It’s midnight. Turn out the lights, cuddle with your true love, and shiver to fright-meisters Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. P. Lovecraft. Quicken your pulse with the elegant terror of Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Guy de Maupassant. Chortle at the black glee of H. H. Munro and Ambrose Bierce.

These fourteen tales, plays, and poems, gleaned from cultures around the world, range from wickedly comic to deathly serious, from New England reserve to Gallic passion. This volume of late-night listening is a witch’s brew of readings and dramatizations seasoned tastefully, and—where appropriate—not so tastefully, with music and sound effects, under the direction of award-winning producer Yuri Rasovsky and his coven of twenty-odd—some very odd—performers.

Shut your eyes and give your mind a listen—if you dare.