Snoozecast Presents: Spooky Stories

Tonight, to kick off our fourth annual Spooky Sleep Stories series, we’ll read the opening to the novella “The Willows” written by Algernon Blackwood and first published in 1907. This year’s series of classic horror stories will air every Monday this October.

In this story, two friends are midway on a canoe trip down the River Danube. The natural environment, for example the river, sun and wind— is personified with powerful and ultimately threatening characteristics. Most ominous are the masses of dense willows along the river banks, which "moved of their own will as though alive."

This is one of Blackwood's best known works and has been influential on a number of later writers. Horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature. "The Willows" is an example of early modern horror and is connected within the literary tradition of weird fiction.

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Tonight, for the final episode of our third annual Classic Horror Sleep Story Series this October, we will read the Edgar Allan Poe tale “Ligeia”.

The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired woman. She falls ill and dies- but not for long. 

​​It may or may not have all been a hallucination of the narrator, and the story may or may not have been a satire by Poe of the Gothic genre itself. 

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Tonight, as part of our third annual October classic horror sleep story series, we’ll read an excerpt from “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus,” an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley.

“Frankenstein” tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, and this excerpt is from his point of view. He is a young scientist who creates a human-like creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.

Shelley was only 20 years old when her book was anonymously published. Today, the novel is generally considered to be a landmark work of Romantic and Gothic literature, as well as science fiction.

This is the second time Snoozecast is featuring this book. During our first annual horror series in 2019, we aired the very opening to the novel, which consists of letters meant to cradle the ultimate narrative of Frankenstein. Tonight’s episode is meant to start at the heart of the story.

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***Dear Listeners, we regret this episode was not available at it's regularly scheduled time but are happy to announce that 'V' just welcomed the next little snoozer 'X' into this world on 10/13/21, please accept our apologies for the delay and we hope you enjoy this next episode in our October horror series***

Tonight, as part of our third annual October classic horror sleep story series, airing every Wednesday this October, we’ll read our adaptation of the opening to “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” It is the third full novel featuring Sherlock Holmes and was published in 1901, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyal.

“The Hound of the Baskervilles” is a mystery about an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a diabolical hound of supernatural origin. One of the most famous stories ever written, it is considered by Sherlockian scholars to be the most perfect novel.

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Tonight, for the start of our third annual Classic Horror sleep story series, we’ll read the opening to “The Phantom of the Opera” written by Gaston Leroux, published in 1909. Be sure to catch our other snoozy, and a bit creepy, sleep stories every Wednesday this October.

This novel is partly inspired by historical events at the Paris Opera during the nineteenth century, and partly by an apocryphal tale concerning the use of a former ballet pupil's skeleton, inspired by a German opera.

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Tonight, for the last episode of our second annual October classic horror series, we’ll read a Snoozecast original called “Night Spell.” 

It’s Halloween Night and all the nocturnal animals of the forest will be attending a very important function. Where are they off to this evening? 

Besides a cameo from Maggie in this story, you may also notice poet Robert Frost, for a spell.

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Tonight, during our second annual October classic horror series, we’ll read the opening to "Dracula", an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. 

"Dracula" introduced the character of Count Dracula and established many conventions of subsequent vampire fantasy. The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse.

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Tonight, for our second annual October classic horror series, we’ll read a Swedish fairytale called The Werewolf. 

Until the 20th century, wolf attacks on humans were an occasional, but still widespread feature of life in Europe. Some scholars have suggested that it was inevitable that wolves, being the most feared predators in Europe, were projected into the folklore of evil shapeshifters. Areas devoid of wolves typically use different kinds of predator to fill the niche; werehyenas in Africa, weretigers in India, as well as werepumas, and werejaguars in southern South America. 

Werewolvery was a common accusation in witch trials throughout their history. A peak of attention to lycanthropy, or the clinical diagnosis of werewolvery, came in the late 16th to early 17th century, as part of the European witch-hunts.

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Tonight, during our second annual October classic horror series, we'll read "The Ghost Ship", written by Richard Middleton published posthumously in 1912. 

Middleton was a tragic figure - a young man impatient for success, who managed to live the archetypal life of the Romantic Bohemian poet, complete with poverty and unrequited love for an impossible woman. None of his novels were published while he was alive. Soon after his death, he was quote unquote discovered and critically acclaimed for the brilliance of his work and the brevity of his life. 

If you enjoy this story, be sure to check out Snoozecast's other Middleton episode to date, titled "The Magic Carpet."

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Tonight, during our second annual October classic horror series, we’ll read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", a gothic story by American author Washington Irving. Written while Irving was living abroad in Birmingham, England, it is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity, especially during Halloween. 

The Headless Horseman was believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle. Hessians was what the American’s called German soldiers who fought for the British during the Revolutionary War. 

If you enjoy this story, be sure to check out Snoozecast’s earlier episodes of Rip Van Winkle part one and part two, also written by Irving.

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