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The Beast with Five Fingers and Other Novellas of Terror
The wind rattles a windowpane. The rain beats staccato on the glass. The candle flame flickers ominously. What was that? Was that long shadow always there? Did a floorboard groan or was it... something else? This collection of classic Gothic novellas will leave you with nightmares like you've never experienced before. Four of the most disturbing, chilling, and bizarre tales from the masters of horror.
In William Fryer Harvey's "The Beast with Five Fingers," a disembodied hand returns from the grave to torment the living. Considered a classic ghost story, Harvey writes with a subtle and deceptive style. Infusing touches of dark humor into the ghastly narrative, Harvey skillfully keeps the reader just ahead of the protagonist. This creates a frightening tension as the plot builds because we see the danger while Eustace is utterly unaware. "The Beast with Five Fingers" is cinematic in its moments of climax, and it is no surprise that the concept of the spider-like crawling hand became a staple in horror films, most notably Warner’s 1945 feature of the same name.
"The Listener" by Algernon Blackwood is a haunting, melancholy tale of a young man and a monster. Searching for affordable lodging, a gentleman of little means finds a place that is a bit too good to be true. In time, he begins experiencing strange and unexplained events, and he soon learns the monstrous being he is sharing space with in his new quarters.
Inspired by the story of Rebecca Nurse during the Salem witch trials, Elizabeth Gaskell weaves a terrifying tale of hysteria, fear, and paranoia in the Puritan outpost of Massachusetts. Like Hawthorne's famous witch trial stories, Gaskell's story is a complex narrative of betrayal, lust, power, and religion run amok. "Lois the Witch" is a journey into the human mind, organized society, and the crossroads when it all goes terribly, terribly wrong.
The final novella is Leonid Andreyev's controversial "Lazarus." Taking on the Biblical tale of Lazarus and his resurrection, Andreyev depicts not a joyous return, but a second life as a zombie. His flesh is rotted, and he seems to draw the life spirit from those he comes into contact with in his travels. This is not the "light and the resurrection" as promised, but a lonely, shunned existence; an existence that comes to a terrible end.
Four terrifying tales from the masters of horror. The Gothic Masterpiece Series: The Beast with Five Fingers and Other Novellas of Terror is guaranteed to chill the blood. Sleep with the light on.
In William Fryer Harvey's "The Beast with Five Fingers," a disembodied hand returns from the grave to torment the living. Considered a classic ghost story, Harvey writes with a subtle and deceptive style. Infusing touches of dark humor into the ghastly narrative, Harvey skillfully keeps the reader just ahead of the protagonist. This creates a frightening tension as the plot builds because we see the danger while Eustace is utterly unaware. "The Beast with Five Fingers" is cinematic in its moments of climax, and it is no surprise that the concept of the spider-like crawling hand became a staple in horror films, most notably Warner’s 1945 feature of the same name.
"The Listener" by Algernon Blackwood is a haunting, melancholy tale of a young man and a monster. Searching for affordable lodging, a gentleman of little means finds a place that is a bit too good to be true. In time, he begins experiencing strange and unexplained events, and he soon learns the monstrous being he is sharing space with in his new quarters.
Inspired by the story of Rebecca Nurse during the Salem witch trials, Elizabeth Gaskell weaves a terrifying tale of hysteria, fear, and paranoia in the Puritan outpost of Massachusetts. Like Hawthorne's famous witch trial stories, Gaskell's story is a complex narrative of betrayal, lust, power, and religion run amok. "Lois the Witch" is a journey into the human mind, organized society, and the crossroads when it all goes terribly, terribly wrong.
The final novella is Leonid Andreyev's controversial "Lazarus." Taking on the Biblical tale of Lazarus and his resurrection, Andreyev depicts not a joyous return, but a second life as a zombie. His flesh is rotted, and he seems to draw the life spirit from those he comes into contact with in his travels. This is not the "light and the resurrection" as promised, but a lonely, shunned existence; an existence that comes to a terrible end.
Four terrifying tales from the masters of horror. The Gothic Masterpiece Series: The Beast with Five Fingers and Other Novellas of Terror is guaranteed to chill the blood. Sleep with the light on.
- GenresHorror
179 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 23, 2012
7 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
W.F. Harvey
214 books31 followersWilliam Fryer Harvey was an English writer of short stories, most notably in the macabre and horror genres. Among his best-known stories are "August Heat" and "The Beast with Five Fingers", described by horror historian Les Daniels as "minor masterpieces".
Born into a wealthy Quaker family in Yorkshire, he attended the Quaker schools at Bootham in Yorkshire and at Leighton Park in Reading before going on to Balliol College, Oxford. He took a degree in medicine at Leeds. Ill health dogged him, however, and he devoted himself to personal projects such as his first book of short stories, Midnight House (1910).
In World War I he initially joined the Friends' Ambulance Unit, but later served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and received the Albert Medal for Lifesaving.[4] Lung damage received during the rescue leading to the award troubled him for the rest of his life, but he continued to write both short stories and his cheerful and good-natured memoir We Were Seven.
Harvey was a practicising Quaker.
Before the war he had shown interest in adult education, on the staff of the Working Men's College, Fircroft, Selly Oak, Birmingham. He returned to Fircroft in 1920, becoming Warden, but by 1925 ill-health forced his retirement. In 1928 he published a second collection of short stories, The Beast with Five Fingers, and in 1933 he published a third, Moods and Tenses. He lived in Switzerland with his wife for much of this time, but nostalgia for his home country caused his return to England. He moved to Letchworth in 1935 and died there in 1937 at the age of 52. After a funeral service at the local Friends Meeting House Harvey was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Old Letchworth.
The release of the film The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), directed by Robert Florey and starring Peter Lorre, inspired by what was perhaps his most famous and praised short story, caused a resurgence of interest in Harvey's work. In 1951 a posthumous fourth collection of his stories, The Arm of Mrs Egan and Other Stories, appeared, including a set of twelve stories left in manuscript at the time of his death, headed "Twelve Strange Cases".
In 2009 Wordsworth Editions printed an omnibus volume of Harvey's stories, titled The Beast with Five Fingers, in its Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural series (ISBN 978-1-84022-179-4). The volume contains 45 stories and an introduction by David Stuart Davies.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._F....]
Born into a wealthy Quaker family in Yorkshire, he attended the Quaker schools at Bootham in Yorkshire and at Leighton Park in Reading before going on to Balliol College, Oxford. He took a degree in medicine at Leeds. Ill health dogged him, however, and he devoted himself to personal projects such as his first book of short stories, Midnight House (1910).
In World War I he initially joined the Friends' Ambulance Unit, but later served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and received the Albert Medal for Lifesaving.[4] Lung damage received during the rescue leading to the award troubled him for the rest of his life, but he continued to write both short stories and his cheerful and good-natured memoir We Were Seven.
Harvey was a practicising Quaker.
Before the war he had shown interest in adult education, on the staff of the Working Men's College, Fircroft, Selly Oak, Birmingham. He returned to Fircroft in 1920, becoming Warden, but by 1925 ill-health forced his retirement. In 1928 he published a second collection of short stories, The Beast with Five Fingers, and in 1933 he published a third, Moods and Tenses. He lived in Switzerland with his wife for much of this time, but nostalgia for his home country caused his return to England. He moved to Letchworth in 1935 and died there in 1937 at the age of 52. After a funeral service at the local Friends Meeting House Harvey was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Old Letchworth.
The release of the film The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), directed by Robert Florey and starring Peter Lorre, inspired by what was perhaps his most famous and praised short story, caused a resurgence of interest in Harvey's work. In 1951 a posthumous fourth collection of his stories, The Arm of Mrs Egan and Other Stories, appeared, including a set of twelve stories left in manuscript at the time of his death, headed "Twelve Strange Cases".
In 2009 Wordsworth Editions printed an omnibus volume of Harvey's stories, titled The Beast with Five Fingers, in its Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural series (ISBN 978-1-84022-179-4). The volume contains 45 stories and an introduction by David Stuart Davies.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._F....]
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 10, 2013
William F. Harvey, más que historias de terror, fue un creador de suspense, donde el papel del lector es preponderante. Leyendo algunos de sus relatos, uno no sabe si lo que está sucediendo es real o achacable a la mente enferma y susceptible de sus protagonistas. Hay que mencionar que Harvey era cuáquero, movimiento religioso pacífico y honrado fundado en el siglo XVII, y por tanto no creía en lo sobrenatural. Es por ello que el escritor no lo desprecia tajantemente, sino que lo alude de forma un tanto irónica. Pese a esto, Harvey ha llegado a hacerse un hueco en el Olimpo de los escritores de terror y misterio, con obras maestras como La bestia con cinco dedos (macabro relato sobre una mano con vida propia; existe una versión cinematográfica de 1946, con el gran Peter Lorre), Sambo (donde una muñeca africana ejerce una siniestra influencia sobre una niña), El corazón del fuego (donde destaca el poder que ejerce una chimenea sobre su protagonista), El reloj (corto pero inquietante relato), La señorita Avenal (donde una especie de vampiro psíquico absorbe la energía vital de la protagonista), o Calor de agosto (corto, pero magistral en cuanto estructura, desarrollo y suspense). Puede que lo que más me haya gustado de estos relatos sean los finales abiertos en los que la mente del lector ha de rellenar los huecos que faltan.
Estos son los 18 relatos incluidos en ’La bestia con cinco dedos y otros relatos de horror y misterio’:
- Calor de agosto (August Heat)
- La herramienta (The tool)
- La señora Ormerod (Mrs. Ormerod)
- El oratorio de los Ankardyne (The Ankardyne pew)
- Doble demonio (Double demon)
- La señorita Cornelius (Miss Cornelius)
- El reloj (The clock)
- La señorita Avenal (Miss Avenal)
- Peter Levisham (Peter Levisham)
- El corazón del fuego (The heart of the fire)
- A través de los páramos (Acr the moors)
- El seguidor (The follower)
- La posesión de Sarah Bennet (Sarah Bennet's possession)
- Desenrollando (Unwinding)
- El hombre que odiaba las aspidistras (The man who hated aspidistras)
- Sambo (Sambo)
- La casa de medianoche (Midnight house)
- La bestia con cinco dedos (The beast with five fingers)
En resumen, se trata de una buena selección de relatos de un autor no tan conocido como debiera, en los que destaca más el suspense y el misterio que el terror propiamente dicho.
Estos son los 18 relatos incluidos en ’La bestia con cinco dedos y otros relatos de horror y misterio’:
- Calor de agosto (August Heat)
- La herramienta (The tool)
- La señora Ormerod (Mrs. Ormerod)
- El oratorio de los Ankardyne (The Ankardyne pew)
- Doble demonio (Double demon)
- La señorita Cornelius (Miss Cornelius)
- El reloj (The clock)
- La señorita Avenal (Miss Avenal)
- Peter Levisham (Peter Levisham)
- El corazón del fuego (The heart of the fire)
- A través de los páramos (Acr the moors)
- El seguidor (The follower)
- La posesión de Sarah Bennet (Sarah Bennet's possession)
- Desenrollando (Unwinding)
- El hombre que odiaba las aspidistras (The man who hated aspidistras)
- Sambo (Sambo)
- La casa de medianoche (Midnight house)
- La bestia con cinco dedos (The beast with five fingers)
En resumen, se trata de una buena selección de relatos de un autor no tan conocido como debiera, en los que destaca más el suspense y el misterio que el terror propiamente dicho.
May 25, 2021
Solo puedo decir que fueron raros sus cuentos y con finales que sentí muy abiertos.
Me encantó el de Sambo y el de la bestia con cinco dedos
Me encantó el de Sambo y el de la bestia con cinco dedos
December 24, 2013
Me costó entender la narrativa de Harvey. Pretencioso por momentos, en otros no se anima a admitir lo sobrenatural, en otros tantos juega con situaciones, si se quiere, humorísticas, es un autor que no supo llegarme.
Un autor que podría dar mucho más de sí y sin embargo se queda en cuentos más bien débiles, faltos de suspenso y sorpresa, con finales confusos, y apelando en algunos casos a una relatividad exagerada.
Todos puntos que ponen al autor por debajo de otros maestros del género. No obstante hay relatos disfrutables, como “La bestia con cinco dedos” que es el más “gótico” de la antología, con el recurso de la mano diabólica ya explotado antes por autores como Maupassant, por ejemplo.
Otros destacables son:
Calor de agosto: corto pero con buena ambientación.
El oratorio de los Ankardyne y a través d elos páramos: cuentos clásicos de fantasmas.
La sra. Ormerod: no es un cuento estrictamente sobrenatural, aunque podríamos encuadrarlo como un caso velado de “vampirismo” psíquico.
La casa de la medianoche, el reloj y el corazón del fuego: típicos cuentos de casa encantadas.
Sambo: otro de los mejores, aunque choca un poco el estilo con el que está narrado.
Por lo que podemos decir que la obra de Harvey se divide en algunos relatos difícil de encuadrar aunque tienen poco de horror (los menos) y el resto sobre posesiones o maldiciones del pasado, casas embrujadas y vampirismo psíquico. Pero es un autor que le cuesta transmitir sensaciones, de todas formas le reconozco su capacidad de crear ambientes no lúgubres pero por lo menos desasosegantes.
Un autor que podría dar mucho más de sí y sin embargo se queda en cuentos más bien débiles, faltos de suspenso y sorpresa, con finales confusos, y apelando en algunos casos a una relatividad exagerada.
Todos puntos que ponen al autor por debajo de otros maestros del género. No obstante hay relatos disfrutables, como “La bestia con cinco dedos” que es el más “gótico” de la antología, con el recurso de la mano diabólica ya explotado antes por autores como Maupassant, por ejemplo.
Otros destacables son:
Calor de agosto: corto pero con buena ambientación.
El oratorio de los Ankardyne y a través d elos páramos: cuentos clásicos de fantasmas.
La sra. Ormerod: no es un cuento estrictamente sobrenatural, aunque podríamos encuadrarlo como un caso velado de “vampirismo” psíquico.
La casa de la medianoche, el reloj y el corazón del fuego: típicos cuentos de casa encantadas.
Sambo: otro de los mejores, aunque choca un poco el estilo con el que está narrado.
Por lo que podemos decir que la obra de Harvey se divide en algunos relatos difícil de encuadrar aunque tienen poco de horror (los menos) y el resto sobre posesiones o maldiciones del pasado, casas embrujadas y vampirismo psíquico. Pero es un autor que le cuesta transmitir sensaciones, de todas formas le reconozco su capacidad de crear ambientes no lúgubres pero por lo menos desasosegantes.
June 15, 2016
A collection of four classic horror novellas. Readers who want their horror tales served up with a harder, brutal edge should look elsewhere. No mad slashers are unleashed here. For the most part, these are quiet stories that take time to build. The pace unfolds carefully … sometimes in a narrative form and sometimes in a “you are there” format … until it captures the reader like tendrils in the mist.
The lead story is THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS … yes, the crawling hand tale that was made into a Peter Lorre film. It is the most famous of the group. There were times that the reactions of the central characters strained credibility. (I would have been running away from there as quickly as my legs would carry me!)
THE LISTENER provides a particularly eerie atmosphere, with a delightfully unnerving concept of suicide victims looking for new bodies to inhabit … even if they haven’t been vacated yet.
LOIS THE WITCH is rewarding for the patient reader. It is the longest of all of the pieces and very slow to develop. It does eventually provide an “insider view” of the Salem Witch Trials.
My favorite is LAZARUS which I’ve encountered in other collections and was still worth the re-reading. The story of what happened to the other Biblical man who had been raised from the dead is a fascinating one. It intrigues me to ponder what he reveals to those who dare probe for the secret of what lies on the other side of death. For my money, this psychological horror story made the book worth reading all on its own.
The lead story is THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS … yes, the crawling hand tale that was made into a Peter Lorre film. It is the most famous of the group. There were times that the reactions of the central characters strained credibility. (I would have been running away from there as quickly as my legs would carry me!)
THE LISTENER provides a particularly eerie atmosphere, with a delightfully unnerving concept of suicide victims looking for new bodies to inhabit … even if they haven’t been vacated yet.
LOIS THE WITCH is rewarding for the patient reader. It is the longest of all of the pieces and very slow to develop. It does eventually provide an “insider view” of the Salem Witch Trials.
My favorite is LAZARUS which I’ve encountered in other collections and was still worth the re-reading. The story of what happened to the other Biblical man who had been raised from the dead is a fascinating one. It intrigues me to ponder what he reveals to those who dare probe for the secret of what lies on the other side of death. For my money, this psychological horror story made the book worth reading all on its own.
April 7, 2025
Quizá una de las antologías publicadas por Valdemar que más me ha gustado. Como todas estas compilaciones, contiene cuentos mejores y peores, pero el nivel es excepcional, con varios relatos magistrales.
Un terror con un toque personal que podríamos tildar de escéptico.
Un terror con un toque personal que podríamos tildar de escéptico.
March 31, 2018
Aunque la mayoría de estos relatos se alejan del horror sobrenatural y se acercan más al suspenso, me parece que William Fryer Harvey es un excelente autor capaz de generar esa sensación de inquietud, de que los protagonistas de sus relatos se encuentran amenazados por fuerzas que pueden (o no) tener una explicación racional. Es justamente esa ambigüedad, el no saber si lo que le ocurre a los personajes es causado por su mente o por fuerzas sobrenaturales lo que hace que este autor sea algo diferente en el género del horror.
Los temas de sus cuentos son muy variados y tiene algunos que son directamente de horror sobrenatural como “A través de los páramos”, “La bestia con cinco dedos” o el extraordinario “Sambo” y otros que invitan a la interpretación del lector, como en “La señorita Cornelius” o “La señorita Avernal” (que incluso pueden ser el mismo personaje en dos narraciones distintas).
Mis cuentos favoritos:
Calor de agosto
A través de los páramos
Sambo
La bestia con cinco dedos
Los temas de sus cuentos son muy variados y tiene algunos que son directamente de horror sobrenatural como “A través de los páramos”, “La bestia con cinco dedos” o el extraordinario “Sambo” y otros que invitan a la interpretación del lector, como en “La señorita Cornelius” o “La señorita Avernal” (que incluso pueden ser el mismo personaje en dos narraciones distintas).
Mis cuentos favoritos:
Calor de agosto
A través de los páramos
Sambo
La bestia con cinco dedos
August 20, 2014
Reseña: http://www.fabulantes.com/2012/10/la-...
"Harvey es un narrador de primera categoría, un purista de la forma. Su relato "Calor de agosto", que abre el libro de Valdemar, forma parte del material didáctico fundamental de muchos talleres de escritura por su construcción y por el sostenimiento del suspense y de la acción dramática. Gracias a esta templanza, y al autodominio del carácter que se vislumbra en cada esquina de sus cuentos, el autor cuáquero hace gala de una enorme paciencia y tranquilidad de la que se beneficia la estructura de sus relatos. Contar a la manera en que él lo hace, sin alterarse, sin que el ritmo decaiga ni la acción se disperse, requiere sin duda de grandes dosis de sangre fría y de fortaleza de ánimo."
"Harvey es un narrador de primera categoría, un purista de la forma. Su relato "Calor de agosto", que abre el libro de Valdemar, forma parte del material didáctico fundamental de muchos talleres de escritura por su construcción y por el sostenimiento del suspense y de la acción dramática. Gracias a esta templanza, y al autodominio del carácter que se vislumbra en cada esquina de sus cuentos, el autor cuáquero hace gala de una enorme paciencia y tranquilidad de la que se beneficia la estructura de sus relatos. Contar a la manera en que él lo hace, sin alterarse, sin que el ritmo decaiga ni la acción se disperse, requiere sin duda de grandes dosis de sangre fría y de fortaleza de ánimo."
September 16, 2014
Worth reading for the chilling "August Heat" alone (which Stephen King used to read aloud to his students). Contains just three short stories. Harvey (1885-1937) was a good writer of old-school horror.
"August Heat" can be found (viewed, listened to) on YouTube, read by the excellent Caden Clegg, also a writer.
"August Heat" can be found (viewed, listened to) on YouTube, read by the excellent Caden Clegg, also a writer.
February 1, 2022
I came across this short book and had to read it as I recalled an old black and white movie of the same name starring Peter Lorre. It is an interesting tale but not as exciting as I remembered. The other two tales also interesting but missing something.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews