The Yellow Wallpaper

A young governess takes charge of two children in an isolated country house and begins to see figures that may or may not be there. James leaves every reading of the story in the reader's hands, including the worst one.

Henry James

A confession from a narrator who insists, again and again, that he is sane. Poe compresses guilt, paranoia and the failure of self-knowledge into a few unforgettable pages.

Edgar Allan Poe

A man tells how a household pet came to mark him for ruin, and how he kept choosing the worse path each time it was offered. Poe at his most pitiless about cruelty rationalised.

Edgar Allan Poe

A friend visits the last heirs of a dying line, in a house that seems to share their illness. Poe binds setting, family and disease so tightly that none can fall without bringing the others down.

Edgar Allan Poe

Three fragmented accounts converge on the figure of a sleeping god whose return would erase reason itself. Lovecraft's most influential single story, and a complete map of his cosmic dread.

H. P. Lovecraft