Bram Stoker

When a young couple moves into their new home, they are taken aback by the strange behavior of their new landlord. While at first he bid them to do all of the fixing-up the home needed on their own, he quickly changed his tune and was persistent in his attempts to help them tackle some of the rooms himself. The source of his desire to help lies in the fact that the old tenant may ...

The Seer, a short story, is actually the first two chapters of Stoker's seventh novel, The Mystery of the Sea. The tale is set in Cruden Bay, a locale Stoker used in other works as well. The narrator encounters a strange woman during his stay at the Kilmarnock Arms, a small hotel that was actually located in the town of Cruden Bay and that Stoker himself frequented. The strange woman educates the narrator about the ...

Snowbound: A company of traveling actors gets snowbound during a storm while venturing to their next locale. In order to pass the time, the actors share stories with each other. The Manager begins with one about the time he spent in an unsavory saloon before his time with the company. Next the Leading Lady shares a story about a certain play she worked on. The Wardrobe Mistress, a matronly woman not known among the company ...

A young man who was exiled from his love for one year due to the wishes of her parents, finds himself in Paris. With not much else to do to pass his time, having seen most of the city and its suburbs, he begins exploring further away from Paris itself. His wanderings lead him to a strange, dusty village and into the dangerous house of an even stranger couple. At first he is thoroughly entertained ...

An old poet finds himself separated by many miles from his dying wife and is reflecting over their life together in his sadness and misery. Theirs was a story of two people from different stations of life - he, poor and she, rich. He worked hard to make a name for himself and, having done so, he returns to her to find out that she had loved him all these years and was waiting for ...

The crystal cup reveals the struggle a young artist faces when he is taken from his family and forced to work for the king. He is promised freedom in return for his hard work to make the perfect crystal vase. The story takes a tragic twist when he dies immediately following his completion of the vase. The king jeopardizes his reign after displaying the artist's remains alongside the vase during a feast at the castle.

The Dualitists recounts the tale of the Bubb family, childless for very long but finally blessed with twins. Two friends lived in the houses surrounding the Bubbs, Harry and Tommy, but they were forbidden to see each other because of the trouble they caused. Harry and Tommy began to secretly meet in the Bubb's garden, bringing with them their knives and items to destroy with the knives. Soon, items are not enough for the boys ...

The 'Eroes of Thames tells the story of a famous swimmer, Peter Jimpson and his son, also named Peter, trying to maintain their fame in the big city of London. The father designed a skit in which his son would fake drowning in the Thames, and a random passerby (actually Peter himself) would dramatically rescue the boy. His plan is thwarted when a pair of grifters catch onto Peter's scheme and prevent him from following ...

The Gombeen Man is an evil moneylender who several peasants owe money to. When the peasants find themselves unable to repay the wicked man on time, he is quick with his desire to take their land from them, refusing to take the payment from them in the future if they should be able to come up with it. The poor peasants are then forced to come up with a plan to keep their land from ...

Young Zaya was very sad and lonely when her mother died, but she eventually found solace in the company of birds, who proved to be her only friends. When Zaya sees the form of the Giant-Plague, she immediately tries to warn her the people in her city about what is coming, but almost everyone disregards her as crazy. The only who doesn't is a kind old man, Knoal, who believes Zaya and joins her cause ...