Satires and character assassinations were normal offerings in its pages, along with stories designed to shock. This collection draws from the years 1817 to 1832, a time when the short story itself was growing and developing as a literary style. The stories collected here were also influences on such writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Robert Browining, and the Bronte sisters. The stories themselves are mostly tales of peril, madness, and revenge, dominated by narratives of people trapped in dangerous and life-threatening situations. People are buried alive, lost in the Roman catacombs, trapped underneath a tolling bell, and held prisoner on a ship with two murderers.
Some stories are of particular interest to modern readers.
Also offered are three chapters from Samuel Warren's serialized novel Passages from the Diary of a Late Physician .