THEY CONFRONTED EACH OTHER ACROSS A TEA TABLE in a cottage garden. Helen was leaning back coldly studying Jim’s face. It was an oddly childish, almost foetal face, with its big brow, snub nose, and pouting lips. Childish, yes; but in the round dark eyes there was a gleam of madness. She had to admit […]
Category: Fantasy
William Morris – The Wood Beyond the World
Awhile ago there was a young man dwelling in a great and goodly city by the sea which had to name Langton on Holm. He was but of five and twenty winters, a fair-faced man, yellow-haired, tall and strong; rather wiser than foolisher than young men are mostly wont; a valiant youth, and a kind; […]
William Morris – The Well at the Worlds End
Long ago there was a little land, over which ruled a regulus or kinglet, who was called King Peter, though his kingdom was but little. He had four sons whose names were Blaise, Hugh, Gregory and Ralph: of these Ralph was the youngest, whereas he was but of twenty winters and one; and Blaise was […]
William Morris – The Sundering Flood
It is told that there was once a mighty river which ran south into the sea, and at the mouth thereof was a great and rich city, which had been builded and had waxed and thriven because of the great and most excellent haven which the river aforesaid made where it fell into the sea. […]
William Le Queux – The Great White Queen
It is a curious story, full of exciting adventures, extraordinary discoveries, and mysteries amazing. Strange, too, that I, Richard Scarsmere, who, when at school hated geography as bitterly as I did algebraic problems, should even now, while just out of my teens, be thus enabled to write down this record of a perilous journey through […]
William Hope Hodgson – The Night Land
“And I cannot touch her face And I cannot touch her hair, And I kneel to empty shadows— Just memories of her grace; And her voice sings in the winds And in the sobs of dawn And among the flowers at night And from the brooks at sunrise And from the sea at sunset, And […]
William Bowen – The Old Tobacco Shop
When the Little Boy first went to the Old Tobacco Shop, he stood a long while before going in, to look at the wooden figure which stood beside the door. His father was sitting at home in his carpet-slippers, waiting for tobacco for his pipe, but when the Little Boy saw the wooden figure he […]
William Beckford – The History of Caliph Vathek
Vathek, ninth Caliph of the race of the Abassides, was the son of Motassem, and the grandson of Haroun Al Raschid. From an early accession to the throne, and the talents he possessed to adorn it, his subjects were induced to expect that his reign would be long and happy. His figure was pleasing and […]
Wardon Allan Curtis – The Strange Adventures of Mr. Middleton
It was a lowering and gloomy night in the early part of the present century. Mr. Edward Middleton, a gallant youth, who had but lately passed his twenty-third year, was faring northward along the southern part of that famous avenue of commerce, Clark Street, in the city of Chicago, wending his way toward the emporium […]
Thomas M. Clark – John Whopper, The Newsboy
Two years ago last February, I think it was on a Tuesday morning, I started as usual very early to distribute my papers. I had a large bundle to dispose of that day, and thought that if I took a short cut across the fields, instead of following the road from Roxbury to Jamaica Plain, […]
Thomas Anstey Guthrie – The Brass Bottle
“This day six weeks—just six weeks ago!” Horace Ventimore said, half aloud, to himself, and pulled out his watch. “Half-past twelve—what was I doing at half-past twelve?” As he sat at the window of his office in Great Cloister Street, Westminster, he made his thoughts travel back to a certain glorious morning in August which […]
Sax Rohmer – The Green Eyes of Bast
“Good evening, sir. A bit gusty?” “Very much so, sergeant,” I replied. “I think I will step into your hut for a moment and light my pipe if I may.” “Certainly, sir. Matches are too scarce nowadays to take risks with ’em. But it looks as if the storm had blown over.” “I’m not sorry,” […]
Sax Rohmer – Brood of the Witch-Queen
Robert Cairn looked out across the quadrangle. The moon had just arisen, and it softened the beauty of the old college buildings, mellowed the harshness of time, casting shadow pools beneath the cloisteresque arches to the west and setting out the ivy in stronger relief upon the ancient walls. The barred shadow on the lichened […]
Samuel Johnson – Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow, attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. Rasselas was the fourth […]
Ruth Plumly Thompson – The Royal Book of Oz
“The very thing!” exclaimed Professor Wogglebug, bounding into the air and upsetting his gold inkwell. “The very next idea!” “Who, me?” A round-faced little Munchkin boy stuck his head in the door and regarded Professor Wogglebug solemnly. He was working his way through the Professor’s Athletic college, and one of his duties was to wait […]
Rudyard Kipling – The Second Jungle Book
The stream is shrunk—the pool is dry, And we be comrades, thou and I; With fevered jowl and dusty flank Each jostling each along the bank; And by one drouthy fear made still, Forgoing thought of quest or kill. Now ‘neath his dam the fawn may see, The lean Pack-wolf as cowed as he, And […]
Robert William Chambers – The Slayer of Souls
Only when the Nan-yang Maru sailed from Yuen-San did her terrible sense of foreboding begin to subside. For four years, waking and sleeping, the awful subconsciousness of supreme evil had never left her. But now, as the Korean shore, receding into darkness, grew dimmer and dimmer, fear subsided and grew vague as the half-forgotten memory […]
Robert William Chambers – Police
Although the man’s back was turned toward me, I was uncomfortably conscious that he was watching me. How he could possibly be watching me while I stood directly behind him, I did not ask myself; yet, nevertheless, instinct warned me that I was being inspected; that somehow or other the man was staring at me […]
Robert William Chambers – In Search of the Unknown
Because it all seems so improbable—so horribly impossible to me now, sitting here safe and sane in my own library—I hesitate to record an episode which already appears to me less horrible than grotesque. Yet, unless this story is written now, I know I shall never have the courage to tell the truth about the […]
Robert J. Evans – The Forest Monster of Oz
In all the world, there is no country or township known that can ever compare against the beauty and magnitude of the Marvelous Land of Oz. This is not a debatable issue. The Land of Oz is not only beautiful with the glittering gemstones that are found commonplace in this remarkable fairyland, but its enchantment […]
You – Caroline Kepnes
Fifty-Fifty – Steve Cavanagh
We Hunt the Flame – Hafsah Faizal
One of Us is Next – Karen M. McManus
Only Ashes Remain – Rebecca Schaeffer
The Rise of Kyoshi – F.C. Yee
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – Holly Jackson
A Tale of Magic… – Chris Colfer
Hero at the Fall – Alwyn Hamilton
Ember Queen – Laura Sebastian
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow – Natasha Pulley
Maurice Leblanc – The Confessions of Arsene Lupin
Lethal Agent – Kyle Mills, Vince Flynn
The Chain – Adrian McKinty
Lock Every Door – Riley Sager
Cliff’s Edge – Meg Tilly
Walk the Wire – David Baldacci
A Promise of Fire – Amanda Bouchet
The Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan