Gates of Imagination

American millionaire Rufus Van Aldin has only one weakness: his daughter Ruth. She, on the other hand, has two weaknesses: jewels and dangerous men. The paternal gift, the Ruby Flame Heart, will not bring her happiness... Catherine Grey is also traveling on the Blue Train, and she was the last to see the victim alive. From her testimony, Hercule Poirot begins his work. Who murdered the millionaire...

The plot of the book is almost identical to the story presented in the first three sonnets of the Fungi from Yuggoth. In other words, the protagonist in a peculiar bookstore purchases a book of extraordinary and dangerous power for a paltry sum of money. This is only a fragment of the story, likely written during the period when Lovecraft was experimenting with prose to improve his own texts. Beco...

A short story by the American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe. Its theme revolves around attempts to avoid a dangerous plague called the Red Death by the main protagonist, Prince Prospero. The story follows the footsteps of gothic literature and is often interpreted as an allegory of the inevitability of death, although such an analysis is not recommended by some critics. There are many explanatio...

Lovecraft writes about the short story in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith dated October 22, 1933: "A few months ago, I had a dream about an evil clergyman in the attic filled with forbidden books" (quote from: H.P. Lovecraft. Biography). The evil clergyman was extracted from a letter to Bernard Austin Dwyer. The latter copied a fragment of the correspondence and titled it "The Wicked Clergyman." Au...

A short novella about a brave nation attempting to slay a terrible beast that no one has seen. As S.T. Joshi claims, this miniature is thirty percent authored by Lovecraft. He introduced some linguistic corrections and also proposed the title. Although this contribution seems small, the text is included in the definitive edition of Lovecraft's works, "H.P. Lovecraft’s Collected Fiction: A Variorum...

Ebenezer Scrooge is heartless, stingy, and selfish. He spends his entire days in his office, buried in hefty accounting books. He avoids good deeds like the plague, is never pleasant, and despises Christmas. However, under the influence of extraordinary events that unfold on a certain Christmas Eve, his life undergoes a complete transformation... A timeless tale of the magic of Christmas, of doing...

The Memories of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of eleven stories about the famous London detective. Holmes, along with his friend Dr. Watson, as always, takes on the challenge of solving many complicated mysteries. One of them leads to a deadly encounter with Professor Moriarty, a dangerous yet brilliant criminal and Holmes's greatest adversary. The meeting takes place near the Reichenbach Falls....

A story about a scientist who discovers a deadly species of fly in Africa and wishes to use it for the elimination of an adversary. He disregards the superstitions of the Africans who believe that the soul of the one killed by this "devilish fly" enters the body of the insect. Another work almost entirely authored by Lovecraft. His creation was particularly the idea concluding the Winged Death, ev...

A group of men gather in New Orleans to distribute the estate of the missing Randolph Carter. One of them claims that Carter is alive and begins to weave an incredible tale of his adventures. E. Hoffman Price, during Lovecraft's visit to his home in New Orleans in June 1931, tried to persuade the Providence writer to create a continuation of Randolph Carter's adventures after the character disappe...

The history of the decades that draws people into another world, where life persists infinitely in a distorted form. In May 1931, Lovecraft visited the town of Dunedin, where his acquaintance, Henry St. Clair Whitehead, lived. It was during this time or shortly thereafter that he assisted him with "The Trap." About three-quarters of the story is the work of the writer from Providence—compact sente...

The reliable duo from Baker Street once again faces criminal mysteries. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is the first collection of stories about the work of the most famous detective. Using the method of deduction, he deciphers every, even the most mysterious case. His eccentric behavior surprises, astonishes, and amuses, but ultimately allows reaching the truth. Holmes often finds himself in...

The unlucky traveler loses his way and ends up at a dilapidated estate. The owner of the property tells him the story of when, in his youth, he brought his wife back from a trip to France. The woman brought ruin to the household and its residents. No one knew what she truly was. Series: Cthulhu Mythos Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gates-of-imagination--696230...

Fascinated by history, young Charles Dexter Ward begins to delve into the life and activities of his ancestor, Joseph Curwen, who had a reputation as a researcher of dark secrets and a sorcerer. In his research, he goes a step too far, endangering not only his own life and sanity but also the lives of others. The brevity of the above plot outline does not convey the true wealth of details in Lovec...

The poem by Edgar Allan Poe, first published on January 29, 1845, in the New York Evening Mirror. The poet read it publicly for the first time in a literary salon hosted by his friend Anne Lynch Botta. The work is noteworthy for its distinct, rhythmic, melodic sound, linguistic stylization, and a sense of horror. It tells of a mysterious visit that a speaking raven makes to a man in despair after...

A certain man embarks on a business trip to Mexico. In the train, he finds himself alone in a compartment with someone who turns out to be a dangerous maniac. Another story being revised for Adolphe de Castro (the previous one being The Last Test). Lovecraft agreed to take it on solely because Castro paid upfront for the revisions. The writer struggled with this text, which held no promise, so for...

The calm prevailing on Baker Street is interrupted by the visit of Mary Morstan. A beautiful, young woman seeks help from Sherlock Holmes. It turns out that for the past 10 years, on the anniversary of her father's mysterious disappearance, someone sends her a precious pearl. This time, however, she also received a letter, in which there is a proposal for a meeting. Undertaking the unraveling of t...

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are the most famous detective duo in the world. Like every story, theirs also has a beginning. Find out how their legend started. "A Study in Scarlet" is the beginning of the tale of Sherlock Holmes, whom we get to know through Dr. Watson - his faithful friend and the narrator. In this volume, Sherlock Holmes is asked by the police to help solve a mysterious mur...

A humorous tale of a fictional scholar from the 4th century, and his skull. The inspiration for the story stemmed from the mistaken belief of Maurice W. Moego's students that "ibid." (an abbreviation for the Latin "ibidem," meaning "in the same place") was the author's surname. The piece, in the process, serves as a satire on academic erudition and the meticulousness of scholarly work. Become a su...

A melodramatic tale of a doctor searching for a cure to a mysterious affliction tormenting San Francisco. His sinister assistant, Surama, "helps" him. Adolphe de Castro was an author much older than Lovecraft, best known for his acquaintance with Ambrose Bierce (whom he tried to exploit in various ways). When he met H.P. Lovecraft, he was still aspiring to be a writer, and things were going so poo...

Lovecraft's story regarding a tram conductor whose head transforms into tentacles, recorded in a letter dated November 25, 1927, to Donald Wandrei. The story is currently considered inauthentic, as it is partially not authored by Lovecraft. The content of two letters, one containing 'The Very Old Folk' and the other with this 'work,' Wandrei sold to the publisher of the magazine 'Scienti-Snaps' (l...

Edward Pendrick, the sole survivor of a shipwreck, lands on a mysterious island inhabited by the eccentric, brilliant scientist Dr. Moreau and his assistant Montgomery. Dr. Moreau's passion is physiology - he incessantly works on crossbreeding various animal species, simultaneously enriching them with human traits. These horrifying and macabre experiments soon spiral out of control, unleashing tru...

The so-called "Roman dream," excerpted from a letter to Donald Wandrei dated November 2, 1927. In this dream, Lovecraft was a quaestor in one of the Spanish provinces under Roman rule. In the town of Pompeii, an ancient people threatened the city, performing terrifying rituals every year on the eve of November. This dream, rich in details and frightening in its suggestiveness, was inspired in the...

Multiple times adapted for the screen (including by Steven Spielberg), and in 1938 reworked by Orson Welles into a radio drama, the broadcast of which went down in history. Read years later, it turns out to be a prophetic work, a kind of foreshadowing of the 20th-century world wars. How do people - both individuals and entire communities - behave in the face of an invasion that threatens mass dest...

In the dark world of Edgar Allan Poe, where crime and madness intertwine in a terrifying web, a mysterious black cat appears. This extraordinary creature becomes a symbol of evil and curse, and its presence in the protagonist’s life leads to shocking events. The reader is drawn into a dark tale of crime, guilt, and insanity, with each page revealing new secrets and surprising twists. ‘The Black Ca...

Four people dream of, naturally, taking over the world. To achieve this, they plan to use not only their influence and money, but also the latest scientific research! With such prospects in mind, they have no regard for human life. Those who stand in their way die at the hands of a mysterious killer. No one can feel safe. Here nothing is what it seems. Four against one is... a perfect opportunity...