$17.00 ... PAPERBACK

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Gripping stories of danger and suspense have always been strangely attractive reading, especially when life begins to grow predictable and boring. The desire to shift in the imagination from a reality where we enjoy safe, cozy house with plenty of food and a reliable-if-tedious job to a fantasy world invaded by hideous dangers where escape is doubtful and survival unlikely is one of the stranger impulses of human psychology. But it is a time-honored tradition: since the popularization of the 1001 Arabian Nights, with its white-knuckle tales of derring-do, break-neck perils, and nick-of-time escapes, humans have thrilled in reading stories about perilous escapes.

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Mankind still has an insatiable appetite to imagine, and to seek battle with the elements that he understands pose the ultimate risk to the species. We long to experience – from a place of safety, say an armchair in a library – the perils that tested the mettle of our forefathers, to face starvation, immolation, dehydration, hypothermia, or wild animals and to come out on top. For those who are interested in such masochistic escapism, this collection of classics and rarities alike from the Golden Age of suspense thrillers is the perfect solution. From “The Pit and the Pendulum” to “The Most Dangerous Game,” it offers your imagination the chance to slip into a state of high-adventure… to get away from it all.

To paraphrase the opening lines of Escape:

 

"Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you [an escape]… designed to free you from the four walls of today…"

 

And indeed, we do...

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TALES INCLUDED IN THIS EDITION:

                  

A Dreadful Night – Edwin Lester Arnold                            

The Country of the Blind – H. G. Wells                              

The Stranger – Ambrose Bierce                                          

The Brazilian Cat – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle                 

A Haunted Island – Algernon Blackwood                           

The Iron Shroud – William Mudford                                   

The Grain Ship – Morgan Robertson                                  

A Tropical Horror – William Hope Hodgson                      

The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes – Rudyard Kipling    

The Bamboo Trap – Robert S. Lemmon                              

The Most Dangerous Game – Richard Connell                    

A Terribly Strange Bed – Wilkie Collins                            

A Nightmare of the Doldrums – W. Clark Russell               

The Third Drug – E. Nesbit                                                

Buried Alive – E. W. Hornung                                           

The Arm-Chair of Tustenuggee – William Gilmore Simms   

The Pit and the Pendulum – Edgar Allan Poe                      

The Outcasts of Poker Flat – Bret Harte                              

An Occurrence at Owl-Creek Bridge – Ambrose Bierce       

The Kelpie – Frederick Graves                                         

The Valley of the Spiders – H. G. Wells                       

The Interlopers – Saki                                                        

A Descent into the Maelström – Edgar Allan Poe                

Life-Like – Martin Swayne                                                

The Almedi Concession – Fred M. White                            

The Mystery of the Derelict – William Hope Hodgson        

The Fog – Morley Roberts                                                 

The Gorilla – Henry W. Shoemaker                                    

The Burial of the Rats – Bram Stoker