But despite the air of immediacy and informality, they are artfully composed, informed as always by Wright's profound sense of subliminal order.

    Perfect for the Halloween season and for those young tricksters just dying to get a laugh out of a favorite occasion. Black line illustrations.

    People with physical ailments or deformities could be cured if they touched the hangman's rope while the victim's body was still warm. Such superstitions abounded in the Dorset peasant culture of Hardy's early Victorian childhood. His taste for the supernatural and macabre is seen in this ingenious collection of short stories which show how a great writer could invest strong stories of mystery and suspense with his own brilliant observation and imagination.