Ab Books: 369 books

This tale appeared in the New York Sun in 1844 and claimed a group of men successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a new type of balloon. Although the story looked real, it was completely fiction and created entirely from Poe's imagination.

Four Beasts in One by classic Romantic/Gothic author Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is considered by many to be the father of the Romantic Gothic Literary movement and he wrote over 70 short stories, all of which are more popular today than when he originally wrote them.

"Thou Art the Man", originally titled "Thou Art the Man!", is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1844. It is an early experiment in detective fiction,[1] like "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", though it is generally considered an inferior story. The plot...

At a gathering to decide the fate of Randolph Carter's estate which has been held in trust since his disappearance the mysterious Swami Chandraputra, who wears curious mittens and enveloping robes, tells Carter's acquaintances of his ultimate fate. He explains that the key took Carter to a type of...

The full title of Edgar Allan Poe's short story known as "King Pest" is King Pest: A Tale Containing an Allegory. One of Poe's most bizarre short stories.

What's madness? Only something just a tiny bit wrong in the make of your brain. Why shouldn't there be a mad ship--I mean mad in a ship-like way, so that under no circumstances could you be sure she would do what any other sensible ship would naturally do for you. There are ships that steer wildly,...

"Ibid" is a mock biography of the Roman scholar Ibidus (486-587), whose masterpiece was Op. Cit., "wherein all the significant undercurrents of Graeco-Roman thought were crystallized once and for all." The piece traces the skull of Ibidus, once the possession of Charlemagne, William...

A lone traveler seeks shelter from an approaching storm in an apparently abandoned house, only to find that it is occupied by a "loathsome old, white-bearded, and ragged man."

"Ex Oblivione" is a prose poem by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in late 1920 or early 1921 and first published in The United Amateur in March 1921, under the pseudonym Ward Phillips. It is written in first person and tells of the dreams of a presumably dying man....

What the Moon Brings is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, written on June 5, 1922. This story was first published in the National Amateur in May 1923, and based upon a dream. This story is told in the first person; the narrator is never named. The story describes a surreal dreamscape. The narrator wanders through his garden one night and in the moonlight sees strange and bizarre things

"The Music of Erich Zann" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in December 1921, it was first published in National Amateur, March 1922. A university student is forced, by his lack of funds, to take the only lodging he can afford. In a strange part of the city he...

The Russian novelist and moral philosopher Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) ranks as one of the world's great writers, and his "War and Peace" has been called the greatest novel ever written. The purpose of all true creative art, he believed, is to teach. But the message in all his stories is presented...

"Work, Death, and Sickness" is a fascinating story by Russian author Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy written in 1903. The story takes the form of a parable about the creation of work, death, and sickness. Synopsis: When God first created man, he had no need to work, and he would always live to...

"The Purloined Letter" is a short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe. It is the third of his three detective stories featuring the fictional C. Auguste Dupin, the other two being "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt". These stories are...