Project Gutenberg offers classic horror stories that are free to download in several ebook formats
On this list, you’ll find classic horror stories from the 19th and 20th century, including the ones by Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe.
Nowadays, when people want get horrified, they turn on ghost games or watch horror movies. However, both games and movies have one origin.
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Vampires, ghosts, paranormal activities… in the beginning they were seen on the pages on numerous books.
Dracula by Bram Stoker, the works of Edgar Allan Poe or H.P. Lovecraft, are not the only must-reads for anyone who wants to bring some horror to an evening on a sofa.
Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan, now a classic in horror genre, was at first denounced for its deeply decadent style and obscenity.
The House of the Vampire, written by George Sylvester Viereck, is one of the first horror novels to explore the psychic and emotional aspects of vampirism.
In The Lost Stradivarius (John Meade Falkner), the source of the evil is a single object – a found Stradivarius violin.
All the stories are available for free from Project Gutenberg. You can get them to your Kindle or other e-readers and apps, including iPad or iPhone, Kobo, and Nook.
You can use a one-click download to Dropbox or Google Drive, so getting multiple files is pretty easy.
A great thing about Project Gutenberg is that the site offers book collections. This list is based on Horror Bookshelf.
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35 classic horror stories, free to download
1. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
by Ambrose Bierce
Set during the American Civil War, it is the story of Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate sympathizer condemned to death by hanging from Owl Creek Bridge.
This is the most famous story by Ambrose Bierce, valued for its irregular time sequence and twist ending.
2. The Damned Thing
Ambrose Bierce
The story focuses on how the human race takes their views of nature for granted, and how there may be things in the natural world that the human eye cannot see or the human ear cannot hear.
3. The Damned
Algernon Blackwood
One of the short stories from Algernon Henry Blackwood, English novelist and one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre.
4. Four Weird Tales
Algernon Blackwood
The collection contains four short stories: The Insanity of Jones, The Man Who Found Out, The Glamour of the Snow, and Sand.
5. The Wendigo
Algernon Blackwood
Probably one of the best-known stories by Blackwood. A group of men deep in the Northern wilderness are visited by a terrifying creature from Native American legend.
6. The Willows
Algernon Blackwood
H.P. Lovecraft considered this story to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature.
Two friends are on a canoe trip down the Danube. Their antagonist is the surrounding environment (river, sun, wind, and most importantly — the willows) which imbues them with a powerful and threatening character.
7. The King in Yellow
Robert W. Chambers
A collection of ten highly weird stories, described by S.T. Joshi as “a classic in the field of the supernatural.”
8. The Lost Stradivarius
John Meade Falkner
In this Gothic short story, aristocrat John Maltravers, discovers a Stradivarius violin, and becomes obsessed with the instrument.
The black magician’s history and this obsession eventually destroy him.
9. The House on the Borderland
William Hope Hodgson
A supernatural horror story being a hallucinatory account of a recluse’s stay at a remote house, and his experiences of supernatural creatures.
10. The Night Land
William Hope Hodgson
A classic horror novel, described by H.P. Lovecraft as “one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written”.
A gentleman, mourning the death of his beloved woman, is given a vision of a distant future where their souls will be reunited.
11. The Boats of the “Glen Carrig”
William Hope Hodgson
A story about the passengers who escaped in two lifeboats the wreck of a ship, which was lost at sea and struck a hidden rock.
12. The Turn of the Screw
Henry James
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A gothic ghost story novella written by Henry James. It tells a story of how the young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the death of their parents.
13. A Thin Ghost and Others
M. R. James
A collection of ghost stories includes, among others, The Residence at Whitminster, and The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance.
14. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
M. R. James
First collection of ghost stories by M. R. James. The stories rely “on a gentle, bucolic background to emphasize the awfulness of the otherworldly intrusions.”
15. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary – Part 2
M. R. James
The second part of M. R. James’ collection brings 15 more horror stories.
16. Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka
A famous short novel by Franz Kafka, which begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a large, monstrous insect.
16. The Trial
Franz Kafka
One of Kafka’s best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor the reader.
17. Carmilla
Sheridan Le Fanu
This Gothic novella tells the story of a young woman’s susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla.
18. The Shunned House
H.P. Lovecraft
One of H.P. Lovecraft’s best short novels. The protagonist and his uncle, Dr. Elihu Whipple, have been tracking the mysterious, yet apparently coincidental sickness and death of many who have lived in the house on Benefit Street.
19. The Great God Pan
Arthur Machen
A classic horror novella by Arthur Machen was widely considered as degenerate and horrific because of a decadent style and sexual content.
20. The House of Souls (collection)
Arthur Machen
Most notable works by a Welsh author and mystic Arthur Machen. Besides The Great God Pan, you’ll find here also A Fragment of Life, The White People, and The Inmost Light.
21. Animal Ghosts Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter
Elliott O’Donnell
First of three books by Elliot O’Donnell, digitized by Project Gutenberg. The author was known primarily for his books about ghosts.
22. Scottish Ghost Stories
Elliott O’Donnell
A collection of seventeen ghost stories located in Scotland.
22. The Sorcery Club
Elliott O’Donnell
This occult fantasy novel is one of the most popular works of Elliott O’Donnell.
Three people make a pact with the “Unknown” to obtain occult powers. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize with whom they made the pact.
23. Widdershins
Oliver Onions
One of the best ghost story collections by a British writer Oliver Onions. It includes The Beckoning Fair One, widely regarded as a classic of the horror genre.
24. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Volume 1
Edgar Allan Poe
First of the five-volume set of digitized works of Edgar Allan Poe, includes The Gold-Bug, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and The Oval Portrait.
25. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Volume 2
Edgar Allan Poe
The volume includes: The Purloined Letter, The Black Cat, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Masque of the Red Death.
27. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Volume 3
Edgar Allan Poe
In this volume, you’ll find The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, the only complete novel written by Poe.
This is a story of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus.
29. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Volume 4
Edgar Allan Poe
Among the included works: The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, Mellonta Tauta, and The Devil in the Belfry.
30. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Volume 5
Edgar Allan Poe
The last part of the collected works of Poe, includes among others, a short story Hop-Frog. The title character, a dwarf taken from his homeland, becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes.
31. The Vampyre; a Tale
John William Polidori
A horror short story by John William Polidori, is often viewed as the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction.
It tells a story of Aubrey, a young Englishman, who meets Lord Ruthven, a man of mysterious origins who has entered London society.
32. Varney the Vampire: Or the Feast of Blood
Thomas Preskett Prest
It’s a Victorian era serialized gothic horror story by Thomas Preskett Prest. Altogether it totals over 666,000 words, and has been described as the worst book of the 19th century.
33. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
A famous novella by a Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, focuses on a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde.
34. Dracula
Bram Stoker
A classic Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker tells the story of Dracula’s attempt to move from Transylvania to England so he may find new blood and spread undead curse.
35. The House of the Vampire
George Sylvester Viereck
One of the first horror novels to delve into the psychic and emotional aspects of vampirism, lending a measure of psychological suspense to the story.
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There is no friend as loyal as a book — Ernest Hemingway
Apart from serving as a constant companion in solitude, books serve as food for the mind by stimulating our imagination and creativity. However, buying a new book each time can burn a hole in your pockets. Thankfully we have lots of free books online, ready to be read or downloaded without costing you a dime!
Where to read books online for free?
We have compiled a list of the best sites where you can read free ebooks online and download them legally to create your own library of favorite virtual books. In this list of top 12 sites mentioned below, you will find a comprehensive assortment of completely free online books, ranging from classic novels to computer technology guides.
But before you jump to the list of free sites to download ebooks, do check out our other lists of free and legal services:
Now, let’s start this list and tell you different places to grab some amazing stuff to read online or download --
Top 12 websites to download free books online
1. Open Library
“One web page for every book ever published” – is the ultimate goal of Open Library, an initiative of the quite popular Internet Archive which serves as a digital library of Internet sites.
There are millions of free books to read on the website which can be downloaded in other formats such as EPUB, DJVU, MOBI, and PDF. You can search for good reading material on varied subjects and genres such as Fantasy, Biographies, History, Medicine, Art, etc.
Open Library has an advanced search option as well that lets you search ebooks through titles or authors. In case you cannot remember either of them, you can search for a particular free book to read online just by entering a favorite line from the book.
Why use Open Library?
- An extensive collection of free online books in all almost every category one can think of
- Easy to download full books for free in different formats
Visit Open Library
2. Project Gutenberg
With a huge archive of over 57,000 free books for downloading, this website offers a diversified reading collection for readers. As Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to make books available for free of cost, it neither charges any registration fee nor requires you to sign up.
From Classics to Periodicals and History to Social Sciences, there are free books available on all types of subjects. You can search for specific titles or explore by genre and download books in EPUB, MOBI Kindle, HTML, and simple text format too.
In case reading books online is on your resolution list for 2019, do check this free books site as several books are scheduled to enter the public domain for this year. Another perk this site offers is directly saving ebooks to cloud storing services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive easy access.
Why use Project Gutenberg?
- Best for Classical Novels
- Same genre books categorized as ‘bookshelves’ for easy browsing
Visit Project Gutenberg
3. ManyBooks
With more than 50,000 free online books available on the website, ManyBooks serves as an excellent option for bibliophiles to appease their craving for good books. The site hosts a variegated collection of books formatted for eReaders like Kindle and other popular formats such as EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT, etc.
Browsing for books is quite easy on ManyBooks as it offers neatly categorized sections of texts in different genres. Moreover, it has a Recommended and Featured Authors section that can help readers pick their next book.
Every ebook page on this site contains helpful information such as genre, author’s name and word count. As most of the content on ManyBook belongs to the public domain, you can download books legally and free of cost.
Why use ManyBooks?
- Recommended for both classic and contemporary books
- Flesch-Kincaid score on each ebook to indicate how easy or difficult it is to read
- Lets you download books in all formats right from a zip file to PDF to suit your reading device
Visit ManyBooks
4. Bookboon
This website offers free books to read online on every category you can think of. If you are specifically looking for an educational textbook or business book, Bookboon will help you find exactly what you need.
This free book site has thousands of ebooks ready to be download and read. You just need to visit the free section and enter a few details to download books. The website is easy to navigate and well categorized.
Apart from English, Bookboon offers texts in other languages such as German, Dutch, Danish, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Spanish and Czech.
Why use Bookboon?
- Best for downloading educational and business books
- Free books online in multiple languages
- All books available in PDF format
Visit Bookboon website
5. Feedbooks
Feedbooks offers an immense collection of original as well as public domain books for free. The website has a neat interface with well-cataloged sections of books ranging from Short Stories, Mystery Novels, Action, Fantasy, History to even Academic Books and much more.
The Download page for each book displays helpful information such as synopsis, word count, reading hours, publishing date, etc. You can download books online for free without signing up in standard formats such as EPUB, MOBI, and PDF.
Exploring new reading material on Feedbook is easy with the search options. You can find the free books to read on Free Public Domain Books and Free Original Books section. Besides, it has sections like Bestsellers, New Releases and Editorial Reviews which can help you to find new books to read online.
Why use Feedbooks?
- No registration required
- Mobile browser friendly website
- Fast website and easy to navigate.
Visit Feedbooks
6. Free-eBooks
The tagline of this website “Read Anywhere. Anytime” says it all. Free-eBooks offers good literary works of fiction, non-fiction, and academic texts. The UI of the site may seem a little cluttered, but if you spend some time digging around the website, you will find a lot of free books to read.
There is a featured section on the website which showcases the best ebooks at a particular time and great books of all time. Browse through categories to find what you like. Although there is a limit of 5 ebook downloads per month and that too in PDF format, the rich collection of free books to read on the website makes up for it.
Why use Free-eBooks?
- Showcases curated lists of genre-specific books and best pick of the month to help you discover good reading material
- Offers audiobooks as well
Visit Free-eBooks
7. LibriVox
Would you rather listen to books instead of reading them? Try LibriVox. It is a digital library of audiobooks which are absolutely free. The free audiobooks are read by volunteers that work to release quality recordings of classic books.
Even though audiobooks aren’t technically ebooks, it is surely a great way to enjoy books when you are on the move and keeps you entertained. It is also a great help for the visually impaired and helps them enjoy great literary works for free.
You can download the titles in MP3 and there are links to the ebook versions available on each title’s page. LibriVox also runs weekly podcast in case you are interested. Since all books are recorded in 128 kbit/s, it makes a pleasant listening experience.
Why use LibriVox?
- Best site for downloading free audiobooks
- Good quality audio
- Helpful for visually impaired
8. Smashwords
If you are looking for some literary work by Indie authors, Smashwords is the right place to look. This online directory of books offers content created by independent authors and publishers across the world.
The collection of online books present on Smashwords includes several subject topics and genres such as Adventure, Business, Classics, Fantasy, History, Religion, Philosophy and many more. Just make sure you click the “free” tab before searching for a book.
You can search the platform using quick filter buttons like word count and ratings to find ebooks according to your tastes and download free ebooks in various formats such as EPUB, MOBI, PDB, and TXT.
Why use Smashwords?
- A collection of over 475,000 online ebooks to read
- For those who have a penchant for writing, can publish on their literary work on this platform
Visit Smashwords
9. PDF Books World
If you are looking for a good website where you can read and download ebooks in PDF format for free, your search ends here. This ebook publisher digitizes books that have attained the public domain status to be downloaded in PDF format which can be read on many devices.
The interface of PDF Books World is easy to use, and the content has been categorized into fiction, non-fiction, novels, academic and juvenile section. The comprehensive bookshelves on this platform offer free pdf books on any subject for readers of all ages.
Unlike other platforms, PDF Books World does not list any download links to external websites. Instead, they store it on their server itself and offer free membership for a lifetime.
Why use PDF Books World?
- For downloading free ebooks in PDF format
Visit PDF Books World
10. Bookyards
This web portal lets you browse thousands of free books online as well as audiobooks in various genres like Art, Biography, Computers, Fiction, History and much more.
Bookyard has a pretty simple webpage where you can either publish or download books for free according to authors or categories you prefer. Downloading content from Bookyards is hassle-free and does not require registration.
Visitors to this website can also choose to donate if they wish to and check out the educational links to more reference materials and documents.
Why use Bookyards?
- For downloading PDF books and converting it to Kobo
- Easy sharing option on various platforms
Visit Bookyards
11. Hathi Trust
Hathi Trust is a digital library dedicated to the student community. It has been formed by a partnership of major research institutions and libraries who have joined hands to ensure that all cultural records are preserved in a digitized format for the use of future generations.
Numerous academic research organizations in the U.S. and libraries around the world act as the source of digitized content hosted on this website. It has a powerful search option which lets you find free books online in is database through titles or authors.
Hathi Trust has a compilation of pre-curated collections of texts on topics such as Ancestry, Manuscripts, and Old Psychology Texts. One can read books online on this website without registration, but downloading them requires you to sign up.
Why use Hathi Trust?
- For classic literary work and academic texts
Visit Hathi Trust
12. Wikibooks
If you are looking for non-fiction content, Wikibooks might be the best place to begin. As a part of the non-profit organization Wikimedia Foundation, the site hosts an extensive collection of ebooks on subjects like Humanities, Engineering, Computing, Science, Languages, and other academic topics.
Navigating through the website is pretty easy and further of subjects into multiple categories makes it easier to find specific content. Otherwise, you can always use the search option to conduct a site-wide search as well.
You can either read books online on the website or download PDF files for offline reading. Its Featured Books section displays books that are liked by a majority of Wikibooks community to help other readers in selecting ebooks to read.
Why use Wikibooks?
- Recommended for textbooks (mostly academic)
Visit Wikibooks
Final Words: Which free book site you’ll prefer?
All the aforementioned online sources offer a fine collection of books. Besides, these websites haven’t been listed in any particular order so go ahead and knockout yourself with a rich collection of free books on these platforms. Since they offer a deluge of reading material, I am sure you won’t be running out of your stash of books anytime soon. Meanwhile, if you come across some other good websites for free books online that we might have missed out, do share with us in the comment section.
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