Very Strange Stories: Fifty Astoundingly Queer Tales

Written by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and W. F. Harvey

Narrated by Cathy Dobson

There are certain stories which stand out from the crowd owing to the unique creativity of the plot and the skill with which the author unfolds his tale. This selection contains 50 of the most ingenious short stories ever written.

'The Lighthouse on Shivering Sand' by J. S. Fletcher
'The Umbrella' by Arnold Bennett
'The Lovely Lady' by D. H. Lawrence
'The Lake' by W. F. Harvey
'A Tiger’s Skin' by W. W. Jacobs
'The Strange Case of Mr. Todmorden' by F. Britten Austin
'The Ghost Ship' by Richard Middleton
'The Victim' by Perceval Gibbon
'The Vampire' by Jan Neruda
'The Cost of Kindness' by Jerome K. Jerome
'Three Pennyworth of Luck' by Basil Murray
'A Considerable Murder' by Barry Pain
'Squirrel in a Cage' by E. M. Delafield
'The Cremona Violin' by E. T. A. Hoffmann
'The Anticipator' by Morley Roberts
'The Dust That Was Barren' by P. C. Wren
'The Stranger' by Ambrose Bierce
'The Deserter' by Stacy Aumonier
'The Silver Mask' by Hugh Walpole
'The Man Who Hated Aspidistras' by W. F. Harvey
'The Right Hand of Doom' by Robert E. Howard
'Cool Air' by H. P. Lovecraft
'The Magnet' by Barry Pain
'The Last Leaf' by O. Henry
'The Ruby Glass' by Hugh Walpole
'The Cats of Ulthar' by H. P. Lovecraft
'Unwinding' by W. F. Harvey
'At the Farmhouse' by E. F. Benson
'The Eyes' by Edith Wharton
'The Hair' by A. J. Alan

Plus 20 more riveting tales.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Door Consulting
• Release date: Sep 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781509495009

H.P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an American author of science fiction and horror stories. Born in Providence, Rhode Island to a wealthy family, he suffered the loss of his father at a young age. Raised with his mother’s family, he was doted upon throughout his youth and found a paternal figure in his grandfather Whipple, who encouraged his literary interests. He began writing stories and poems inspired by the classics and by Whipple’s spirited retellings of Gothic tales of terror. In 1902, he began publishing a periodical on astronomy, a source of intellectual fascination for the young Lovecraft. Over the next several years, he would suffer from a series of illnesses that made it nearly impossible to attend school. Exacerbated by the decline of his family’s financial stability, this decade would prove formative to Lovecraft’s worldview and writing style, both of which depict humanity as cosmologically insignificant. Supported by his mother Susie in his attempts to study organic chemistry, Lovecraft eventually devoted himself to writing poems and stories for such pulp and weird-fiction magazines as Argosy, where he gained a cult following of readers. Early stories of note include “The Alchemist” (1916), “The Tomb” (1917), and “Beyond the Wall of Sleep” (1919). “The Call of Cthulu,” originally published in pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928, is considered by many scholars and fellow writers to be his finest, most complex work of fiction. Inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and Lord Dunsany, Lovecraft became one of the century’s leading horror writers whose influence remains essential to the genre.