An ancient ruin located in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula is older than any human civilization, and was built and inhabited by a race of reptiles.
A lone traveler seeks shelter from an approaching storm in an apparently abandoned house, only to find that it is occupied by a "e;loathsome old, white-bearded, and ragged man.
A high priest and prophet greatly learned in the lore of the gods of earth attempts to scale the mountain of Hatheg-Kla in order to look upon their faces, accompanied by his young disciple.
The hideous son of a deformed and unstable albino mother and an unknown father is indoctrinated by his sorcerer grandfather into dark rituals and the study of witchcraft.
The story of a terrifying opium experience, in which the narrator is accidentally administered an overdose by a doctor during the "e;year of the plague"e;.
A meteorite leaves behind globules of colour that do not fall within the range of anything known in the visible spectrum in a shunned place later referred to as the "e;blasted heath"e;.
An old manuscript unleashes the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, for him to rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world; Elias Canetti described it as "e;one of the few great and perfect works of the poetic imagination written during this century.
A sleepless man watches Polaris winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey.
A tall, swarthy man who resembles an ancient Egyptian pharaoh wanders the earth gathering legions of followers through his demonstrations of strange and seemingly magical instruments.
An undertaker finds himself trapped in the vault where coffins are stored during winter for burial in the spring, and is mysteriously injured when he escapes.
Harry Houdini is kidnapped in Egypt, tied up, taken to an unknown location, and dropped down a deep pit, where he witnesses an army of half-man, half-animal mummies leaving offerings to a five-headed, tentacled beast.
Lovecraft's first story to mention Miskatonic University, and one of the first depictions of zombies as scientifically reanimated corpses, with animalistic and uncontrollable temperament.
The story of a squire who bargained with Native Americans for the secrets of their rituals concerning time and space which were practiced on the land where that squire had recently taken up residence.
I cannot think of the deep sea without shuddering at the nameless things that may at this very moment be crawling and floundering on its slimy bed, worshipping their ancient stone idols and carving their own detestable likenesses on submarine obelisks of water-soaked granite.
A man becomes embroiled in the past, due to his fascination with the history of his wizard ancestor, and attempts to duplicate his ancestor's Qabalistic and alchemical feats, eventually resurrecting him.
The modern world has been stripped of imagination and belief in magic when a man gazing from his window upon the stars comes to observe secret vistas unsuspected by normal humanity.
Professor William Dyer of the the Miskatonic University knew that the antarctic was a forlorn, dangerous place, but nothing could have prepared him and his expediting for what they would find in the Mountains of Madness.
The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade relates the story of four wealthy men who enslave 24 mostly teenaged victims and sexually torture them while listening to stories told by old prostitutes.
Bierce was considered a master of pure English by his contemporaries, and virtually everything that came from his pen was notable for its judicious wording and economy of style.
