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• "The Sandman" (1816) by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  5 February by E. T. A. Hoffmann

  Nathaniel has vivid memories of being terrified in his childhood of the Sandman, an evil being who punished children who didn’t want to go to bed by sprinkling sand over their eyes and then taking their eyes out to feed to his own monstrous brood (!). And of the fearsome advocate Coppelius who (...)

• "The Burrow (Der Bau)" (1922) by Franz Kafka

  29 January by Robert Louis Stevenson

  A fascinating account of an undefined creature’s psychosis as it wanders around its enormous underground complex worrying about how to protect the domain from being discovered and invaded by enemies and, towards the end, constantly hearing strange sounds and worrying about what menacing creature (...)

• "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886), by Robert Louis Stevenson

  21 January by Robert Louis Stevenson

  A brilliant and far-sighted description of an amazing but perfectly credible case of extreme schizophrenia [1] that rolls along at a rapid pace in a clear, elegant style, a masterful tale that was an immense success at the time, a sophisticated mélange of science, horror and mystery by the (...)

• "A Report to an Academy" (1920) by Franz Kafka

  10 January by Franz Kafka

  An ape that has learned human ways reports to an assembly of scientists on the use or rather misuse that mankind had made of his talents.
  A moving and powerful account of his determined, obsessive striving to fundamentally change his essential condition and acquire a form of freedom in spite (...)

• "Candide" (1759) by Voltaire

  3 January by Voltaire

  Voltaire’s brilliant parody of the ideological notion that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds [1], ironically sub-titled "Optimism", that was written in three incredibly productive days(!) and has retained its charm, its venom and its Enlightenment message for mankind ever (...)