Tonight, as we are beginning the month that ends with Halloween, we’ll read the first half of “The Diamond Lens”, a short story by Fitz James O’Brien first published in 1858.

Every October, Snoozecast features our Spooky Stories Series—tales with a spectral or uncanny quality, meant to set a certain mood, without keeping you awake. This marks our seventh year of SSS, and we’re beginning with something more curious than chilling.

O’Brien’s tale is steeped in the oddity of early scientific obsession, centering on microscopy—the study of the unseen through magnification. In the author’s hands, the microscope becomes not just a tool of science, but a gateway to another world, blurring the line between discovery and delirium.

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