#13: "What Was It? - A Mystery" by Fitz-James O'Brien

I've decided to run Fitz-James O'Brien stories for the next few Mondays, as this saves me the weekend stress of deciding what to run first thing. So here's a bizarre and spooky 1859 story which probably influenced both Bierce's "The Damned Thing" and Maupassant's "The Horla". Oddly enough, the "happy" ending is even more horrible than It was -- which is probably something of a comment.

Also, note the subtle plug for O'Brien's previous story, "The Pot of Tulips". Heh. Also, if the references to other horror books inspired you, Zanoni by Bulwer-Lytton (he of The Last Days of Pompeii and "It was a dark and stormy night" fame), and Brockden Brown's Wieland, or The Transformation: An American Tale. (This guy sounds interesting.)

MANUAL DOWNLOAD HERE:
"What Was It? - A Mystery"
33 min.