Old Stories

Classic short stories and short fiction in the public domain in convenient, easy to enjoy packaging. Take an old story with you wherever you go and discover more here every weekday.

The Horla

October 12, 2018 By Guy De Maupassant in Old Stories Tags: public domain stories, horror, Guy de Maupassant, old stories, ghost stories

May 8th. What a lovely day! I have spent all the morning lying in the grass in front of my house, under the enormous plantain tree which covers it, and shades and shelters the whole of it. I like this part of the country and I am fond of living here because I am attached to it by deep roots, profound and delicate roots which attach a man to the soil on which his ancestors were born and died, which attach him to what people think and what they eat, to the usages as well as to the food, local [Read More]

The Damned Thing

October 11, 2018 By Ambrose Bierce in Old Stories Tags: horror, old stories, ghost stories, Ambrose Bierce, free stories, public domain stories

By the light of a tallow candle, which had been placed on one end of a rough table, a man was reading something written in a book. It was an old account book, greatly worn; and the writing was not, apparently, very legible, for the man sometimes held the page close to the flame of the candle to get a stronger light upon it. The shadow of the book would then throw into obscurity a half of the room, darkening a number of faces and figures; for besides the reader, eight other men were present. Seven of them sat against [Read More]

The Signalman

October 10, 2018 By Charles Dickens in Old Stories Tags: horror, scary stories, ghosts, Charles Dickens, trains

Halloa! Below there!” When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; but instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and looked down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said for [Read More]

The Flayed Hand

October 9, 2018 By Guy De Maupassant in Old Stories Tags: Guy de Maupassant, old stories, ghosts, horror, scary stories

One evening about eight months ago I met with some college comrades at the lodgings of our friend Louis R. We drank punch and smoked, talked of literature and art, and made jokes like any other company of young men. Suddenly the door flew open, and one who had been my friend since boyhood burst in like a hurricane. Guy De Maupassant was a master of the short story whose subjects were usually taken from everyday life. This one is taken from everyday life and death. The copy here is from Twenty-Five Ghost Stories (Edited by W. Bob Holland), which is [Read More]

The Monkey’s Paw

October 8, 2018 By W.W. Jacobs in Old Stories Tags: short fiction, horror, scary stories, W.W. Jacobs, fate, wishes

I Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire. This is perhaps W.W. Jacobs most famous scary story — but can you remember how it works out? The English civil servant wrote plenty of short stories and a couple of novels, too, many [Read More]

The Occupant of the Room

October 5, 2018 By Algernon Blackwood in Old Stories Tags: scary stories, fiction, short fiction, Algernon Blackwood, weird stories, old story, horror

He arrived late at night by the yellow diligence, stiff and cramped after the toilsome ascent of three slow hours. The village, a single mass of shadow, was already asleep. Only in front of the little hotel was there noise and light and bustle—for a moment. The horses, with tired, slouching gait, crossed the road and disappeared into the stable of their own accord, their harness trailing in the dust; and the lumbering diligence stood for the night where they had dragged it—the body of a great yellow-sided beetle with broken legs. Algernon Blackwood was an English novelist and a prolific [Read More]

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