Barry Pain was noted for his humorous tales of "Eliza" and her husband but his tales of the weird and supernatural are equally noteworthy. This volume of More "Tales in the Dark" contains eight of them. They are:
"The Gray Cat"
"Post-Mortem"
"Linda"
"The Unfinished Game"
"The Widower"
"The Unseen Power"
"The End of a Show"
"This is All"
Barry Pain was noted for his humorous tales of "Eliza" and her husband but his tales of the weird and supernatural are equally noteworthy. This volume contains seven of them. They are:
"The Undying Thing"
"The Moon-slave"
"The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit"
"The Four-fingered Hand"
"The Glass of Supreme Moments"
"The Green Light"
"The Tower"
"Eliza" was the first volume of the Eliza Stories by Barry Pain (1864-1928). It was published in 1900 and was the first of these stories that appeared in cheap editions and were sold on Railway bookstalls. The stories were hugely popular and made Pain's name. Although the book is titled "Eliza" it is her husband who is it's comic hero.
The husband, whose name we never learn, is an overbearing, pretentious prig who believes he is right about everything but is constantly undermined and proved wrong by his long-suffering wife. He is without doubt one of the great comic creations in the tradition of Mr Pooter in "The Diary of a Nobody."
Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his outstanding ghost and horror stories.
'The Grey Cat' is a supernatural story about a very peculiar and sinister cat which follows an explorer home from Central Africa to London. It bears an uncanny resemblance to an old carved jade statuette of a cat which the man purchased before his departure...the one which the antiquarian dealer had tried to buy back from him hours later for double the price paid...and which is eagerly sought by a wealthy African gentleman in a grey suit.
Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his outstanding ghost and horror stories.
'The Grey Cat' is a supernatural story about a very peculiar and sinister cat which follows an explorer home from Central Africa to London. It bears an uncanny resemblance to an old carved jade statuette of a cat which the man purchased before his departure...the one which the antiquarian dealer had tried to buy back from him hours later for double the price paid...and which is eagerly sought by a wealthy African gentleman in a grey suit.
Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his outstanding mystery and horror stories, often with a strange twist at the end.
"A Considerable Murder" is the odd tale of a retired gentleman and his daughter who are suddenly imposed upon by an old, sick and highly cantankerous old man... a former friend of their father and grandfather, who had helped them out in earlier years. The old man is dying... is not expected to live more than a few days... and desperately needs somewhere to stay.
But the old man does not die. For weeks... months... he hangs on, terrorizing the household. And in the desk, there are little packets of two drugs, which if combined, create an untraceable poison so potent that it will kill within the hour.
Can the temptation to murder be resisted? And for how long?
Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his ghost and horror stories.
This Is All tells the story of Alexander Wyatt ,who has a morbid fear of dying. Unfortunately Wyatt is ill with a heart condition which, in combination with his paranoid anxiety and depression, threatens to become life threatening. His doctor prescribes a strict regime of early nights and no caffeine. But when the manservant absent-mindedly brings Wyatt a cup of coffee, a set of terrible events is set in motion.
Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his ghost and horror stories.
\"The Missing Years\" is the haunting tale of Sylvia Hetheril, who goes out to post letters one day and fails to return. All enquiries and advertisements fail to trace her, and eventually her family are forced to abandon the search.
On the same day that Sylvia Hetheril disappears, a mysterious woman named Sylvia arrives at a remote house near the coast. She is suffering from amnesia and remembers nothing about her past, her family or where she came from. She only knows that she is needed at this house...and indeed her arrival saves a man\'s life.
Two years later Sylvia Hetheril\'s brother, Charles, receives a letter from his missing sister, announcing that she is about to re-enter their lives. Her return is perhaps even stranger than her disappearance.
Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his ghost and horror stories.
\"Miracles\" is the tale of two extraordinarily talented men, Best and Bliss, who develop a way of communicating nonverbally and use it for a career on the stage as mind readers. But when a bereaved mother asks them to try to contact her dead son, things take on a highly unexpcted twist.
Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his ghost and horror stories.
"The Magnet" is the uncanny story of a very unusual copycat mass murderer.
Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his outstanding ghost and horror stories.
This selection gives a marvellous insight into the strength and diversity of Pain's writing. Collection includes "The Missing Years", "Rose Rose", "Miracles", "The End of a Show", "The Giraffe Problem", "The Green Light", "The Tree of Death", "The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit" and "The Magnet".
Barry Eric Odell Pain (1864-1928) was an English journalist, poet, and writer best known for his ghost and horror stories.
The Tree of Death is a haunting story with something of a fairy tale character to it...but a fairy tale that turns into a gruesome horror story as the narrative unfolds.
A wealthy young man falls in love with a young girl in his village, but she does not return his love. But when the storyteller tells the tale of The Tree of Death, she reveals to the young man that it has been foretold that a man bringing her the seed of that tree will be her lover. He immediately sets about his plans to obtain this very dangerous seed. But his actions set in motion a set of extraordinary and terrifying events.
