Book excerpt: Ghosts, murder, demonic possession, and psychological torment: these are just some of the subjects taken up by the unparalleled writers in this superb collection. Lovers of the supernatural will discover the true masters of the genre, and readers of classic literature will discover another side of their favorite Victorian, French, and American authors. In “La Grande Bretèche” by the great French nineteenth-century writer Honoré de Balzac, a doctor discovers an abandoned manor with a disturbing history. Victorian master Thomas Hardy’s “The Three Strangers” proves just how hard it is to judge a man’s character, even when a life is at stake. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s exciting and suspenseful trilogy “The Suicide Club,” a detective delves into a dark association whose members are intent on losing their lives. And in “Green Tea,” by the incomparable ghost-story writer Sheridan Le Fanu, a detective of the occult investigates the case of a clergyman haunted by a demon in the form of an ethereal monkey. This chilling collection also includes stories by: Edgar Allan Poe Henry James Willa Cather Charles Dickens Guy de Maupassant Rudyard Kipling Nathaniel Hawthorne Charlotte Brontë And more