In a tale of ancient evil, Bram Stoker creates a world of lurking horrors and bizarre denizens: a demented mesmerist, hellbent on mentally crushing the girl he loves; a gigantic kite raised to rid the land of an unnatural infestation of birds, and which receives strange commands along its string; and all the while, the great white worm slithers below, seeking its next victim...
The plot focuses on Adam Salton, originally from Australia, who is contacted by his great-uncle, Richard Salton, in 1860 Derbyshire[6] for the purpose of establishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. His great-uncle wants to make Adam his heir. Although Adam has already made his own fortune in Australia he enthusiastically agrees to meet his uncle, and the two men become good friends. Adam travels to Richard Salton's house in Mercia, Lesser Hill, and quickly finds himself at the centre of mysterious and inexplicable occurrences, with Sir Nathaniel as guide.The new heir to the Caswall estate (known as Castra Regis or the Royal Camp), Edgar Caswall, appears to be making some sort of a mesmeric assault on a local girl, Lilla Watford. Arabella March, of Diana's Grove, seems to be running a game of her own, perhaps angling to become Mrs. Caswall. Edgar Caswall is a slightly pathological eccentric who inherited Mesmer's chest which he keeps at the Castra Regis Tower. Caswall wants to recreate mesmerism, associated with Franz Mesmer, which was a precursor to hypnotism. He is obsessed with Lilla Watford, and attempts to break her using his mesmer. Fortunately, with the help of Lilla's cousin Mimi, he is thwarted time and again. Caswall orders a giant kite in the shape of a hawk built to scare away pigeons which have gone berserk and attacked his fields and destroyed his crops. For lack of anything better to do he obsessively watches the kite and begins to believe that it has a mind of its own and that he himself is a god.Adam Salton discovers black snakes on the property and buys a mongoose to hunt them down. He then discovers a child who has been bitten on the neck. The child barely survives. He learns that another child was killed earlier while animals were also killed throughout the county. Caswall's servant, Oolanga, an African man obsessed with death and torture, prowls around the estates, glorying in the carnage left by the White Worm. Adam's mongoose attacks Arabella, who shoots it to death. Adam procures more mongoose and keeps them locked in his trunks when not using them to hunt. Arabella tears another mongoose apart with her hands. Caswall's servant takes a peculiar liking to Arabella, perhaps sensing something violent in her. Arabella scorns Oolanga's advances and is deeply insulted that he would dare approach her. In an attempt to win her over, Oolanga steals one of Adam's trunks (which he believes is filled with treasure, but is actually just another mongoose), and Adam follows Oolanga. Arabella lures Oolanga to a deep well in her house, then murders him in rage and disgust, by dragging him down into the deep pit tunnelled through a bed of white china clay. Adam witnesses the murder which he cannot prove, and Arabella writes him a letter the next day with the previous night's events twisted to claim her innocence. Adam and Sir Nathaniel begin to suspect Arabella guilty of the other crimes.
This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Bram Stoker’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Stoker includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Stoker’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles
Sherlock Holmes and his cousin, Dr Henry Vernier, travel to Whitby, to investigate a curious case on behalf of a client. He has fallen in love, but a mysterious letter has warned him of the dangers of such a romance. The woman is said to be under a druidic curse, doomed to take the form of a gigantic snake. Locals speak of a green glow in the woods at night, and a white apparition amongst the trees. Is there sorcery at work, or is a human hand behind the terrors of Diana’s Grove?
Drama Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, from Bram Stoker's novel Characters: 6 male, 2 female 3 Interior Scenes An enormously successful revival of this classic opened on Broadway in 1977 fifty years after the original production. This is one of the great mystery thrillers and is generally considered among the best of its kind. Lucy Seward, whose father is the doctor in charge of an English sanitorium, has been attacked by some mysterious illness. Dr. Van Helsing,
"The Lair of the White Worm is a horror novel by the Irish writer Bram Stoker. It was first published by Rider and Son of London in 1911[1][2] - the year before Stoker's death - with colour illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith. The story is based on the legend of the Lambton Worm. It has also been issued as The Garden of Evil.In 1925 a highly abridged and rewritten[clarification needed] form was published.[3] It was shortened by more than 100 pages, the rewritten book having only 28 chapters instead of the original 40. The final eleven chapters were cut down to only five, leading some critics to complain that the ending was abrupt and inconsistent.[4]The Lair of the White Worm was very loosely adapted by Ken Russell into a 1988 film of the same name.The first episode of the German radio drama ""Die Schwarze Sonne"", produced by the label LAUSCH, is loosely based on the events of The Lair of the White Worm.[5] The main characters of the radio drama are also based on the protagonists of the novel and feature in the rest of the episodes even though the plot turns away from Stoker's original story."
"This book centers around Adam Salton who is contacted by his granduncle in England, for the purpose of establishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. Adam travels to Richard Salton's house in Mercia, and quickly finds himself in the center of some inexplicable occurrences. The new heir to the Caswall estate, Edgar Caswall appears to be making some sort of a mesmeric assault on a local girl. And, a local lady, Arabella March, seems to be running a game of her own, perhaps angling to become Mrs. Caswall. There is something strange about Lady March, something inexplicable and evil."--Online-literature.com.
