The Little Professor

The Annual Halloween Horrorama! Scary Objects Edition

In this year's roundup of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century horror, we have...fifteen spooky things.  Clothes.  Bags.  Bedsheets.  Paintings.  Books.  You might want to keep a close eye on your knicknack shelves.

(For previous installments, see 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.  Alas, all links to HorrorMasters are now duds.) 

  • "The Weird Violin" (Gaslight).  As a general rule, avoid musical instruments linked to lovers' quarrels.
  • E. F. Benson, "The Room in the Tower" (Gaslight).  I've linked this before, but it's always good for a scare.  Remember that when the paintings move, so should you.
  • ---, "The Other Bed" (Moonlight Stories).  You may wish to make sure that that empty bed is actually empty. 
  • Algernon Blackwood, "The Kit-Bag"  (Project Gutenberg).  It's probably a good idea to check the provenance of your various luggage items.
  • Mme. Blavatsky,  "The Ensouled Violin" (Gaslight).  A violin gets humanized, as it were.
  • Bernard Capes, "The Green Bottle" (Horror Stories).  Wine bottles have been known to contain things other than wine. 
  • Hugh Conway, "The Secret of the Stradivarius" (Gaslight).  If your musical instruments could talk...
  • W. W.  Jacobs, "The Monkey's Paw" (Gaslight).  Those three wishes can be tricky things.
  • Henry James, "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" (The Ladder).  Ah, the dangers of jealousy...
  • M. R. James, "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" (Gaslight).  Why you should never engage in archaeology.
  • ---, "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook" (Literary Gothic).  Collecting antiquarian books is often contraindicated.
  • ---, "The Haunted Doll's House" (PDF only) (Literary Gothic).  Small doll things can be as scary as big ones.
  • Edith Nesbit, "The Ebony Frame" (Literary Gothic).  A new frame animates an old painting.
  • ---, "The Power of Darkness" (Pseudopodium).  May cause permanent allergies to Madame Tussaud's.
  • Bram Stoker, "The Judge's House" (Victorian Ghost Stories).  Bell ropes + paintings of hanging judges = well, you figure it out. 
books