
On a wild, wind‑howling Christmas Eve, the night itself seems to be at war with itself, rain lashing the windows while the world outside shivers under a relentless gale. The storm provides a stark backdrop to a season usually marked by peace and goodwill, making the atmosphere feel both ominous and oddly prophetic. In the midst of this tempest, a figure of great wealth and reputation watches the chaos from his opulent study.
Josiah McNason is a titan of industry, a man whose name commands both admiration and fear across markets and courts. His fortune has built empires, and his confidence borders on hubris, as he believes nothing can disturb his carefully ordered world. Yet as the night deepens, an inexplicable visitation begins to stir, promising to test the limits of his power and the very nature of his belief in control.
Language
en
Duration
~2 hours (159K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Tim Lindell, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
Release date
2020-12-28
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1855–1924
A Victorian bestseller with a flair for the mystical and dramatic, this once wildly popular novelist captivated huge audiences from the 1880s into the early 20th century. Her books mixed romance, spirituality, and social criticism in a way that won devoted readers even as critics often pushed back.
View all books