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Title: What Was It?
Series Name: Timeless Terrors
Series Entry: 167
Author: Fitz-James O'Brien
Narrator: Jonathan Dunne
Original Publication: 1859
Public Domain: Yes

Description:

First published in 1859, What Was It? by the Irish author Fitz-James O'Brien is widely regarded as one of the earliest invisible monster stories ever written.

When the residents of a New York boarding house encounter an unseen intruder, they find themselves confronting something that can be touched, restrained, and feared—but never seen. Blending suspense, mystery, and the supernatural, O'Brien creates a tale that still feels remarkably modern more than 160 years after its publication.

A pioneering work of weird fiction, What Was It? would go on to influence later classics such as The Horla by Guy de Maupassant and The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells. It remains one of the great overlooked gems of nineteenth-century horror.

This timeless classic is narrated by horror author Jonathan Dunne.

🎬 Experience the atmospheric visual edition of this tale by searching "Jonathan Dunne Horror" on YouTube.

🎬 Experience the atmospheric visual edition of this tale by searching "Jonathan Dunne Horror" on YouTube.

Title: Old Bugs

Series Name: Timeless Terrors

Series Entry: 163

Author: H. P. Lovecraft

Narrator: Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: Written c. 1919 (published posthumously in 1959)

Public Domain: Yes

Description:

Old Bugs is a rare and unusual early story by H. P. Lovecraft that stands apart from the cosmic horrors for which he later became famous. Instead of ancient gods and forbidden knowledge, this tale presents a somber reflection on addiction, regret, and the devastating consequences of alcoholism.

The story follows a talented young man whose promising future is steadily destroyed by drink. Years later, he encounters a mysterious old alcoholic known only as "Old Bugs," whose grim warnings and tragic condition seem to embody the fate awaiting anyone who continues down the same path. As the narrative reaches its conclusion, Lovecraft delivers a poignant twist that transforms the story into a powerful cautionary tale.

Written during Lovecraft's early literary career, Old Bugs offers readers a fascinating glimpse into the development of one of horror's greatest authors. Although lacking the supernatural terrors of his later masterpieces, it demonstrates his gift for atmosphere, melancholy, and psychological unease while revealing a very different side of his imagination.

This rare public-domain classic is narrated by horror author Jonathan Dunne.

🎬 Experience the atmospheric visual edition of this tale by searching "Jonathan Dunne Horror" on YouTube.

🎬 Experience the atmospheric visual edition of this tale by searching “Jonathan Dunne Horror” on YouTube.

Title: The Red Fetish
Series Name: Timeless Terrors
Series Entry: 160
Author: Frank Belknap Long
Narrator: Jonathan Dunne
Original Publication: 1930
Public Domain: Yes

Description:
The Red Fetish is a strange, unsettling work of early weird fiction by Frank Belknap Long — a tale that moves between the absurd and the ominous, gradually tightening its grip as reality begins to feel unreliable.

What starts in familiar, almost mundane circumstances slowly bends into something more disquieting. As the narrative unfolds, the boundaries between perception and illusion begin to blur, and the reader is drawn into a chain of developments that feel increasingly difficult to rationalize. Each step forward deepens the sense that something fundamentally unstable is at work beneath the surface of events.

Long’s storytelling thrives on this gradual destabilization. Rather than relying on overt supernatural spectacle, the horror emerges from implication, suggestion, and the unsettling momentum of interpretation. A growing fixation takes hold—both within the story and in the reader’s mind—where curiosity itself becomes part of the tension.

The result is a narrative steeped in ambiguity, where meaning seems to shift as it is examined too closely. What initially appears bizarre or even trivial begins to carry a darker weight, suggesting possibilities that are more disturbing precisely because they are never fully confirmed.

Unlike traditional ghost or monster stories, The Red Fetish builds its unease through psychological pressure and conceptual uncertainty. The horror is not presented as something external and clearly defined, but as something that may be emerging from the way reality is perceived and interpreted. The final impression is one of lingering disquiet—an idea rather than an event, continuing to resonate after the story ends.

🎬 Experience the atmospheric visual edition of this tale by searching “Jonathan Dunne Horror” on YouTube.

🎬 Experience the atmospheric visual edition of this tale by searching “Jonathan Dunne Horror” on YouTube.

Title: Green Tea

Series Name: Timeless Terrors

Series Entry: 142

Author: Sheridan Le Fanu

Narrator: Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: 1869

Public Domain: Yes

Description:

Green Tea is one of Sheridan Le Fanu’s most haunting and influential tales of supernatural psychological horror — a chilling descent into isolation, obsession, and unseen terror.

The story follows the Reverend Mr. Jennings, a learned and deeply thoughtful clergyman whose quiet scholarly life begins to unravel after an encounter with obscure occult research and long periods of nervous exhaustion. As his health and peace of mind deteriorate, Jennings becomes increasingly troubled by strange experiences he cannot explain and dares not fully confess.

Concerned by his growing distress, a physician specializing in disorders of the mind and spirit attempts to understand the nature of the affliction consuming him. Yet the deeper the investigation goes, the more uncertain the boundary becomes between psychological collapse and something far more sinister.

Le Fanu masterfully sustains an atmosphere of creeping dread, allowing terror to emerge gradually through suggestion, ambiguity, and mounting paranoia. Rich with Gothic unease and spiritual anxiety, Green Tea remains a landmark work of Victorian horror — a disturbing meditation on guilt, perception, and the terrifying possibility that some doors, once opened, can never truly be closed.

🎬 Experience the atmospheric visual edition of this tale by searching "Jonathan Dunne Horror" on YouTube.

Title: A Terribly Strange Bed

Series Name: Timeless Terrors

Series Entry: 141

Author: Wilkie Collins

Narrator: Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: 1852

Public Domain: Yes

Description:

A Terribly Strange Bed is a masterful early tale of suspense and paranoia from Wilkie Collins, blending psychological dread with the lurking menace of unseen conspiracy. After an evening of reckless gambling in the shadowed underworld of Paris, an unsuspecting young Englishman finds himself swept along by sudden fortune into the company of charming — yet deeply unsettling — strangers.

Flush with winnings and too exhausted to question his luck, he accepts an invitation to spend the night in an unfamiliar house. At first, the room appears luxurious, even welcoming. But beneath the velvet drapery and candlelit elegance lies something profoundly wrong — a creeping sense of danger that slowly tightens around him as the night deepens.

What begins as unease soon becomes a waking nightmare, as the young man discovers that his richly furnished chamber conceals a horrifying secret designed with cold precision and deadly intent.

Collins builds unbearable tension from the ordinary details of a quiet room, transforming comfort into terror and sleep into a trap. In this claustrophobic battle between awareness and oblivion, survival depends on recognizing the danger before the darkness closes in forever.

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Title: The Dreams in the Witch House

Series Name: Timeless Terrors

Series Entry: 136

Author: H. P. Lovecraft

Narrator: Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: 1933

Public Domain: Yes

Description:

A mathematics student rents a room in a notorious Arkham house once occupied by a witch. As his studies deepen, he begins experiencing vivid dreams of impossible dimensions and sinister entities—blurring the line between reality and nightmare. Lovecraft weaves cosmic horror with dark folklore, revealing a terrifying truth: some knowledge opens doors that should never be unlocked.

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Number: 121

Title: Caterpillars

Series Name: Timeless Terrors

Series Entry: 121

Author: E. F. Benson

Narrator: Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: 1912

Public Domain: Yes

Description:

Caterpillars is a deeply unsettling tale of creeping horror and psychological torment set amid the sun-drenched hills of the Italian countryside.

The story follows a sensitive Englishman recovering from illness at a secluded villa overlooking the Mediterranean. Seeking rest and restoration, he instead finds himself haunted by a recurring nightmare of monstrous, writhing caterpillars — pale, bloated creatures with human-like eyes and an appalling sense of intelligence. Though at first he dismisses these visions as fevered dreams, their relentless return — accompanied by a mounting sense of physical and spiritual violation — begins to erode his reason.

Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance captures the story’s mounting psychological tension, oppressive atmosphere, and final, lingering chill — bringing Benson’s quietly devastating vision to vivid and deeply disturbing life.

🎬 For behind-the-scenes footage and the fully produced cinematic edition of this story — including exclusive narrator introduction and closing reflections — search “Jonathan Dunne Horror” on YouTube.

Title: The Temple

Series Name: Timeless Terrors

Series Entry: 127

Author: H. P. Lovecraft

Narrator: Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: 1920

Public Domain: Yes

YouTube Channel: Jonathan Dunne Horror Stories & Audiobooks

https://www.youtube.com/@JonathanDunneHorrorAudiobooks

Description:

The Temple is a haunting descent into paranoia, isolation, and cosmic dread, written by H. P. Lovecraft, one of the defining voices of early 20th-century weird fiction. In this chilling narrative, Lovecraft presents the unsettling account of a German U-boat commander during the First World War who becomes increasingly unmoored from reality after discovering a mysterious ivory artifact and witnessing inexplicable events aboard his submarine.

As the vessel drifts further into the depths of the ocean, both physically and psychologically, the crew begins to experience strange phenomena—visions, mechanical failures, and a growing sense of being watched by something ancient and unknowable beneath the waves. The commander’s written testimony gradually fractures into obsession and terror, as he becomes convinced he has encountered a submerged, non-human civilization tied to an impossible, sunken temple.

Lovecraft’s story builds an atmosphere of claustrophobic dread, where the boundaries between sanity and madness dissolve under the pressure of the deep sea and the unknown. The horror emerges not from action, but from implication—the slow realization that humanity is utterly insignificant in the face of vast, indifferent forces lying just beyond perception.

Narrated by Amazon bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance brings out the oppressive mood, psychological unraveling, and creeping cosmic horror that define The Temple, a tale where the ocean becomes not a frontier, but a tomb of unfathomable truths.