The story hunter : or, Tales of the weird and wild by Ernest R. Suffling
"The story hunter : or, Tales of the weird and wild" by Ernest R. Suffling is a collection of short stories written in the late 19th century. Framed by a narrator who lives alone in a caravan and hypnotizes chance acquaintances, it gathers weird, speculative, and adventurous tales told first‑hand by his guests. The opening of the volume introduces the narrator’s Bohemian life and his method, leading into “The Strange Discovery of
Doctor Nosidy,” where a fervid experimenter claims the soul is “brain‑ether” and builds an electrical device to read thoughts from skulls; failed trials with a mummy and a Saxon king, a quarrelsome modern skull, and bold theorizing culminate in his ethical dread of revealing the secret. The frame then shifts to a storm on the Cornish coast and “Two Ruined Towers”: a wealthy stranger recalls, as a young artist, rescuing a mysterious elder who proves to be the Wandering Jew; together they hide a pump and diving gear, excavate a riverbed between two ancient towers, and, after weeks of night work, recover a vast hoard of gold and gems that the artist later uses for philanthropy as his immortal guide disappears. The section closes by introducing another source, Billy Flowerdue on the Norfolk coast, whose hypnotic reminiscence begins with his Yarmouth youth, an apprenticeship to sea, and a bar‑parlour encounter with a travelling showman and his giant, setting up the next tale. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Suffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard), 1855-1911 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Hardy, Paul, 1862-1942 |
| Title | The story hunter : or, Tales of the weird and wild |
| Original Publication | London: Jarrold & Sons, 1896. |
| Contents | Introduction: A hypnotist on wheels -- The strange discovery of Doctor Nosidy -- Two ruined towers -- A strange resurrection -- A visitor from Mars -- Barbe Rouge -- Robin Hood in winter -- Eccles old tower -- The monk's penance -- Doctor Angus Sinclair -- The phantom riders. |
| Credits | Susan E., David E. Brown, Andrew Butchers, Sue Clark, Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 66.8 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Supernatural -- Fiction |
| Subject | Short stories, English |
| Subject | Hypnotism -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 76622 |
| Release Date | Aug 3, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 1679 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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