The Essayist in the Wilderness

One of my absolute favorite short stories. It nails the very tricky combination of creepy and hilarious through some fantastic characterization as well as deft, concise descriptive passages – such as how the narrator tries to characterize what he hears from the attic toward the end. I'm a fan of Weird Fiction, which this is. Stories that manage to be both thoroughly amusing and genuinely eerie/creepy are few in number. This is one of the best.