The Valley of the Spiders (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures) PDF Download

Author: H. G. Wells
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473399637
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
This early work by H. G. Wells was originally published in 1903 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Valley of the Spiders' is a short story about a group of men who encounter an unstoppable swarm of arachnids. Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, England in 1866. He apprenticed as a draper before becoming a pupil-teacher at Midhurst Grammar School in West Sussex. Some years later, Wells won a scholarship to the School of Science in London, where he developed a strong interest in biology and evolution, founding and editing the Science Schools Journal. However, he left before graduating to return to teaching, and began to focus increasingly on writing. It was in 1895 that Wells seriously established himself as a writer, with the publication of the now iconic novel, The Time Machine. Wells followed The Time Machine with the equally well-received War of the Worlds (1898), which proved highly popular in the USA. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Author: Bertram Mitford
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781473307728
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
This early work by Bertram Mitford was originally published in 1896 and we are now republishing it as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Sign of the Spider' is a novel about a man who leaves his wife to go and earn his fortune in South Africa but runs into trouble with a native tribe. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Author: Hanns Heinz Ewers
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781473308046
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
This early work by Hans Heinz Ewers was originally published in 1915 and we are now republishing it as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Spider' is a short story of black magic based on 'The Mysterious Sketch' by Erckmann-Chatrian. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Author: Sax Rohmer
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473399920
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
This early work by Robert W. Chambers was originally published in 1919 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'In the Valley of the Sorceress' is a short story of an Egyptian mystery. Sax Rohmer was born in Ladywood, Birmingham, England in 1883. In 1903, his first published work, 'The Mysterious Mummy', appeared in 'Pearson's Weekly'. Rohmer continued to write weird fiction, and his major breakthrough came in 1912, when the first Fu-Manchu novel, 'The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu', was serialized over a period of eight months. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Author: Various
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 147339998X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
These early works by various authors were originally published in the late 19th century and early 20th century and we are now republishing them with a brand new introduction as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'Weird Tales of Creepy Crawlies' contains a collection of short stories about mysterious insects and arachnids, and includes 'The Strong Spider' by Edgar Allan Poe (1846), 'The Messenger' by Robert W. Chambers (1897), 'The Empire of the Ants' by by H. G. Wells (1905), and many more. The stories in this collection were mostly written around the turn of the century. And most of them reflect what has been a pretty consistent human reaction to insects, as evidenced throughout the literary tradition – fascination and disgust, in equal measure. Despite the Romantics' best efforts, the perception of insects as repulsive, threatening and unclean – the carriers of pestilence and plague in the bible; the exemplifiers of foulness in Shakespeare – has never quite gone away. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Author: Hugh Clifford
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473399947
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
This early work by Sir Hugh Clifford was originally published in 1916 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Were-Tiger' is a short story of a mysterious feline. Hugh Charles Clifford was born in Roehampton, London, England on 5th March 1866. Clinging to an ideal of benevolent imperialism untainted by commerce, while sympathizing deeply with the natives' desire for cultural commerce, Clifford produced a number of collections, including 'Bush-Whacking and other Sketches' (1901); 'A Free-lance of To-day' (1903), 'Sally: A Study, and Other Tales of the Outskirts' (1904), 'Saleh: A Sequel' (1908) and 'Malayan Monochromes' (1913), all of which deal with the interplay between British and Malay life. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Author: H Wells
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781514729526
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
H.G. Wells 1903 short story "The Valley of the Spiders" is somewhat short, slightly nonsensical, and more than a little anti-climatic, but considering it contains two of my favorite things - spiders and classic era weird tales - I felt it was worth writing at least a short article about.The story concerns a group of three men tracking what may be a runaway slave girl and her friends in what may be some semblance of the Old West. They arrive in a valley that appears to quite dead when they first encounter a snake, then a wild dog, and finally a wild boar running from, apparently, the breeze. Soon enough they discover it is not the wind that the beasts fear, but rather what it carries - the web-balloons of some species of giant, poisonous, and highly aggressive spiders. From there we follow the short trials of the men as they attempt to escape and make sense of what they've seen.Clocking in at just over ten pages the narrative of The Valley of the Spiders doesn't do too much, and honestly, the whole piece comes across as a scientific paper gone pulp. More or less the story concerns the practice of spiders (common, smaller spiders rather than tarantulas and other large arachnids) of "ballooning", that being creating an umbrella of silk and using the wind to transport young spiders to farther places than they could travel otherwise. This is a real practice that is easily seen anywhere spiders inhabit on warm summer days, and honestly enough does create kind of a neat scenario for a weird tale were it fleshed out slightly more, and perhaps the horror played at rather than the slave trade angle Wells seemed to be going for.- Aaron

Author: Will A. Page
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473370051
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
This early work by Will A. Page was originally published in 1911 and we are now republishing it as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Air Serpent' is a short story about a flying, reptilian-looking creature. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Author: David H. Keller
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473399475
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 29

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Book Description
This early work by David H. Keller was originally published in 1929 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Worm' is a short story about a giant worm that begins to eat a house and the occupant has to decide at what point to move out. David Henry Keller was born in Philadelphia in 1880. He studied neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine, graduating in 1903. He produced eleven novels and more than fifty short stories, as well as a body of poetry and some non-fiction. Most of his work is regarded as far more complex and literary than that of his contemporaries, thereby foreshadowing the science fiction 'golden age' of the mid-20th century.†The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.

Author: Epes Winthrop Sargent
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473399521
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 67

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Book Description
This early work by Epes Winthrop Sargent was originally published in 1909 and we are now republishing it as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'Beyond the Banyans' is a short story about an explorer and the evil that lurks in the mountains of Africa. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.