John Bartine’s Watch
Ambrose BierceA physician tests a friend’s fear of an inherited watch and sees how serious it is.
10 min · Foreboding
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- Settings
- The home
- Style
- Ornate
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
The story shelf
Follow your curiosity.
A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
Recurring elements in the story’s premise.
Eleonora
Edgar Allan PoeAfter promising his dying cousin that he will never love again, a grieving man leaves their hidden valley and faces a second love.
11 min · Romantic
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- Settings
- Wilderness · The city
- Tone
- Sentimental
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
Metzengerstein
Edgar Allan PoeA cruel young baron takes possession of a violent horse that may carry the spirit of his family's dead enemy.
15 min · Foreboding
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- Themes
- Revenge · Obsession · Fate & chance
- Settings
- Country houses & estates
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
Morella
Edgar Allan PoeA widower watches his daughter grow into an exact copy of the wife whose death he once desired.
10 min · Foreboding
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- Themes
- Identity · Death · Parenthood
- Settings
- Country houses & estates
- Tone
- Earnest
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
Silence
Edgar Allan PoeA demon describes a solitary man who endures a violent, unnatural landscape until the world around him becomes completely still.
6 min · Dreamlike
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- Themes
- Isolation · Nature & wilderness
- Settings
- Wilderness
- Tone
- Earnest
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story · Allegorical
A Widow
Guy de MaupassantAn old woman explains why a ring of a child’s blond hair has made her consider herself a widow all her life.
9 min · Tragic
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- Themes
- Unrequited love · Guilt · Grief
- Settings
- Country houses & estates
- Tone
- Sentimental
- Style
- Descriptive · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
Father Judas
Guy de MaupassantAt a desolate tarn, a boatman shows a traveler the blood-red cross marking where the Wandering Jew supposedly died.
5 min · Eerie
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- Themes
- Superstition · Faith & doubt · Race & prejudice
- Settings
- Wilderness · Villages & small towns
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
Pollock and the Porroh Man
H. G. WellsAfter crossing a feared secret society, an arrogant colonial traveler finds that revenge follows him from Sierra Leone to London.
28 min · Chilling
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- Themes
- Guilt · Revenge · Empire & colonialism
- Settings
- The tropics & colonies · The city
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Descriptive · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Alchemist
H. P. LovecraftA solitary count faces a family curse as his thirty-second birthday nears and hidden rooms in his ruined château reveal an old revenge.
17 min · Foreboding
More details
- Settings
- Country houses & estates
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Occasion
- Birthdays
- Written for
- For adults
The Hound
H. P. LovecraftTwo bored collectors steal an amulet from a centuries-old grave, then hear a hound closing in across the night.
14 min · Chilling
More details
- Settings
- Country houses & estates
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
The Moon-Bog
H. P. LovecraftAn Irish landowner plans to drain a bog that local villagers refuse to disturb, then replaces every worker who leaves.
16 min · Foreboding
More details
- Themes
- Nature & wilderness · Science & progress · Pride
- Settings
- Country houses & estates · Wilderness
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Rats in the Walls
H. P. LovecraftAn American heir restores his family’s ruined English priory, where only he and his cats can hear rats moving inside the walls.
36 min · Foreboding
More details
- Settings
- Country houses & estates
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
12 stories