Haunted Library of Horror Classics

Poisoned Pen Press and The Horror Writers Association (HWA), present the Haunted Library of Horror Classics, a line of reissued classic horror literature books from over the past 250 years. These books are recognized as literary masterpieces of their era and are either remembered today only through distorted theatrical or movie versions, have been relegated to academic study, or have otherwise been nearly forgotten entirely.

Series editors Eric J. Guignard and Leslie S. Klinger now bring back these seminal titles of the genre, making them easily available to modern readers!

Read an interview on Book Reporter with the editors discussing this series HERE!

Available Now

Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkins

An uncanny tale of identity, race, and spirituality.

When medical student Reuel Briggs reluctantly attends a performance by the beautiful singer Dianthe Lusk, he can’t help but fall for her. The very next day, their paths cross again when Dianthe’s train crashes. To bring her back from the brink of death, Reuel draws on an eerie power he can’t quite name. Soon, the two are engaged, and Reuel sets off on an archeological expedition to Africa to offset his debts before the wedding. But, in Ethiopia, unexpected danger and terror force him to confront the truth about his lineage, his power, and the history that lives in his very blood.

First serialized in Colored American Magazine in 1902, this edition is includes an introduction by award-winning author Nisi Shawl, biographical information about the author, notes, discussion questions for classroom use, and suggested further reading.

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The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Deep beneath the Paris Opera House, a masked man lives in silence…

Every night at the Palais Garnier, hundreds of guests wait for opera star La Carlotta to take the stage. But when her voice fails her, La Carlotta is replaced with unknown understudy Christine Daaé, a young soprano whose vibrant singing fills the opera house and wins her numerous admirers, including an old childhood friend who soon professes his love. But unknown to Christine is another man, who lurks out of sight, who can move about the building undetected, who will do anything to make sure Christine will keep singing just for him…

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The Beetle by Richard Marsh

A creature that seems to have crawled out of our worst nightmares…

Robert Holt is an out-of-work clerk seeking shelter in an abandoned house. He comes face-to-face with a fantastical creature with supernatural and hypnotic powers, a creature who can transform at will between its human and beetle forms and who wrecks havoc when he preys on young middle-class Britons. Discover the creature that is “Born of neither god nor man,” in this Gothic horror tale of revenge that takes the reader on a dark journey, one that explores the crisis of late imperial England through a fantastical and horrific lens.

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Vathek by William Beckford

When you have all you could ever want, what's left to wish for?

Vathek, the fierce ninth caliph of the Abassides, has the world at his feet. Nothing is beyond his grasp, until a hideous stranger sells him glowing swords with letters on them that cannot be translated even by experts―because the letters keep changing as if by magic!
Obsessed with obtaining the stranger's knowledge, Vathek undertakes an increasingly horrific search as he ventures into the underworld, meeting demons and witches. Will anything be enough to turn him from his foolish and terrifying quest? Or will the lust for power prove too strong to resist?

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The House on the Borderland
by William Hope Hodgson

In a ruined house at the edge of an abyss lies the diary of a madman…

Two friends on a fishing trip make an unsettling discovery while on holiday near the remote Irish village of Kraighten. While walking along the riverbank, they’re astonished to see that the river abruptly ends and reappears some 100 feet below the edge of an abyss. If that wasn’t unnerving enough, the river runs along the remains of an oddly shaped house, half-swallowed by the pit.

Within the ruins, they discover the moldering journal of an unidentified man―the Recluse―who had lived in the house years ago. Its pages reveal the man's apparent descent into madness―why else would he chronicle haunted visions, trips to other dimensions, and attacks by swine-like creatures that have followed him home? After a horrific vision in which he witnesses the end of the earth and time itself, the Recluse awakens in his study to find nothing has changed―except that his dog has dissolved into a pile of dust. And then the "swine things" return...

COMING SOON FROM THE HAUNTED LIBRARY OF HORROR CLASSICS

On Sale May 4, 2021

The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Nine spine-tingling stories from the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Mournful cries in an ice-bound sea, a potion that allows the user to commune with ghosts, an Egyptian priest who cannot die, and a mesmerist of unrivaled power. Brace yourself for these and other chilling encounters in The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror. Even before he created Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle terrified and delighted readers with tales of suspense, haunted by mysterious forces that defy rational explanation. These stories capture the unique draw of the uncanny and the curiosity that compels us all to ask, “Could it be true?”

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