Show Notes
Summary: A man encounters a terrific monster and believes it to be an omen of his own death. Background Information: "The Sphinx" was only published once, in Philadelphia's Arthur's Ladies Magazine during January of 1846. The story takes place right outside of New York City, where Poe was living with Virginia at the time. The story is set fourteen years into the past in 1832, when a terrible epidemic of cholera had indeed infected the people of New York City. This is a historical fact, and thousands of people died as a result. The relevance to Poe's time is that, in 1846, a new sort of epidemic had infected the populace, principally his very wife, Virginia. The horror that the narrator reflects throughout his tale for his dying friends no doubt reveals Poe's own fears about the imminent death that is soon to claim Virginia's life, which shall be taken a year later on January 30, 1847.Narrated by and Sound Design by Jon Fredette.
More from The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane
First published in 1902 by Harper's Monthly and reprinted in his third collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge (also, 1902). The Monkey's Paw is one of the most well-known, adapted, and influential horror short stories ever written.
Arthur Machen, the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He has garnered a reputation as one most influential classic horror story authors to have ever written.
First published in the émigré journal Posledniya Novosti in Paris in 1931. Translated by the author and his son, the story was published in English in The New Yorker in May, 1963, and later added to A Russian Beauty and Other Stories.Three men traverse an area of unknown country, the tropical hell of Badonia, in hopes of reaching the Gurano Hills and escaping Zonraki. Gregson, Cook by Nik Marvin Valiere, Narration, Sound Design, and Music by Jon Fredette
Originally published under the title "A Moonlight Fable" in the April 10, 1909, number of Collier's Weekly. A young man acquires a hand-woven suit from his mother, and, becoming obsessed with its beauty over a period of days, he flees into the night with it. Narration, Sound Design, and Music by Jon Fredette.
First published in Zenith in February 1942 and later revised and published in Future in January of 1952. Collected in The Best of Arthur C. Clarke 1937-1955. Upon discovering a terminal illness that will kill him within a year, an influential cult leader known only as "The Master" enters deep cryosleep for a century in hopes of awakening once a cure has been discovered. Narration, Music, and Sound Design by Jon Fredette.