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  Seven HP Lovecraft Stories

  H. P. Lovecraft

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  Howard Phillips Lovecraft, better known as H.P. Lovecraft, was an American author of horror, fantasy, poetry and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction and many feel he is the acknowledged master of creepy, weird and unsettling stories. 
  These are seven stories by Lovecraft that literally span his career; some being written when he was barely a teenager and one (The Shunned House) only published after he had died. Most were published in Weird Tales before 1922. 
  Each story is unique and strange in it's own way but all of them come from the same mind that gave us the Cult of Cthulhu and other wonderful tales that generations now have enjoyed for their strangeness that resonates with our own inner fears. Some of these stories explore the depths of the human mind others the depths of human degradation and creepiness. I won't ruin the suspense by telling you which is which. Enjoy.

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  Three Short Stories

  E. T. A. Hoffmann

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  E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and horror as well as a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist. His stories were highly influential during the 19th century, and he is one of the major authors of the Romantic movement.  
  'The Mines of Falun' tells the story of Elis Fröbom, a sailor who returns from the East Indies to Gothenburg in Sweden, only to discover that his mother has died and he is alone in the world. He tells his story to an old miner who befriends him on the quay, and the miner tells him about the magical mines of Falun and urges him to become a miner. Soon after this, he sets out on a journey and constantly sees the mysterious old miner ahead of him, showing him the way, and he realises that he is on the way to Falun. 
  Once there he is taken into the house of the mine owner, Pehrson Dahlsjö, and falls in love with his lovely daughter, Ulla Dahlsjö. But the ghostly old miner will not permit Elis to be distracted from mining by his love for an earthly woman, and Elis is torn between his love for Ulla and his obsession with the underground world of fires and minerals. It is this obsession, and the pull of the ghost of the miner, which leads to his destruction.  
  'Gambler's Luck' tells the story of a young German baron who is enjoying a streak of beginner's luck at the gambling tables. As his winnings mount up, the young man is gradually becoming sucked into the addictive habit of gambling. One night a stranger appears at the gambling table and watches the baron intently. The stranger appears night after night, until the baron is infuriated and challenges the man. A later chance meeting between the two results in the stranger relating a most unusual and gripping tale...  
  'The Cremona Violin' is the story of Councillor Krespel, an eccentric violin maker who lives with a mysterious woman, Antonia, who has the most beautiful singing voice ever heard by anyone in the town, but she was only ever heard to sing once. Krespel makes the best violins in the world but never sells any and plays each violin only once. There is a strange secret behind this odd behaviour...but it is only years later that the strange truth comes out.

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  Dombey and Son

  Charles Dickens

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  Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens's story of a powerful man whose callous neglect of his family triggers his professional and personal downfall, showcases the author's gift for vivid characterization and unfailingly realistic description. As Jonathan Lethem contends in his Introduction, Dickens's "genius . . . is at one with the genius of the form of the novel itself: Dickens willed into existence the most capacious and elastic and versatile kind of novel that could be, one big enough for his vast sentimental yearnings and for every impulse and fear and hesitation in him that countervailed those yearnings too. Never parsimonious and frequently contradictory, he always gives us everything he can, everything he's planned to give, and then more

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  The Case of Mr Foggatt

  Arthur Morrison

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  Arthur Morrison was born on November 1st, 1863, in Poplar, in the East End of London. From the age of 8, after the death of his father, he was brought up, along with two siblings, by his mother, Jane. 
   
  Morrison spent his youth in the East End. In 1879 he began as an office boy in the Architect's Department of the London School Board and, in his spare time, visited used bookstores in Whitechapel Road. He first published, a humorous poem, in the magazine Cycling in 1880. 
   
  In 1885 Morrison began writing for The Globe newspaper. In 1886, he switched to the People's Palace, in Mile End and, in 1888, published the Cockney Corner collection, about life in Soho, Whitechapel, Bow Street and other areas of London. 
   
  By 1889 he was an editor at the Palace Journal, reprinting some earlier sketches, and writing commentaries on books and articles on the life of the London poor. 
   
  In 1890 he was back at The Globe and published ‘The Shadows Around Us’, a supernatural collection of stories.  At this time he also began to develop a keen interest in Japanese Art. 
   
  In October 1891 his short story A Street appeared in Macmillan's Magazine. The following year he married Elizabeth Thatcher and then befriended publisher and poet William Ernest Henley for whom he wrote stories of working-class life in Henley's National Observer between 1892-94. 
   
  In 1894 came his first detective story featuring Martin Hewitt, described as "a low-key, realistic, lower-class answer to Sherlock Holmes”. 
   
  Morrison published A Child of the Jago in 1896 swiftly followed by The Adventures of Martin Hewitt. 
   
  In 1897 he published seven stories about Horace Dorrington, a deeply corrupt private detective, described as "a cheerfully unrepentant sociopath who is willing to stoop to theft, blackmail, fraud or cold-blooded murder to make a dishonest penny." 
   
  To London Town, the final part of a trilogy including Tales of Mean Streets and A Child of the Jago was published in 1899. Following on came a wide spectrum of works, including novels, short stories and one act plays. 
   
  In 1911 he published his authoritative work Japanese Painters, illustrated with art from his own collection. 
   
  Although he retired from journalistic work in 1913 he continued to write about Art.  
  In his last decades Morrison served as a special constable, and reported on the first Zeppelin raid on London. Tragically in 1921 his son, Guy, who had survived the war, died of malaria. 
   
  The Royal Society of Literature elected him as a member in 1924 and to its Council in 1935.  
   
  In 1930 he moved to Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire. Here he wrote the short story collection Fiddle o' Dreams and More. 
   
  Arthur Morrison died on December 4th, 1945. In his will he left his collection of paintings, woodcuts, and ceremonial tea porcelain to the British Museum. He also directed that his library be sold and his papers burnt.

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  Wedding Heat Friday - A...

  Giselle Renarde

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  Forget the happy couple—it’s the guests that make this wedding sizzle!This audio anthology of Wedding Heat novelettes contains all six audiobooks from the series’ first season. What have we got?  Straight, gay, bisexual, lesbian, and transgender erotic stories featuring ménage, BBW, fetish, older adults, and even office romance!In “One in the Hand” a married couple develops a love of outdoor sex en route to their niece’s wedding. In “Two in the Bush” a curvy girl and her coworker crush come together with the help of a beautiful stranger.“Skinny Dipping” follows Joey as he strips down and swims with the boys, only to lose his virginity to Greg.  Next up, Vanessa finds out a secret about Maggie that might just land them both in hot water in “Pretty Bride.”In “MILF of the Groom,” rumours about Ellora have been greatly exaggerated, but she can’t resist a younger man’s advances.  When Farrah meets up with a long-lost love, can he cherish her transgender heart in “If the Shoes Fit”?This wedding’s already got serious sizzle, and it’s only Friday night!

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  The Fisherman and His Soul

  Oscar Wilde

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  To get what we want is often the greatest curse of all. The fisherman here accidentally catches a mermaid in his net. He falls in love with the Mermaid and tells her that he wants to marry her. She tells him that he can only marry her if he sends away his soul. From a Witch, the Fisherman learns how to send his soul away. The Soul makes several attempts to persuade the Fisherman to take him back, eventually convincing him to do so with the tale of a beautiful dancer who lives nearby. Too late does the Fisherman discover that the soul which he sent out into the world without a heart has become evil. So be careful what you set your heart on. This story was first published in 1896 in the book A House of Pomegranates.

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