Tales of the Dead: Selections from Fantasmagoriana, the Classic German Book of Ghost Stories PDF Download

Author: Sarah Elizabeth Utterson, trans.
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1794705546
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
These six classic tales of ghosts and hauntings, culled from Fantasmagoriana (1818), a German book that reputedly helped inspire Mary Shelley to pen her immortal novel Frankenstein while staying with Percy Shelley and the mad, vampiric Lord Byron on that haunted summer at Villa Diodati, in Switzerland, two hundred years ago. That night saw the birth of monsters such as the vampire Lord Ruthven, made famous by John Polidori's story The Vampire, as well a vampire tale by Byron himself, one left never finished. But the hideous visage of Frankenstein's monster was born from the nightmares of Mary, to stalk the earth and the dark, troubling dreams of man, forever. These six German classics of supernatural terror gave birth to the inspiration for such ghastly horrors. For, Fear, just as much as Love, is a universal language.

Author: A.J. Day
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1411652916
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
It was on a 'dark and stormy night', during the summer of 1816 that an eccentic group of English literati gathered at the Villa Diodati. The atmosphere at the Villa was charged by the violent streaks of lightening that licked at the mountain tops and split a black sky. As the wind outside whipped up the surface of lake Leman into a cauldron of waves the occupants of the Villa; Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Dr John Polidori, Percy Shelley and Claire Clairmont, whipped themselves into a gothic frenzy with recitals of haunting poetry and ghost stories. The stories that they read came from a book, originally written in German, that had recently been translated into French. The book that they read from was called Fantasmagoriana. Fantasmagoriana has a unique place in literary history. This is the first full translation of the stories that inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Dr John Polidori's The Vampyre.

Author: Johann August Apel
Publisher: e-artnow
ISBN:
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
"Fantasmagoriana – Collected Tales of the Dead" were the very ghost stories that inspired and gave rise to classics like Frankenstein and The Vampyre. Originally translated from German, these tales have retained their charm, chilling effect, horror and suspense until today. Contents: The Family Portraits The Fated Hour The Death's Head The Death-Bride The Storm The Spectre-Barber or, Dumb Love Excerpt: "It is generally believed that at this time of day no one puts any faith in ghosts and apparitions. Yet, on reflection, this opinion does not appear to me quite correct: for, without alluding to workmen in mines, and the inhabitants of mountainous countries,—the former of whom believe in spectres and hobgoblins presiding over concealed treasures, and the latter in apparitions and phantoms announcing either agreeable or unfortunate tidings,—may we not ask why amongst ourselves there are certain individuals who have a dread of passing through a church-yard after night-fall? Why others experience an involuntary shuddering at entering a church, or any other large uninhabited edifice, in the dark? And, in fine, why persons who are deservedly considered as possessing courage and good sense, dare not visit at night even places where they are certain of meeting with nothing they need dread from living beings? They are ever repeating, that the living are only to be dreaded; and yet fear night, because they believe, by tradition, that it is the time which phantoms choose for appearing to the inhabitants of the earth..."

Author: Johann Karl August Musäus
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
Good Press presents to you the meticulously edited collection of "Fantasmagoriana – Selected Tales of the Dead." These were the very ghost stories that inspired and gave rise to classics like Frankenstein and The Vampyre. Originally translated from German, these tales have retained their charm, chilling effect, horror and suspense until today. Contents: The Family Portraits The Fated Hour The Death's Head The Death-Bride The Storm The Spectre-Barber or, Dumb Love Excerpt: "It is generally believed that at this time of day no one puts any faith in ghosts and apparitions. Yet, on reflection, this opinion does not appear to me quite correct: for, without alluding to workmen in mines, and the inhabitants of mountainous countries,—the former of whom believe in spectres and hobgoblins presiding over concealed treasures, and the latter in apparitions and phantoms announcing either agreeable or unfortunate tidings,—may we not ask why amongst ourselves there are certain individuals who have a dread of passing through a church-yard after night-fall? Why others experience an involuntary shuddering at entering a church, or any other large uninhabited edifice, in the dark? And, in fine, why persons who are deservedly considered as possessing courage and good sense, dare not visit at night even places where they are certain of meeting with nothing they need dread from living beings? They are ever repeating, that the living are only to be dreaded; and yet fear night, because they believe, by tradition, that it is the time which phantoms choose for appearing to the inhabitants of the earth..."

Author: Joel Eisenberg
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780976757511
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Topos Books is proud to reproduce and reintroduce influential, heretofore lost works that served as muse to authors of many of the world's literary masterpieces. That is the mission behind the Villa Diodati Endangered Classics line, so named for the Villa Diodati in the village of Cologny, Switzerland, where Mary Shelley conceptualized "Frankenstein" during the storied "Haunted Summer" of 1916. In the midst of a fierce storm, following a reading from a French translation of a book of German ghost stories entitled "Fantasmagoriana, ou Recueil d"Histoires d'Apparitions, de Spectres, Revenans, etc.," the poet Lord Byron challenged Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (Shelley's future wife), Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont, and Byron's physician John Polidori to each write a ghost story. The result was literary legend in the form not only of "Frankenstein," but also Polidori's "The Vampyre." The English translation of "Fanatasmagoriana" appeared in print for the first time in 1813 under the title "Tales of the Dead," so it is only fitting that Topos Books' Villa Diodati Endangered Classics line celebrates its inauguration with the first American edition of "Tales of the Dead" in over a century.

Author: Brian Stableford
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
ISBN: 143440336X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
This new collection gathers together 45 of Stableford's best critical reviews on works of science fiction, fantasy, horror, decadent literature, and nonfiction books about these topics. His comments are witty, intelligent, and full of insight. Complete with comprehensive index.

Author: Rictor Norton
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780826485854
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 788

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Book Description
This is an anthology of Gothic Literature, set within the context of contemporary criticism and readers' responses. It includes selections from the major practitioners and many of their followers, as well as contemporary reviews, private letters and diaries, chapbooks, and contemporary anecdotes about dramatic performances and the design of theatre sets. The selections provide representative samples of the major genres - historical gothic, the Radcliffe school of terror, the Lewis school of horror, tragic melodrama, comic parody, supernatural poetry and ballads, book reviews and literary criticism and anti-Gothic polemic.

Author: Eric J. Guignard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781949491555
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
First published in 1812, FANTASMAGORIANA has become one of the most seminal ghost-story anthologies of all time. Originally collected as a French translation of eight German-language tales, FANTASMAGORIANA famously led to the creation of such works as the horror-classic novel FRANKENSTEIN, the short story "The Vampyre" (a progenitor to the fantasy vampire genre), the novella "Ernestus Berchtold; or, The Modern Oedipus," the poem "Manfred," and more. In 1813, the anthology was partially translated into English as TALES OF THE DEAD, excluding three of the original stories while adding in one new, and inspiring an even wider audience to delight in stories of the ghostly and macabre. Now, for the first time, both FANTASMAGORIANA and TALES OF THE DEAD have been combined into one English-language volume, in this beautifully presented showcase by Dark Moon Books! Also included within are: * Original English translations by Anna Ziegelhof * Introduction by award-winning author Lisa Morton * Annotations by noted literary editor Leslie S. Klinger * Illustrations, biographies, reading list, and more! Open yourself to FANTASMAGORIANA DELUXE, and to all that is weird, ghostly, and wonderous.

Author: Mary Shelley
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030779377X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
Working from the earliest surviving draft of Frankenstein, Charles E. Robinson presents two versions of the classic novel—as Mary Shelley originally wrote it and a subsequent version clearly indicating Percy Shelley’s amendments and contributions. For the first time we can hear Mary’s sole voice, which is colloquial, fast-paced, and sounds more modern to a contemporary reader. We can also see for the first time the extent of Percy Shelley’s contribution—some 5,000 words out of 72,000—and his stylistic and thematic changes. His occasionally florid prose is in marked contrast to the directness of Mary’s writing. Interesting, too, are Percy’s suggestions, which humanize the monster, thus shaping many of the major themes of the novel as we read it today. In these two versions of Frankenstein we have an exciting new view of one of literature’ s greatest works.

Author: Leslie S. Klinger
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643131192
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
A masterful collection of ghost stories that have been overlooked by contemporary readers—including tales by celebrated authors such as Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton—presented with insightful annotations by acclaimed horror anthologists Leslie S. Klinger and Lisa Morton. The ghost story has long been a staple of world literature, but many of the genre's greatest tales have been forgotten, overshadowed in many cases by their authors' bestselling work in other genres. In this spine-tingling anthology, little known stories from literary titans like Charles Dickens and Edith Wharton are collected alongside overlooked works from masters of horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe and M. R. James. Acclaimed anthologists Leslie S. Klinger (The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes) and Lisa Morton (Ghosts: A Haunted History) set these stories in historical context and trace the literary significance of ghosts in fiction over almost two hundred years—from a traditional English ballad first printed in 1724 through the Christmas-themed ghost stories of the Victorian era and up to the science fiction–tinged tales of the early twentieth century. In bringing these masterful tales back from the dead, Ghost Stories will enlighten and frighten both longtime fans and new readers of the genre. Including stories by: Ambrose Bierce, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Olivia Howard Dunbar, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, M. R. James, Arthur Machen, Georgia Wood Pangborn, Mrs. J. H. Riddell, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Walter Scott, Frank Stockton, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton.