18 books like The Dark Descent

What to read after The Dark Descent — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The Damned Thing Ambrose Bierce · 2007 · ★ 4.4 · 24p · ≈ 48m · Moderate "The Damned Thing" is a horror short story written by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It first appeared in Town Topics on December 7, 1893. Shares: Mountain Lions, Coroners, Inquests, Short Stories

The best ghost stories Daniel Defoe · 1919 · 216p · ≈ 7h · Challenging The Apparition of Mrs. Veal, Daniel Defoe Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book, Montague Rhodes James The Haunted and the Haunters, Edward Bulwer-Lytton The Silent Woman, Leopold Kompert The Man Who Went Too Far, E.F. Benson The Woman's Ghost Story, Algernon Blackwood The Phantom Rickshaw, Rudyard Kipling The Rival Ghosts, Brander Matthews The Damned Thing, Ambrose Bierce The Interval, Vincent… Shares: Mountain Lions, Coroners, Inquests, Short Stories

Can Such Things Be? [24 stories] Ambrose Bierce · 1924 · ★ 3.8 · 205p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Shares: Mountain Lions, Coroners, Inquests, Short Stories Shares: Mountain Lions, Coroners, Inquests, Short Stories

Short Stories Washington Irving · 1989 · ★ 4.0 · 299p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Rip Van Winkle / Washington Irving Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne Fall of the House of Usher / Edgar Allan Poe The lightning-rod man / Herman Melville The diamond lens / Fitzjames O'Brien The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County / Mark Twain The outcasts of Poker Flat / Bret Harte Damned Thing / Ambrose Bierce The turn of the screw / Henry James The Hiltons' holiday / Sarah Orne… Shares: Mountain Lions, Coroners, Inquests, American Horror tales

Great American Short Stories [48 stories] Washington Irving · 1984 · 699p · ≈ 23h · Moderate Anthology contains: The legend of Sleepy Hollow -- Rip Van Winkle -- The spectre bridegroom -- Young Goodman Brown Rappaccini's daughter The fall of the House of Usher The gold bug -- Pit and the pendulum The cask of amontillad Captain Kidd's money -- Benito Cereno -- The lightning-rod man -- The diamond lens -- The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County -- The £1,000,000 bank-note -- The… Shares: Mountain Lions, Coroners, Inquests, Short Stories

Poe's Children Peter Straub · 2008 · ★ 3.5 · 534p · ≈ 17h · Moderate The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story—and 8-time Bram Stoker Award winner—gathers 24 bone-chilling, nail-biting, frightfully imaginative stories that represent the best of contemporary horror writing. “Revelatory.... A remarkably consistent, frequently unsettling book.” —The Washington Post“[Straub] collects the best scary short stories out there.” —TimeDan Chaon “The… Shares: English Horror tales, American Horror tales, Horror

Cabal Clive Barker · 1988 · ★ 4.3 · 268p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Cabal is a 1988 horror novella by the British author Clive Barker. It was originally published in the United States as part of a collection comprising a novel and several short stories from Barker's sixth and final volume of the Books of Blood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabal_(novella) Shares: English Horror tales, Short Stories, Horror

The Mammoth Book of Werewolves Stephen Jones · 1994 · 496p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Monsterrific stories by top names in horror writingVampires, Werewolves, Zombies, Ghouls . . . these and many other Creatures of the Night are featured in this bumper collection of stories by such authors as Clive Barker, Harlan Ellison, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Tanith Lee, Michael Marshall Smith, Kim Newman, Joe R. Lansdale, Lisa Tuttle, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Basil Copper and many others.… Shares: English Horror tales, American Horror tales

Books of Blood Volume One Clive Barker · 1985 · ★ 4.0 · 240p · ≈ 8h · Moderate With the publication of Books of Blood, Clive Barker became an overnight literary sensation. His tour de force collection of brilliantly disturbing tales demonstrated a genius for dark invention that rivaled Poe and Sade. He was hailed by Stephen King as "the future of horror", and won both the British and World Fantasy Awards. Clive Barker's Books of Blood marked the beginning of a career that… Shares: English Horror tales, Short Stories, Horror

After the People Lights Have Gone Off Stephen Graham Jones · 2014 · ★ 3.8 · 260p · ≈ 8h · Moderate A collection of stories that tap into the horrors and fears of the supernatural-- as well as the everyday. Shares: American Horror tales, Short Stories

Ancient Sorceries Algernon Blackwood · 1906 · ★ 3.7 · 227p · ≈ 7h · Challenging By turns bizarre, unsettling, spooky, and sublime, Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories showcases nine incomparable stories from master conjuror Algernon Blackwood. Evoking the uncanny spiritual forces of Nature, Blackwood's writings all tread the nebulous borderland between fantasy, awe, wonder, and horror. Here Blackwood displays his best and most disturbing work-including "The Willows,"… Shares: English Horror tales, Short Stories, Horror

Fragile Things Neil Gaiman · 2006 · ★ 3.9 · 400p · ≈ 13h · Moderate This is a duplicate. Please update your lists. See https://openlibrary.org/works/OL679359W. Shares: English Horror tales, Short Stories, Horror

Tales of Terror [12 stories] Edgar Allan Poe · 1971 · 296p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Pit and the Pendulum Cask of Amontillado Fall of the House of Usher Tell-tale HeartMasque of the Red Death Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar / by E.A. Poe -- The signal man / by C. Dickens -- The mummy's foot / by T. Gautier -- Markheim -- The body snatcher / by R.L. Stevenson -- Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge / by A. Bierce -- What was it? / by F. O'Brien. Shares: English Horror tales, American Horror tales, Short Stories, Horror

The Horror hall of fame Robert Silverberg · 1991 · 416p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Shares: English Horror tales, American Horror tales, Short Stories, Horror Shares: English Horror tales, American Horror tales, Short Stories, Horror

Tales of Terror and Mystery Arthur Conan Doyle · 1963 · ★ 3.8 · 186p · ≈ 6h · Moderate From the book:The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called the Joyce-Armstrong Fragment is an elaborate practical joke evolved by some unknown person, cursed by a perverted and sinister sense of humour, has now been abandoned by all who have examined the matter. The most macabre and imagi-native of plotters would hesitate before linking his morbid fancies with the unquestioned… Shares: English Horror tales, Horror

The Vampyre John William Polidori · 1819 · ★ 3.3 · 34p · ≈ 1h · Challenging The Vampyre, a short gothic novel by John William Polidori, was first published in 1819 and is considered the first modern vampire story. The story features Lord Ruthven, a seductive aristocrat with unnatural powers over men and women, and an insatiable thirst for blood. Polidori's innovative portrayal of the vampire as a Byronic figure is said to have set the template for the modern vampire. Shares: English Horror tales, Short Stories, Horror

The Great God Pan Arthur Machen · 1894 · ★ 3.7 · 65p · ≈ 2h · Challenging Arthur Machen's first book, THE GREAT GOD PAN, published in 1894, is still one of the greatest works of weird horror and decadence ever produced. Arthur Machen with his taste for the bizarre and macabre, unfurls the tale of a young girl cursed by her unnatural parentage to become a creature of shape-shifting, poly-sexual, demi-human evil. Shares: English Horror tales, Horror

The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories Algernon Blackwood · 1906 · ★ 3.7 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Challenging Collection of short fiction horror stories by the weird fiction writer Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951). Shares: Short Stories, Horror

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