The Judge's House

The Judge's House is a horror short story written by Bram Stoker and originally published in 1891.

Malcolm Malcolmson is a scholar who needs a quiet place to concentrate on his mathematical studies. He rules out going to the coast because of its distractions, but he also doesn't want to be completely isolated in a rural area, so he decides to look for a quiet village.

He finds the quiet village he was looking for and the house he needed: an old mansion far from the other inhabitants. The house is feared by the locals, who avoid it, and it is rumored to have a dark past.

There, Malcolmson will spend his nights immersed in his studies, but strange things begin to happen...

"When the time for his examination drew near Malcolm Malcolmson made up his mind to go somewhere to read by himself. He feared the attractions of the seaside, and also he feared completely rural isolation, for of old he knew its charms, and so he determined to find some unpretentious little town where there would be nothing to distract him."