The anthology offered to the attention of readers includes stories and short stories by English and American writers of the 19th and 20th centuries, dedicated to frightening human encounters with supernatural phenomena. The mystical and mysterious incidents told in these stories open the door to otherworldly and infernal dimensions of existence, putting the heroes in dangerous, risky, chilling situations - face to face with ghosts and the living dead. Behind the veil of everyday reality, the authors of the collection (among whom are E. Gaskell, C. Dickens, E. Bulwer-Lytton, H. James, W. Collins, J. S. Le Fanu, H. Walpole, J. Eliot) discover an eerie Gothic a world that refutes rational philosophical constructs and self-confident claims to omniscience inherent in modern man.