Horror | Lecturia

H. P. Lovecraft: The Music of Erich Zann

“The Music of Erich Zann” is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, published in March 1922 in The National Amateur magazine. The story follows a young metaphysics student who, searching for cheap lodgings, moves into a dilapidated boarding house on Rue d’Auseil, a steep and strangely inaccessible street. He meets Erich Zann, a mute violinist living in the highest attic room. Fascinated by the disturbing music he hears every night from his room, the narrator tries to get closer to the mysterious musician, unaware that behind each note lies an alien and terrifying reality.

Bram Stoker: The Secret of the Growing Gold

“The Secret of the Growing Gold” is a disturbing Gothic short story by Bram Stoker, published on January 23, 1892, in the magazine Black and White. The story takes place at Brent’s Rock, an old country mansion where the arrival of Margaret Delandre scandalizes the community. After breaking up with her family, Margaret moves in with the aristocrat Geoffrey Brent in a relationship that many consider inappropriate. The relationship between the two is stormy and violent. In an atmosphere of resentment and overflowing passions, an intrigue full of secrets develops, in which the past threatens to resurface in unexpected ways.

Horacio Quiroga: The Decapitated Chicken

“The Decapitated Chicken” (La gallina degollada) is a short story by Horacio Quiroga that was first published on July 10, 1909, in the magazine Caras y Caretas and later included in the collection Cuentos de amor locura y muerte (1917). It tells the story of Mazzini and Berta, a married couple whose first four children suffer a mysterious deterioration in their development that causes them severe cognitive limitations. The parents, caught between despair and love, are plunged into a cycle of anguish temporarily alleviated by the birth of their fifth daughter, Bertita, who grows up healthy and vigorous. However, the family’s apparent normality is only a facade, and a tragic event reveals the deep fractures that remain within it.

H. G. Wells: The Valley of Spiders

“The Valley of Spiders” is a short story by H. G. Wells, published in March 1903 in Pearson’s Magazine. It tells the story of three horse riders who are pursued across an inhospitable landscape, searching for a pair of fugitives. After several days of marching through a barren and lonely landscape, the men enter a wide, silent valley that appears uninhabited but soon senses an unsettling presence. As the wind intensifies, an unexpected threat emerges from the sky, transforming the hunt into a struggle for survival in an increasingly hostile environment.

C. M. Eddy Jr. & H. P. Lovecraft: The Loved Dead

C. M. Eddy, Jr. & H. P. Lovecraft - Los amados muertos

“The Loved Dead” is a short story written by C. M. Eddy, Jr. and H. P. Lovecraft and published in Weird Tales in May 1924. The story follows the confession of a man marked since childhood by a grim fascination with death. His withdrawn and melancholic nature sets him apart from others from his earliest years. One day, during his grandfather’s funeral, he experiences a disturbing revelation that will transform his life. From then on, his existence is driven by an irresistible desire to get closer to the dead, unleashing a dark and tragic obsession.

H. G. Wells: In the Avu Observatory

“In the Avu Observatory” is a short story by H. G. Wells, published on August 9, 1894, in the Pall Mall Budget magazine. Set in a remote astronomical station in the jungles of Borneo, it narrates the disturbing experience of Woodhouse, a young assistant who is left alone in the observatory while he makes stellar observations. The tranquility of the tropical night, with its distant sounds and the vast darkness of the forest, is transformed into an atmosphere charged with tension and uncertainty when an unknown presence bursts into the enclosure.