Through the Flashlight's Beam: A Collection of Classic Scary Stories for Reading Aloud

Edgar Allan Poe · Bram Stoker · Shelley Mary

Okt. 2008 · Priced Nostalgia Press

Über dieses E-Book

In celebration of our history s rich oral tradition of storytelling, we invite you to bring your flashlight up to your chin and get ready to make your listeners want to sleep with a nightlight. Through the Flashlight s Beam is a collection of the very best scary story classics including some of the most popular characters in the history of suspense including Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Headless Horseman as well as a cast of other ghosts, vampires, and other beasts sure to delight and terrify readers of all ages. These are the ultimate horror all-stars by the most familiar names in fear including Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, Washington Irving and more. Whether you intend to read these stories at bedtime for a spine tingling tale before sleep, to your class each October to get everyone in the mood for Halloween, or by flashlight around the campfire, we think you ll find chills and thrills aplenty in these tales. This book is offered in durable hardcover to withstand years of use and features a laminated cover for easy wipe-off clean-up. This collection is free of offensive language and adult situations, though parental guidance is strongly suggested."

Autoren-Profil

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. In 1827, he enlisted in the United States Army and his first collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems, was published. In 1835, he became the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. Over the next ten years, Poe would edit a number of literary journals including the Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and Graham's Magazine in Philadelphia and the Broadway Journal in New York City. It was during these years that he established himself as a poet, a short story writer, and an editor. His works include The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Raven. He struggle with depression and alcoholism his entire life and died on October 7, 1849 at the age of 40. Bram Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland on November 8, 1847. He was educated at Trinity College. He worked as a civil servant and a journalist before becoming the personal secretary of the famous actor Henry Irving. He wrote 15 works of fiction including Dracula, The Lady of the Shroud, and The Lair of the White Worm, which was made into film. He died on April 20, 1912. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born in England on August 30, 1797. Her parents were two celebrated liberal thinkers, William Godwin, a social philosopher, and Mary Wollstonecraft, a women's rights advocate. Eleven days after Mary's birth, her mother died of puerperal fever. Four motherless years later, Godwin married Mary Jane Clairmont, bringing her and her two children into the same household with Mary and her half-sister, Fanny. Mary's idolization of her father, his detached and rational treatment of their bond, and her step-mother's preference for her own children created a tense and awkward home. Mary's education and free-thinking were encouraged, so it should not surprise us today that at the age of sixteen she ran off with the brilliant, nineteen-year old and unhappily married Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley became her ideal, but their life together was a difficult one. Traumas plagued them: Shelley's wife and Mary's half-sister both committed suicide; Mary and Shelley wed shortly after he was widowed but social disapproval forced them from England; three of their children died in infancy or childhood; and while Shelley was an aristocrat and a genius, he was also moody and had little money. Mary conceived of her magnum opus, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, when she was only nineteen when Lord Byron suggested they tell ghost stories at a house party. The resulting book took over two years to write and can be seen as the brilliant creation of a powerful but tormented mind. The story of Frankenstein has endured nearly two centuries and countless variations because of its timeless exploration of the tension between our quest for knowledge and our thirst for good. Shelley drowned when Mary was only 24, leaving her with an infant and debts. She died from a brain tumor on February 1, 1851 at the age of 54.