. They are far more numerous than at any time in the past, and people are more interested in them. There are persons that claim to be acquainted with specific spirits, to speak with them, to carry on correspondence with them, and even some who insist that they are private secretaries to the dead." Stories: The Willows - Algernon Blackwood; The Shadows on the Wall - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman; The Messenger - Robert W. Chambers; Lazarus - Leonid Andreyev; The Beast with Five Fingers - W. F. Harvey; The Mass of Shadows - Anatole France; What Was It? - Fitz-James O’Brien; The Middle Toe of the Right Foot - Ambrose Bierce; The Shell of Sense - Olivia Howard Dunbar; The Woman at Seven Brothers - Wilbur Daniel Steele; At the Gate - Myla Jo Closser; Ligeia - Edgar Allan Poe; The Haunted Orchard - Richard Le Gallienne; The Bowmen - Arthur Machen; A Ghost - Guy de Maupassant
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The Vampire, His Kith and Kin, Montague Summers
Augustus Montague Summers (1880 – 1948) was an English clergyman and author most famous for his studies on vampires, witches and werewolves—all of which he believed to be very much real. He also wrote the first English translation of the infamous 15th-century witch hunter's manual, the “Malleus Maleficarum”, in 1928. In The Vampire, His Kith and Kin, Summers discusses the vampire phenomena from a Catholic point of view, offering an a veritably academic study of the subject. Contents include: “The Origins of the Vampire”, “The Generation of the Vampire”, “The Traits and Practice of Vampirism”, “The Vampire in Assyria, the East, and Some Ancient Countries”, and “The Vampire in Literature”. Other notable works by this author include: “A Popular History of Witchcraft” (1937), “Witchcraft and Black Magic” (1946), and “The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism” (1947). The new edition features magnificent cover art is by Gemma Quevedo.
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The Report Of The Seybert Commission on Spiritualism, H.H. Furness, Jr.
Before Henry Seybert died in 1883, he endowed a chair of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, on the condition that the University appoint a commission to investigate “all systems of Morals, Religion, or Philosophy which assume to represent the Truth, and particularly of Modern Spiritualism” ( Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism in Accordance with the Request of the Late Henry Seybert (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1887), 5). Spiritualism, the belief that it was possible for the spirits of the dead to communicate or interact by various means with the living, had attracted many adherents in the United States since 1850, although spiritualism could not in any way be called a unified movement.
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Là-Bas, J.K. Huysmans
Là-Bas was first published in serial form beginning on February 15, 1891 and published in book form in April of the same year. Many of Paris' more conservative readers were shocked by the subject matter and urged the editor to halt the serialization, but he ignored them. Sale of the book was prohibited from French railway stations.The plot of Là-Bas concerns the novelist Durtal, who is disgusted by the emptiness and vulgarity of the modern world. He seeks relief by turning to the study of the Middle Ages (chapter one contains the first critical appreciation of Matthias Grünewald's Tauberbischofsheim altarpiece) and begins to research the life of the notorious 15th-century child-murderer Gilles de Rais. Through his contacts in Paris (notably Dr. Johannes, modeled after Joseph-Antoine Boullan), Durtal finds out that Satanism is not simply a thing of the past but alive in turn of the century France. He embarks on an investigation of the occult underworld with the help of his lover Madame Chantelouve. The novel culminates with a description of a black mass.- From Wikipedia
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Ghosts I Have Seen, Violet Tweedale
Violet Tweedale was born in Edinburgh, the eldest daughter of Robert Chambers, editor of Chambers’ Journal. She moved to London in 1889 becoming a humanitarian and writer, publishing her first novel, And They Two that year. She married Clarens Tweedale in 1891.Moving in the best social circles she counted as friends such notables as poet Robert Browning, artist Frederic Leighton, Anne Proctor and many others.Claiming to be psychic from the age of 5 she became involved in Spiritualism and Theosophy, and was a close associate of Helena Blavatsky. She was also a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Tweedale was a prolific writer, publishing over 30 books on spiritual and romantic subjects. She was also a gifted amateur artist, accomplished pianist and known as the best woman golfer in her region.Ghosts I Have Seen is her factual record of ghost encounters.
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Love In The Night, F Scott Fitzgerald
F Scott Fitzgerald's very rare and lovely short story of love on the French Riviera in the 1920s. "The words thrilled Val. They had come into his mind sometime during the fresh gold April afternoon and he kept repeating them to himself over and over: “Love in the night; love in the night.” He tried them in three languages— Russian, French and English—and decided that they were best in English. In each language they meant a different sort of love and a different sort of night—the English night seemed the warmest and softest with a thinnest and most crystalline sprinkling of stars. The English love seemed the most fragile and romantic—a white dress and a dim face above it and eyes that were pools of light. And when I add that it was a French night he was thinking about, after all, I see I must go back and begin over.”
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Murders In The Rue Morgue, The Three Mysteries of C. Auguste Dupin, Edgar Allan Poe
Combined in one exquisite volume the three mysteries of C Auguste Dupin, arguably the first consulting detective in literature. Dupin made his first appearance in Poe's 1841 short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", widely considered the first detective fiction story. He reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842) and "The Purloined Letter" (1844).
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The Blood Red Heiress: A Cecil Herbert Woolley Mystery, David Keyes
Introducing Cecil Herbert Woolley – wealthy, educated, affected, infuriating, well-spoken, well-dressed, a gentleman, a curious sort, a well-rounded chap, a lover of art, a one-time ladies man, witty and occasionally wise, once attractive and now well worn, functionally alcoholic, kind to animals and a so-so pianist. Cecil Herbert Woolley is also a consulting detective, world renowned for his knowledge of, and some say first-hand experience with, the occult. The Blood Red Heiress, David Keyes' second novel, is a rollicking, cocktail-fueled occult mystery featuring the detective Cecil Herbert Woolley, his manservant Benedict and the love of his life, Clemency de la Tour.
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The Uninvited Guests: A Cecil Herbert Woolley Mystery, David Keyes
A magical island in the south of France where an ill-fated birthday party is soon to take place. Read what evil mischief befalls occult consulting detective Cecil Herbert Woolley and his beloved Clemency de la Tour. There will be much cocktail drinking, a sudden storm, a mysterious black ship and an eerie group of uninvited guests.
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Sailing Alone Around The World, Joshua Slocum & Leo Sampson Goolden
A sailing memoir by Joshua Slocum in 1900 about his single-handed global circumnavigation aboard the sloop Spray. Slocum was the first person to sail around the world alone. The book was an immediate success and highly influential in inspiring later travelers. With a foreword by Leo Sampson Goolden.
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The Bat, Mary Roberts Rinehart
For months, the city has lived in fear of the Bat. A master criminal hindered by neither scruple nor fear, he has stolen over one million dollars and left at least six men dead. The police are helpless, the newspapers know nothing—even the key figures of the city’s underworld have no clue as to the identity of the Bat. He is a living embodiment of death itself, and he is coming to the countryside. There, he will encounter the only person who can stop him: adventurous sixty-five-year-old spinster Cornelia Van Gorder. Last in a long line of New York society royalty, Cornelia has found old age to be a bore, and is hungry for a bit of adventure. She’s going to find it—in a lonely old country house where every shadow could be the Bat.
The Bat is a three-act play first produced in 1920. The play originated as an adaptation of Rinehart's 1908 mystery novel The Circular Staircase.
The Bat was a critical and commercial success. It ran for 867 performances in New York and 327 performances in London; several road companies took the show to other areas. The play was revived twice on Broadway, in 1937 and 1953. It had several adaptations, including this 1926 novelization credited to Rinehart and Hopwood but was in fact ghostwritten by Stephen Vincent Benet. Three film adaptations were produced: The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). The play and its adaptations inspired other comedy-mysteries with similar settings, and influenced the creation of the comic-book superhero Batman.
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A Room Of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
"But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction—what has that got to do with a room of one’s own? I will try to explain. When you asked me to speak about women and fiction I sat down on the banks of a river and began to wonder what the words meant. They might mean simply a few remarks about Fanny Burney; a few more about Jane Austen; a tribute to the Brontë and a sketch of Haworth Parsonage under snow; some witticisms if possible about Miss Mitford; a respectful allusion to George Eliot; a reference to Mrs. Gaskell and one would have done. But at second sight the words seemed not so simple." Collected in this exquisite volume are the essays based upon two papers read to the Arts Society at Newnham and the Odtaa at Girton in October 1928. The papers were too long to be read in full, and have since been altered and expanded.
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The Mystery of the Yellow Room
It is the first novel starring fictional reporter Joseph Rouletabille and concerns a complex, and seemingly impossible, crime in which the criminal appears to disappear from a locked room. Leroux provides the reader with detailed, precise diagrams and floor plans illustrating the crime scene. The emphasis of the story is firmly on the intellectual challenge to the reader, who will almost certainly be hard pressed to unravel every detail of the situation.
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Three Men On The Bummel, Jerome K. Jerome
This is a new, lovely edition of the beloved book by Jerome Klapka Jerome. Jerome was best known as the author of ‘Three Men in a Boat’, one of the great comic masterpieces of the English language, was born in Walsall, Staffordshire, on 2nd May 1859, the youngest of four children. His father, who had interests in the local coal and iron industries and was a prominent non-conformist preacher, had moved to the town in 1855 and installed the family in a fashionable middle class house in Bradford Street where they lived in comparative comfort until 1861. Following the collapse of the family business, the Jeromes moved first to Stourbridge and thence to Poplar in the East End of London where he was brought up in relative poverty.Jerome left school at fourteen and worked variously as a clerk, a hack journalist, an actor (‘I have played every part in Hamlet except Ophelia’) and a schoolmaster. His first book ‘On the Stage and Off’ was published in 1885 and this was followed by numerous plays, books and magazine articles.In 1927, one year after writing his autobiography ‘My life and Times’, he was made a Freeman of the Borough of Walsall. He died later the same year and is buried in Ewelme in Oxfordshire. Though a relaxed, urbane man, Jerome was a relentless explorer of new ideas and experiences. He travelled widely throughout Europe, was a pioneer of skiing in the Alps and visited Russia and America several times. He was a prolific writer whose work has been translated into many foreign languages, but as Jerome himself said: “It is as the author of ‘Three Men in a Boat’ that the public persists in remembering me.” "Three Men On The Bummel" is it's sequel. - from the Jerome K. Jerome Society
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The Uninvited Guests, A Cecil Herbert Woolley Mystery, David Keyes
A magical island in the south of France where an ill-fated birthday party is soon to take place. Read what evil mischief befalls occult consulting detective Cecil Herbert Woolley and his beloved Clemency de la Tour. There will be much cocktail drinking, a sudden storm, a mysterious black ship and an eerie group of uninvited guests.
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Whose Body? Dorothy L. Sayers
Lord Peter Wimsey investigates the sudden appearance of a naked body in the bath of an architect at the same time a noted financier goes missing under strange circumstances. As the case progresses it becomes clear that the two events are linked in some way.
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Bliss, And Other Stories, Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) is one of the most highly regarded short story writers of the 20th century. A contemporary of James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and D H Lawrence, she played her part in shaping modernism by experimenting with style, subject matter and theme in a body of work that re-defined the genre. As well as short stories she also wrote letters, reviews and journals in a prolific career which was cut short by her untimely death at the age of 34.In 1920 her second collection of short stories, Bliss and Other Stories, was published to critical acclaim, followed by ‘The Daughters of the Late Colonel’ later that year. Publication in 1922, of her third collection, The Garden Party and Other Stories, also received high praise.
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The Red House Mystery
The Red House Mystery - A.A. Milne
This is a very scarce detective fiction by A.A. Milne, more famous of course as the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin. It is one of three such works by Milne, being followed by the murder mystery The Fourth Wall (1928) and the detective drama The Perfect Alibi (1928). The book is a Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone, and drew considerable favourable comment by specialist bibliographer & collector Eric Quayle
'And an excellent story it is Anthony Gillingham light-heartedly unravels the mystery, standing at the head of a long, and soon extending queue of humorous sleuths who gave a new and refreshing slant to the business of fictional crime. 'What fun Here's a body ' sums up the style; yet this fantasy, with its brilliant dialogue, finely-drawn scenes from the night-life of the 'twenties and credible characters, hold the reader until the final page is turned.' (The Collector's Book of Detective Fiction, pp.107-108).
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Widdershins
Oliver Onions was a British writer of story collections and over 40 novels. He wrote in a variety of genres, but is perhaps best remembered for his ghost stories, notably the highly-regarded collection "Widdershins" and the widely anthologized novella "The Beckoning Fair One."
Onions wrote several collections of ghost stories, of which the best known is "Widdershins" (1911). It includes the novella "The Beckoning Fair One," widely regarded as one of the best in the genre of horror fiction, especially psychological horror. On the surface, this is a conventional haunted house story: an unsuccessful writer moves into rooms in an otherwise empty house, in the hope that isolation will help his failing creativity. His sensitivity and imagination are enhanced by his seclusion, but his art, his only friend and his sanity are all destroyed in the process. The story can be read as narrating the gradual possession of the protagonist by a mysterious and possessive feminine spirit, or as a realistic description of a psychotic outbreak culminating in catatonia and murder, told from the psychotic subject's point of view. The precise description of the slow disintegration of the protagonist's mind is terrifying in either case.
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