Aw, Heck! It's the Annual Hodgepodge of Halloween Horrors!

This year's theme: nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scary, creepy, and otherwise yikes-inducing stories by Irish, Scottish, and (a couple of) Welsh authors.  

Joseph Downes, "The Tragical Passion of Marmaduke Paull": A woman becomes obsessed with having a child, then somehow acquires one.  

Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Captain of the 'Pole Star'": During a sea voyage, the captain begins to behave...oddly.  

---, "The Horror of the Heights": A pilot discovers that he's not alone up there.  

Gerald Griffin, "The Brown Man": ...What are we having for dinner, exactly?

James Hogg, "The Brownie of the Black Haggs": Lady Wheelhope, an irreligious employer known for being vicious to her servants, meets her match.  

J. S. Le Fanu, "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street": Yet another illustration of the dangers of renting a house--namely, that the house may be occupied by the ghost of a hanging judge.

---, "Mr. Justice Harbottle": Le Fanu's revised version of the story above, this time focusing on the judge himself.  

---, "Devereux's Dream": A man avenges himself on the murderer of his wife.

---, Carmilla: As a general rule, one should ascertain that your prospective guest is not a vampire before inviting them in.

George MacDonald, "Uncle Cornelius His Story": A reminder that there are things in life more important than balancing the books.  

Arthur Machen, "The Bowmen": Some soldiers get an unusual assist.  

Fitz-James O'Brien, "What Was It?": Well, something is in the room...

Elliott O'Donnell, "Glamis Castle": A report on all the frightening incidents that happened therein.  

Margaret Oliphant, "The Library Window": A young woman has repeated visions of a man at a desk...

Charlotte Riddell, "A Strange Christmas Game": A mysterious disappearance is explained, thanks to a ghostly game of cards.

Walter Scott, "Wandering Willie's Tale": Inset tale from Redgauntlet, in which poor Willie finds himself wandering to the nether regions.    

Robert Louis Stevenson, "Markheim": A murderer receives a surprise visit.  

---, "The Body-Snatcher": Yes, acquiring corpses for dissection can be aggravating.  

Bram Stoker, "The Judge's House": A student finds something interfering with his study habits.  Probably a response to "Aungier Street," above.  

---, "The Dualitists: Or, the Death Doom of the Double Born": Two young boys devoted to "hacking" (fighting with knives, not the computer variety) proceed to combat with plates, animals, and young children, wreaking death and destruction as they go.  A dark parody of didactic fiction (the boys are "Harry Merford" and "Tommy Santon," an allusion to Thomas Day's The History of Sandford and Merton).

Oscar Wilde, "The Canterville Ghost": No-holds-barred parody of the ghost story genre.