We are all driven by needs, desires, ambitions and many other forces. Life runs as normal with the obligatory ups and downs.

However, sometimes the ‘off’ switch in our heads doesn’t quite work as intended. The world, ourselves, and others, are seen in fractured ways through this disjointed prism of life. Elements of this life can become distorted, leading to distrust, paranoia, meltdown or breakdown, as the brain seeks to avoid real suffering by creating an illusion. The permutations are endless. Sometimes people are brought back from the brink and sometimes the edge can be a moving target. Often, at least in the literary world, madness is a sanctuary. If only others really knew, really understood…….

In this volume such literary leviathans as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nikolai Gogol, Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and many others provide tales from pens that seep with wisdom and worry.

Genius has many names.

1 - Stories on Madness - An Introduction

2 - The Pit and The Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe

3 - Diary of a Lunatic by Leo Tolstoy

4 - Le Horla by Guy De Maupassant

5 - The Call of Cthulhu - Part 1 by H P Lovecraft

6 - The Call of Cthulhu - Part 2 by H P Lovecraft

7 - The Diary of a God by Barry Pain

8 - Brothers by Sherwood Anderson

9 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

10 - The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley

11 - The Devil in Manuscript by Nathaniel Hawthorne

12 - Hide And Seek or Pliatki by Fyodor Sologub

13 - The Shape of Fear by Elia W Peattie

14 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

15 - The Repairer of Reputations - Part 1 by Robert W Chambers

16 - The Repairer of Reputations - Part 2 by Robert W Chambers

17 - The Miracle by John Davys Beresford

18 - Shut Out by F Anstey

19 - Adventure by Sherwood Anderson

20 - A Red Flower by Vsevolod Garshin

21 - Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol

22 - The Republic of the Southern Cross by Valery Bryusov

23 - The Mass of Shadows by Anatol France

24 - The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

25 - A Pastoral Horror by Arthur Conan Doyle

26 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 1 by Edgar Allan Poe

27 - The Fall of the House of Usher - Part 2 by Edgar Allan Poe