Occult or psychic detective tales have been chilling readers for almost as long as there have been ghost stories. This beguiling subgenre follows specialists in occult lore - often with years of arcane training - investigating strange supernatural occurrences and pitting their wits against the bizarre and inexplicable. With tales featuring the most prominent psychic detectives such as William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki, the Ghost Finder and Algernon Blackwood's Dr. Silence, this new collection also includes rare and never-before-reprinted cases investigated by the likes of Flaxman Low, Cosmo Thor, Aylmer Vance and Mesmer Milann.

The fact that humanity is not alone in the universe has long preoccupied our thoughts. In this compelling new collection of short stories from SF's classic age our visions of `other' are shown in a myriad of forms - beings from other worlds, corrupted lifeforms from our own planet and entities from unimaginable dimensions. Amongst these tales, the humble ant becomes humanity's greatest foe, a sailor awakes in a hellish landscape terrified by a monstrous creature from the deep, an extra-terrestrial apocalypse devastates our world but also brings us together, and our race becomes the unwitting agent of another species' survival. Be prepared to face your greatest fears and relinquish your hold on reality as you confront the menace of the monster.

Sound the sirens! The end is here, and it comes in many forms in this new collection of apocalyptic short stories from the classic age of science fiction. Join humanity on the brink of destruction in 13 doom-laden visions from the 1890s to the 1960s, featuring rare tales from the Library's vaults. Tales of plague seizing an over-polluted capital, a world engulfed in absolute darkness by some cosmic disaster, and of poignant dreams of a silent planet after the last echoes of humanity have died away. Extreme climate change, nuclear annihilation, comet strike; calamities self-inflicted and from beyond the steer of humankind vie to deal the last blow in this countdown from the first whisper of possible extinction to the Earth's final sunrise.

At that moment, in a flash that came like a shifting of her eyes, the world she looked at suffered a change... It was the same world, flat field for flat field and hill for hill; but radiant, vibrant, and, as it were, infinitely transparent. Tales of eternal damnation, love, sexuality, death and supernatural talents form the core of May Sinclair’s essential and groundbreaking oeuvre. Literary and still thrilling today, her stories explore the strangeness at the heart of human experience and relationships, where the mundane and the everyday meets lurking, otherworldly weirdness. Including the contents of the classic collections Uncanny Stories (1923) and The Intercessor and Other Stories (1931), this new volume also features two rare strange tales from a third, lesser-known book which explore further facets of Sinclair’s fascination with the uncanny.

Motionless now and in absolute silence, she awaited her doom, the moments growing to hours, to years, to ages; and still those devilish eyes maintained their watch. Ambrose Bierce was one of America’s leading writers of the nineteenth century, seen by contemporaries as a successor to Edgar Allan Poe with an authentic grasp of horror based on his experiences fighting for the Union in the American Civil War. Despite his contributions to the genre of supernatural and weird tales, today his name remains unknown to many readers. This new collection presents over thirty of Bierce’s most terrifying and unusual stories, from essential classics such as ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ and ‘The Eyes of the Panther’ to the writer’s lesser-known series recounting macabre local legends of haunted houses, mysterious disappearances and chilling encounters with the dead.

When London journalist Philip Wade learns that his article on nuclear weapons testing has been censored by the British government, he is prompted to investigate the truth that lies behind it. Philip's search leads to a mysterious job offer in a newly-formed government department, and he soon realises the lasting damage that the nuclear tests have caused. The country is rife with uncertainty and distrust - then the water levels start to drop. This gripping apocalyptic novel, originally published in 1958, asks pertinent questions about censorship and the potential for violence in the face of disappearing resources. The Tide Went Out outlines the horrors that arise when we are forced to ask the question: `what happens when the water runs out?'

"Detective Patrolman McClane watched the two-man space station spin into view, a shining disc against the black backdrop... Waiting for the airlock to fill, he though bitterly of his situation—promotion due and he had to get a job like this..." Telepaths, time machines and alien encounters collide with the crime and mystery genre in this new collection exploring the space where detective stories and science fiction meet. To reflect the broad spectrum of this crossover genre Mike Ashley has selected ten of its most ingenious mysteries spanning the decades from 1912 to 1972. These are stories of AI acting against programming, locked-room murders in the confines of spacecraft and cases pitching the police against psychic perpetrators, penned by some of the greatest writers of crime and science fiction including P. D. James, Anthony Boucher, Isaac Asimov and Miriam Allen deFord.

The Supernatural Index is the first index to all known anthologies of supernatural, fantasy, and weird fiction. It covers over 2,100 such books, indexing each volume by contents, author, and title. Books range from 1813 to date and therefore provide a complete history of the horror fiction field. Birth and death dates, along with pseudonyms, are provided for more than 7,700 authors; and for all the rougly 21,300 stories, every attempt has been made to provide original publication details. Supernatural fiction continues to be of interest to modern readers, though many of the most frequently anthologized ghost stories were written during the Victorian era. Because so much supernatural fiction has been published as short stories, anthologies have long been a useful means of bringing supernatural literature to the readers. This reference is the first index to all known anthologies of supernatural, fantasy, and weird fiction. Included are entries for more than 2,100 anthologies from 1813 to the present. Many of these anthologies have never been listed previously in bibliographies, and the volume even includes citations for rare Victorian works. Entries provide original publication sources for reprinted stories, including many from obscure magazines not previously indexed. The book also provides birth and death dates and pseudonyms for more than 7,700 authors of supernatural fiction. Citations may be accessed by editor, author, book title, or story title. Also included is a listing of the contents of each anthology.

Writing in France in the nineteenth century, Jules Verne was fascinated by adventure and exploration. Collecting "Five Weeks in a Balloon", "Around the World in Eighty Days", "A Journey to the Center of the Earth", "From the Earth to the Moon", "Round the Moon", "Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "The Mysterious Island", this omnibus offers a unique compilation of seven of Verne's Voyages, stories in which he extrapolated developing technology and invention into marvellous fiction. This volume offers readers a generous introduction to Jules Verne, whose books are as alive today as they were for readers new to the ideas expressed in them during his time. This edition of the text is exquisitely bound in bonded-leather, with distinctive gilt edging and an attractive silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectable, these books offer hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensable cornerstone for any home library.

"This will be the basic tool for researchers studying the 100-year history of science fiction, fantasy, and weird fiction magazines." Reference Books Bulletin

'There was not a soul to be seen, up or down; and the trees stood like ghosts, and the silence was terrible, and everything clear as day. You don’t know what silence is until you find it in the light like that...' Margaret Oliphant’s superbly strange tales have been long overdue their rediscovery as classics of the Victorian ghost story genre. From suspenseful hauntings to weird experiences of the afterlife and encounters with sympathetic ghosts, Oliphant tells her tales with well-wrought imagery and a nuanced voice to deliver a thoroughly unnerving and unforgettable reading experience. This newly edited volume collects six of her greatest ‘Seen and Unseen’ stories – Oliphant’s most popular series in her day – and includes a new introduction exploring the life of this pioneering novelist.

'Back from the shouting floor and ceiling came the chorus of images that stormed and clamoured for expression. Jones lay still and listened; he let them come. There was nothing else to do.' Algernon Blackwood was one of the most influential writers of twentieth-century weird and supernatural fiction. He once told a correspondent that every story he wrote was based on either a personal experience or that of someone he knew, and thus the vast collection of short stories and novels published in his lifetime can be seen to form a kind of autobiography. In this collection of his most atmospheric and uneasy tales, Mike Ashley provides the facts of Blackwood's life which inspired each story - including experiences as an intelligence agent in the First World War and adventures in New York - to tell the parallel tale of the author's lifetime of the supernatural.

With stories from modern writers, and the founding fathers of horror fiction, weird or cosmic horror combines the dark brooding shadows of the night with the presence of elder gods at the edges of our world. Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft and Ramsey Campbell sit alongside new tales by new writers from open submissions. The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Pre- and post-apocalyptic science fiction is on the rise, and some of the genre's best new stories are collected here, with contributions by Stephen Baxter, Alistair Reynolds, Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, and Damien Broderick.

It is too often accepted that during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was the male writers who developed and pushed the boundaries of the weird tale, with women writers following in their wake - but this is far from the truth. This new anthology follows the instrumental contributions made by women writers to the weird tale, and revives the lost authors of the early pulp magazines along with the often overlooked work of more familiar authors. See the darker side of The Secret Garden author Frances Hodgson Burnett and the sensitively-drawn nightmares of Marie Corelli and Violet Quirk. Hear the captivating voices of Weird Tales magazine contributors Sophie Wenzel Ellis, Greye La Spina and Margaret St Clair, and bow down to the sensational, surreal and challenging writers who broke down the barriers of the day. Featuring material never before republished, from the abyssal depths of the British Library vaults.

A vicious plague has broken out in China and spread to Japan. The world governments look on callously, until the shadow of the Hueste virus begins to sweep across the rest of the globe. The pandemic draws nearer to Britain; shelters are hastily constructed across the country, but for whom? As the death toll booms and the populace finds themselves sacrificed for the sake of the elite, the cry for revolution rings out amidst the sirens. Maine's savage portrayal of society on the brink of ruin is a cruel forerunner of a more pessimistic science fiction of the 1960s. This subversive novel shows that even the heroes may succumb to brutality as the world descends into a desperate scramble for the last shred of what it means to be human: survival.

Since space flight was achieved, and long before, science fiction writers have imagined a myriad of stories set in the depths of the great darkness beyond our atmosphere. From generation ships – which are in space so long that there will be new generations aboard who have never experienced planetary life – to orbiting satellites in the unforgiving reaches of the vacuum, there is a vast range of these insular environments in which innovative and emotionally complex stories may unfold. With the British Library’s matchless collection of periodicals and magazines at his fingertips, Mike Ashley presents a stellar selection of tales from the infinite void above us, including contributions from Judith Merril, Jack Vance and John Brunner.

From atop the choppy waves to the choking darkness of the abyss, the seas are full of mystery and rife with tales of inexplicable events and encounters with the unknown. In this anthology we see a thrilling spread of narratives; sailors are pitched against a nightmare from the depths, invisible to the naked eye; a German U-boat commander is tormented by an impossible transmission via Morse Code; a ship ensnares itself in the kelp of the Sargasso Sea and dooms a crew of mutineers, seemingly out of revenge for her lost captain... The supernatural is set alongside the grim affairs of sailors scorned in these salt-soaked tales, recovered from obscurity for the 21st century.

"This work will be useful for researchers at any level and is essential to libraries supporting popular culture studies. It belongs in any large reference collection." Choice

The disquieting tales of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman explore a world of contrast, where the supernatural erupts out of authentically drawn portraits of New England life. This is a world of witchcraft, secrecy, domestic spaces turned uncanny and ancestral vengeances inflicted upon the unfortunates of the present. Collecting the best of the author's strange tales - including 'The White Shawl', which was unpublished during her lifetime - this volume casts a light on an underappreciated contributor to weird fiction and the shadowy corners of a dark imagination.

Don Miguel Navarro lives in Britain - a Britain which failed to repel the Spanish Armada invasion. He is part of the Society of Time, an organisation which polices the improper use of time travel, and which is galvanised into action when an ancient relic from a parallel time's South America is spotted on the black market. In three fascinating and ground-breaking novellas, John Brunner weaves an ingenious tale of a divergent and compelling timeline, and poses complex questions of how we perceive the fourth dimension and its relation to our own identity. When collected previously the three original Society of Time stories were abridged. Here, 'The Spoils of Yesterday', 'The Word Not Written' and 'The Fullness of Time' are reprinted in full, along with the two mesmerising Brunner novellas 'The Analysts' and 'Father of Lies'.

This reference represents the most complete and detailed examination of Blackwood to date. Preceding the bibliography is a foreword by Ramsey Campbell, an introduction, a user's guide, and a short but detailed biography revealing much new material about Blackwood's life, and a chronology of dates. The bibliography is divided into four parts: works by Blackwood, adaptations of his work by others, works about Blackwood, and source indices. The listing of Blackwood's works begins with books, and then goes on to short and serial fiction, nonfiction (essays and sketches, and book reviews), poetry and songs, plays and dramas, radio manuscripts, and untraced items.

During her lifetime Violet Paget, who wrote as Vernon Lee, was referred to as 'the greatest of modern exponents of the supernatural in fiction', and yet today she remains on the periphery of the genre. This collection of her uniquely weird short stories and dark fantasies proves why she was once considered among the best of the genre, and why she deserves to return to those ranks today. From modernised folk tales such as 'Marsyas in Flanders' and 'The Legend of Madame Krasinska' to ingenious psychological hauntings such as the titular 'A Phantom Lover' and 'A Wicked Voice', Lee's own voice is just as distinctive and captivating - her weird imaginings just as freshly unsettling - as in her fin-de-siecle heyday.

A Retrospective Collection of Classic Occult and Supernatural Detective Stories by Some of the Field's Greatest and Best-Known Weird Fiction Authors Since the gaslit nights at the end of the nineteenth century, the occult detective has been a beloved and recurring archetype. Mixing the best aspects of the detective tale and weird or supernatural fiction, and capitalizing in part on the massive popularity of Sherlock Holmes, these stories portrayed men and women pitted against surreal and horrifying foes, usually with little to defend them but their own savvy, experience, and know-how. From William Hope Hodgson's Thomas Carnacki, to Seabury Quinn's fearless Frenchman Jules de Grandin, to Jessica Salmonson's Penelope Pettiweather, the occult detective has taken a variety of forms, investigated a wide array of supernatural and otherworldly cases, and entertained generations of readers. This new collection compiles thirty-one all-time classic occult detective stories as it traces the genre's growth from its nineteenth-century origins to the late twentieth century, showcasing the work of acclaimed pioneers of weird tales alongside cult favorites and exciting modern talents. So, step into the shadows, join us on this journey into the dark, and become a fighter of fear . . . CONTENTS Introduction, Mike Ashley Green Tea, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu The Shining Pyramid, Arthur Machen The Haunted Child, Arabella Kenealy The Mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel, L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace The Story of Yand Manor House, E. & H. Heron The Tapping on the Wainscott, Allan Upward Samaris, Robert W. Chambers The Whistling Room, William Hope Hodgson The Woman with the Crooked Nose, Victor Rousseau The Sorcerer of Arjuzanx, Max Rittenberg The Ivory Statue, Sax Rohmer The Stranger, Claude & Alice Askew The Swaying Vision, Jessie Douglas Kerruish The Sanatorium, F. Tennyson Jesse The Villa on the Borderive Road, Rose Champion de Crespigny The Room of Fear, Ella Scrymsour The Seven Fires, Philippa Forest The Subletting of the Mansion, Dion Fortune The Jest of Warburg Tantavul, Seabury Quinn The Soldier, A. M. Burrage The Horror of the Height, Sydney Horler The Mystery of Iniquity, L. Adams Beck The Thought-Monster, Amelia Reynold Long The Shut Room, Henry S. Whitehead Dr. Muncing, Exorcist, Gordon MacCreagh The Case of the Haunted Cathedral, Margery Lawrence The Shonokins, Manly Wade Wellman The Dead of Winter Apparition, Joseph Payne Brennan The Garden of Paris, Eric Williams St. Michael and All Angels, Mark Valentine Jeremiah, Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Science fiction has always confronted the concerns of society, and our concern over humanity's ecological impact on nature has inspired incredible stories for generations. In this new collection of stories from the classic period of the genre, explore both tales of eco-catastrophe and ruin following abuse of Earth's natural resources, and stories of hope and learning for humankind's future forays into the new environments of the future. Featuring rare stories from the science fiction and fantasy magazines in the British Library collection and pieces from some of the most influential writers in the field including Brian W Aldiss, Clifford D Simak, Margaret St Clair and Elizabeth Sanxay Holding.