Tales of the Wonder Club, Volume I

In a candlelit inn called Ye Headless Lady, a small fraternity of Victorian gentlemen have gathered every night for a decade to trade tales of the marvelous and the macabre. Doctors, lawyers, antiquaries, and the occasional wandering artist comprise the exclusive Wonder Club, meeting in a private room where no outsider may enter unless bearing a letter of introduction and the unanimous consent of the brotherhood. The landlord, Jack Hearty, keeps the bowls replenished and, by whispered village rumor, knows stories of his own. When a new guest, the artist Vandyke McGuilp, arrives at their tenth-anniversary gathering, the club's chairman Mr. Oldstone calls the company to order as Mr. Hardcase prepares to unfold the evening's first tale: 'The Phantom Flea.' This is ghost-storytelling as ritual, as performance, as sacred craft. The wit is dry, the camaraderie genuine, and the specters that haunt these pages are as likely to inspire laughter as dread. For readers who miss the great Victorian frame narratives and the lost art of the fireside ghost story, this obscure gem offers exactly that: a room full of gentlemen, a cold wind outside, and tales that blur the line between wonder and terror.