All words have a value, they have a truth. Even misinforming us is part of their job. But they are only words, sticks and stones etc etc.But in this volume our authors explore the use of curses. These strings of words might seem harmless enough if you don’t believe they can have any ill effect. Little by little, though, sometimes they do. Our brains connect curse with that action, that happening and now we might be seeing them as cause and effect. Perhaps that curse really does have some power, some potency, and if that is so maybe that curse is malevolent and its true purpose is not to wish us good. 1 - Stories about Curses - An Introduction2 - The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy3 - The Arm of Mrs Egan by W F Harvey4 - The Mark of the Beast by Rudyard Kipling5 - The Monkey's Paw by W W Jacobs6 - The Brute by Joseph Conrad7 - Lost in a Pyramid (or the Mummy's Curse) by Louisa May Alcott writing as A M Bernard8 - The Ash Tree by M R James.wav9 - The Shadows on the Wall by Mary E Wilkins Freeman10 - The Spectre Bridegroom by William Hunt11 - The Mass for the Dead by Edith Nesbit12 - The Weird of the Walfords by Louisa Baldwin13 - Casting the Runes by M R James