Peter Wacks was an unimpressive and weak man until he came across a mysterious «red paste.» Suddenly, from a harmless being, he turned into a ruthless and cold-blooded killer! Like Jekyll and Hyde, he goes on a murder rampage in the night and during daytime becomes a detective to find the so-called murderer. Will Peter be able to outwit himself and stop his descent into chaos and madness? Or will he succumb under his negative self? Excerpt: "I shall never know what dreadful impulse compels me to write it all down. My life is so many, many times forfeit to the State that were my hideous secret to become known, even now, after all these years, within an hour infuriated crowds would gather at my gate and I should be torn limb from limb without the slightest hope of mercy or reprieve. I shall never be forgiven. My crimes were too brutal. I spared neither young nor old, and every deed of violence that could bring pain and horror it was fiendish joy to do…"
Musaicum Books presents to you this meticulously edited collection of the greatest werewolves classics of all time: The Lay of the Were-Wolf (Marie de France) The Wolf Leader (Alexandre Dumas Père) Wagner the Wehr-wolf (George W. M. Reynolds) The Werewolf (Eugene Field) The Man-Wolf (ÉmileErckmann&AlexandreChatrian) The Mark of the Beast (Rudyard Kipling) The Horror-Horn (E. F. Benson) In the Forest of Villefére (Robert E. Howard) Wolfshead (Robert E. Howard) Werewolf of the Sahara (Gladys Gordon Trenery) The Werewolf Howls (Clifford Ball) The Were-Wolf (Clemence Housman) The Book of Were-Wolves (Sabine Baring-Gould) The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition (Caroline Taylor Stewart)
Jean-Baptiste Barthélemy de Lesseps
This book features a travel account of the scientific expedition led by the French Naval officer and explorer Jean-François de Galaup, count of La Pérouse, written from the perspective of a diplomat who had joined the expedition as an interpreter. The expedition's aims were to complete the Pacific discoveries of James Cook, whom La Pérouse greatly admired, correct and complete maps of the area, establish trade contacts, open new maritime routes and enrich French science and scientific collections. The journey started in August 1785 and took the ships south across the Atlantic Ocean, around Cape Horn to the Pacific, stopping at Easter Island, Hawaii, modern-day Alaska, Macao, Manila, the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and then to the port of Saints Peter and Saint Paul, now Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the eastern side of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Here they rested from their trip, and enjoyed the hospitality of the Russians and Kamchatkans. In letters received from Paris, La Pérouse was ordered to investigate the settlement the British were establishing in New South Wales, Australia. De Lesseps then used a carriage to travel through Krasnoyarsk, Achinsk, Tomsk, Tobolsk, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, and Kungur in the Ural Mountains to Kazan, where he was injured in an accident. To avoid being caught for another winter, he pressed on to Nizhniy Novgorod, then (Veliky) Novgorod, reaching Saint Petersburg, his intended destination in September 1788, more than a year after he started. Given the subsequent loss of both ships, by leaving at Petropavlovsk, de Lesseps became one of three members of the original cast to survive the La Pérouse expedition.
The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream. Set in the town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922, the story concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. The Beautiful and Damned tells the story of Anthony Patch, a 1910s socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune, and his courtship and relationship with his wife Gloria Gilbert. It describes his brief service in the Army during World War I, and the couple's post-war partying life in New York, and his later alcoholism. The novel explores and portrays New York café society and the American Eastern elite during the Jazz Age before and after «the Great War» and in the early 1920s.
The House Under the Sea is an adventure tale set in the Pacific ocean and told by Jasper Begg, veteran sailor who has spent some fifteen years on the ocean. Jasper tells the story of the infamous Ken's Island, the most fearsome place he came across during his marine life. Excerpt: "He indicated the distant reef, which seemed, as I bear witness, ablaze with lights. And not only the reef, mark you, but the sea about it, a cable's length, it may be, to the north and the south, shone like a pool of fire, yellow and golden, and sometimes with a rare and beautiful green light when the darkness deepened. Such a spectacle I shall never see again if I sail a thousand ships! That luscious green of the rolling seas, the spindrift tossed in crystals of light, foam running on the rocks, but foam like the water of jewels, a dazzling radiance—aye, a very carpet of quivering gold. Of this had they made the northern channel. How it was done, what cleverness worked it, it needed greater brains than mine to say. I was for all the world like a man struck dumb with the beauty of something which pleases and awes him in the same breath. We were just a little frightened group that stared open-mouthed upon a seeming miracle. If we regarded the things we saw with a seaman's reverence, let no one make complaint of that. The spectacle was one to awe any man; nor might we forget that those who appeared to live below the sea lived there, as Ruth Bellenden had told us, because the island was a death-trap. We were in the trap and none to show us the road out."
The Lays or Laisof Marie de France were a series of twelve short narrative Breton lais by the poet Marie de France. They were written in Anglo-Norman and were probably composed in the late 12th century. The short, narrative poems generally focus on glorifying the concept of courtly love by the adventures of their main characters. But in translation their poetic quality has been superseded by the narrative content and it is in this form that the work is available to us today. Contents: The Lay of Gugemar The Lay of the Dolorous Knight The Lay of Eliduc The Lay of the Nightingale The Lay of Sir Launfal The Lay of the Two Lovers The Lay of the Were-Wolf The Lay of the Ash Tree The Lay of the Honeysuckle The Lay of Equitan The Lay of Milon The Lay of Yonec The Lay of the Thorn The Lay of Graelent A Story of Beyond the Sea The Chatelaine of Vergi
pThe Lays or Laisof Marie de France were a series of twelve short narrative Breton lais by the poet Marie de France. They were written in Anglo-Norman and were probably composed in the late 12th century. The short, narrative poems generally focus on glorifying the concept of courtly love by the adventures of their main characters. But in translation their poetic quality has been superseded by the narrative content and it is in this form that the work is available to us today. Contents: The Lay of Gugemar The Lay of the Dolorous Knight The Lay of Eliduc The Lay of the Nightingale The Lay of Sir Launfal The Lay of the Two Lovers The Lay of the Were-Wolf The Lay of the Ash Tree The Lay of the Honeysuckle The Lay of Equitan The Lay of Milon The Lay of Yonec The Lay of the Thorn The Lay of Graelent A Story of Beyond the Sea The Chatelaine of Vergi
Soon after receiving a beautiful pearl necklace set as a wedding gift from her husband, the bride is found murdered! Even the pearls are found to be fake. So, who killed the innocent bride? Where are the real pearls? Excerpt: "Kitty Walsh had just been watching the marionettes. At first with keen amusement; but suddenly they had become not funny at all—instead, a sort of ghastly parody on life. They looked so incredibly alive, their actions seemed too intelligent, and yet they were only puppets that were dancing, and making love, and even committing murders with such energy and dash. She shot a glance at Ronald Mills beside her it had been his idea that in lieu of another dance they should watch the Show for a while. He caught her eye and followed her back into the ballroom."
A dead body is found in a hotel's wardrobe and points towards an unfortunate case of drug-overdose. But Inspector Pointer is not convinced and treats it as a murder mystery. Is he right in his presumption? Or, is it indeed a drug-overdose case? Excerpt: "The door opened noiselessly, and four men came in. They were in plain clothes, and one carried a large box. «Evening,» said the first. «I am Chief Inspector Pointer from New Scotland Yard. These are detectives Watts, Miller and Lester. What's wrong?» «I 'phoned,» a tall young man answered crisply. «I am the manager of the hotel. This is Mr. Beale, an American gentleman to whom this room was let a couple of hours ago. It really belongs to a young fellow who is away for the week-end, but as there was no other room available we assigned it to this gentleman for the one night. Mr. Beale has just told me that there is something wrong about the wardrobe you see there. Kindly investigate that large knot-hole in the back for yourself, Inspector.»
Fantazus Mallare is a tortured artist who is slowly descending into madness. In a search for a muse and aided by a dwarf-monster, Goliath, Mallare tries to make sense of the world of reason versus that of insanity. Since its publication in 1924 and being banned in 1928 by the US Government, the book has achieved a cult status that strips the veneer of sanity, religion, lust and art. Musaicum Books presents to you the meticulously edited book with all the original black and white illustrations which earned it both its notoriety and praise. Excerpt: "FantaziusMallare considered himself mad because he was unable to behold in the meaningless gesturings of time, space and evolution a dramatic little pantomime adroitly centered about the routine of his existence. He was a silent looking man with black hair and an aquiline nose. His eyes were lifeless because they paid no homage to the world outside him. When he was thirty-five years old he lived alone high above a busy part of the town. He was a recluse. His black hair that fell in a slant across his forehead and the rigidity of his eyes gave him the appearance of a somnambulist. Twenty-twoHe found life unnecessary and submitted to it without curiosity. His ideas were profoundly simple. The excitement of his neighborhood, his city, his country and his world left him unmoved. He found no diversion in interpreting them. A friend had once asked him what he thought of democracy. This was during a great war being waged in its behalf. Mallare replied: «Democracy is the honeymoon of stupidity.»
A murder mystery thought to have been solved ages ago comes back with a bang when an unidentified body of a man is found at the Dover Beach with severe head injuries. Excerpt: "Elsie and Inskipp watched them disappear. «There, but for the grace of God—» murmured Inskipp unctuously. «I don't think any one should be as ugly as those two are,» said Elsie. She spoke meditatively, objectively. She was an artist, and, incidentally, a very pretty girl. And as though to give her another look at them, the brother and sister suddenly reappeared, walking briskly towards them. As usual, Florence Rackstraw was in the lead. She was very tall. Her head was too large for her bony body, and seemed to be all face, a face the colour of mottled mahogany. Her hair, straight as that of a mouse, was looped in two curtains over her ears and gathered into a tight little bun on her long, scraggy neck. Her eyes protruded. Her chin retreated. Her nose was hooked. Her mouth consisted of two thin, pale lines that slanted up to one side."