By turns bizarre, unsettling, spooky, and sublime, Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories showcases nine incomparable stories from master conjuror Algernon Blackwood. Evoking the uncanny spiritual forces of Nature, Blackwood's writings all tread the nebulous borderland between fantasy, awe, wonder, and horror. Here Blackwood displays his best and most disturbing work-including "The Willows," which Lovecraft singled out as "the single finest weird tale in literature"; "The Wendigo"; "The Insanity of Jones"; and "Sand." For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

These are stories steeped in the majesty and mystery of nature. You don't read them - you fall into them, as into a dream. Lulled into a false sense of security, you discover you are no longer within comfortable boundaries. Your eyes have been opened to a larger world. You are about to embark on an incredible adventure...

This gripping tale of mystery and horror takes place on a remote Canadian island that the isolated narrator soon discovers to be alive with terror and ghostly apparitions. A solitary scholar is left on a small island in a large Canadian lake to study on what should have been a peaceful and productive retreat. Yet, as night falls and the scholar realises the weight of his isolation, the secluded island begins to echo eerie voices and footsteps. He soon becomes convinced malevolent spirits are haunting him and must try to retain his sanity as well as his life. With its vivid descriptions and chilling atmosphere, A Haunted Island is a masterful work of gothic horror, sure to leave you chilled to the bone.

Set on the snaking, sinuous Danube River, Algernon Blackwood's tale "The Willows" represents a high point in the development of the horror genre. Indeed, acknowledged master H.P. Lovecraft regarded it as the best supernatural tale ever written. More awe-inspiring and thought-provoking than gory or terrifying, "The Willows" is a must-read for fans of classic ghost stories.

The only annotated edition of M. R. James’s writings currently available Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories contains the entire first two volumes of James’s ghost stories, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. These volumes are both the culmination of the nineteenth-century ghost story tradition and the inspiration for much of the best twentieth-century work in this genre. Included in this collection are such landmark tales as “Count Magnus,” set in the wilds of Sweden; “Number 13,” a distinctive tale about a haunted hotel room; “Casting the Runes,” a richly complex tale of sorcery that served as the basis for the classic horror film Curse of the Demon; and “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,” one of the most frightening tales in literature. The appendix includes several rare texts, including “A Night in King’s College Chapel,” James’s first known ghost story. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The writer of this book was well-known for his tales of the supernatural and horror. The book begins with a series of diary entries, describing the author's search for accommodation in London. We learn that he is of limited means and sells the occasional piece for a magazine. The rooms are described as ramshackle and dusty. He is the only occupant in the whole house and previous tenants have gone. Without saying so, there is a sense of unease even in the opening pages.