THE STORY: “Mrs. Amworth”
E.F. Benson’s “Mrs. Amworth” is cozy horror at its finest. Set in a charming English village, this cheeky domestic vampire tale plots a pair of stuffy retirees against an undead widow. Interesting astral body bloodsucker concept, and the ending is bloody good!
THE STORY: “Pickman’s Model”
H.P. Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model” turns dark arts into shock art in this story that inverts ideas found in Poe’s “The Oval Portrait” and Wilde’s DORIAN GRAY. An outcast painter creates monsters in his gallery that are all-too-real.
THE STORY: “Count Cagliostro”
Alexei Tolstoy’s “Count Cagliostro” masterfully strikes every note as decadent Gothic, class satire, and romantic pastiche. A bad wizard uses elemental forces and physical mediumship to draw a life-sized simulacrum from an oil portrait. So funny!
THE STORY: “Tarnhelm”
In Hugh Walpole’s queer chimera tale “Tarnhelm,” a young nerd visits his uncles in Faildyke Hall where a malicious monster dog creeps. With his boy-crush, the narrator must bear witness to a yellow-fanged caraway-scented beast. Charmed storytelling from Valancourt!