Uncanny Tales

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

26606

Title

Uncanny Tales

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

A chilling collection of supernatural and psychological horror stories set in early 20th-century London and beyond. Featuring tales of inexplicable blood appearing on a mathematician's hand, a man transforming into a beast, a forbidden kiss, and a painter haunted by a murder he didn't commit, this anthology explores the thin veil between sanity and madness.

Summary up to 500 words

Uncanny Tales is a collection of eerie vignettes that blend scientific rationalism with supernatural dread, exploring the limits of human understanding through stories of heredity, jealousy, and the inexplicable. The opening narrative follows Professor William James Maynard, a man of science who inherits a fortune but is plagued by a mysterious drop of blood appearing on his hand every first of the month. Despite rigorous investigation and a holiday in Switzerland, the phenomenon persists. Upon returning to England, he discovers the blood contains the bacillus of the disease that killed his murdered cousin, suggesting a terrifying atavistic or supernatural connection between him and his relative. Another tale introduces Sir Alister Moeran, a man whose soul occasionally reverts to a beastly state. Every seven years, this atavism allows him to transform into a vampire-like creature, culminating in a terrifying attack on a young woman that is only stopped by a timely gunshot from his uncle. In a story of forbidden love, a man and a woman share a profound intellectual bond but cannot kiss due to the woman's rigid moral code. The man returns unexpectedly to kiss her, only to discover she has been murdered moments later, leaving the circumstances of her death shrouded in mystery. The final story involves the artist Lou Arnaud, who wakes to find a gruesome painting of a dead girl on his easel. Convicted of the murder, he is sentenced to death until he reveals the true killer was a jealous woman who strangled the girl while he slept. However, the mystery of how the painting appeared remains unsolved. The collection examines the tension between reason and the unknown, questioning whether some phenomena can ever be fully explained by science.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26606.epub.noimages

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data/epubs/pg26606.epub

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2026-07-06 15:37 UTC

Categories

• Short Stories
• Horror