Horror and suspense are not new topics in classic literature. While many are familiar with titles such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and the stories and poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, there is a plethora of older and lesser known... Read more

Horror and suspense are not new topics in classic literature. While many are familiar with titles such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and the stories and poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, there is a plethora of older and lesser known tales of terror.These short stories (and some poems) contain all of the elements that are still popular with modern horror and suspense: vampires, ghosts, killers, and the supernatural. While some of the titles give away what each piece of literature is about topically, some aren't as clear. I feel that not knowing what you are about to read will be more of a surprise. This is not unlike watching a film without reading the synopsis.1. Bram Stoker----A Dream of Red Hands2. S. Baring-Gould---The Red-Haired Girl: A Wife's Story3. Mark Twain----A Ghost Story4. Guy de Maupassant--Ghosts5. M.R. James----A School Story6. Shirley Jackson---The Lottery7. Arthur Conan Doyle---Lot No. 2498. Jan Neruda----The Vampire9. Edgar Allan Poe---The Black Cat10. Algernon Blackwood--The Empty House11. Louisa Baldwin---How He Left the Hotel12. Charles Dickens---The Haunted House13. Rudyard Kipling---At the End of the Passage14. Elizabeth Gaskell---The Old Nurse's Story15. Robert Louis Stevenson--The Body Snatcher16. Jerome K. Jerome---The Man of Science17. Vincent O'Sullivan---When I Was Dead18. William Harrison Ainsworth-The Spectre Bride19. Ambrose Bierce---The Damned Thing20. John William Polidori--The Vampyre: A Tale21. Mary Elizabeth Counselman-Witch-Burning22. E.F. Benson----A Tale of an Empty House23. Dinah Maria Mulock Craik-The Last House in C. Street24. Aleksandr Sergeyevich PushkinThe Queen of Spades25. W.W. Jacobs---The Toll-House26. Amelia B. Edwards--The Phantom Coach27. Samuel Taylor Coleridge-The Rime of the Ancient Mariner28. Joyce Carol Oates---Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly29. Henry James----The Way It Came30. Victoria Glad----Each Man Kills31. Vernon Lee----A Wicked Voice32. Honoré de Balzac---La Grande Breteche33. Robert W. Chambers--The Messenger34. Sir Walter Scott---The Tapestried Chamber35. Théophile Gautier---Clarimonde36. Lord Lytton----The Haunted and the Haunters37. F. Marion Crawford--The Upper Berth38. Sheridan Le Fanu---The Murdered Cousin39. John Kendrick Bangs--The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall40. Mary Eleanor Wilkins FreemanThe Lost Ghost41. Gertrude Atherton---The Bell in the Fog42. Guy de Maupassant--The Horla43. William F. Harvey---The Beast with Five Fingers44. Nathaniel Hawthorne--Young Goodman Brown45. George MacDonald--Uncle Cornelius: His Story46. M.E. Braddon---The Cold Embrace47. H.P. Lovecraft---Dagon48. Edith Wharton---Afterward49. Peter de Niverville---The Petting Zoo50. Steve Dustcircle---Girl Bastard Less