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Caterpillars
In the beautiful Villa Cascana on the Italian Riviera, all is not as it seems. Why does the hostess leave a perfectly charming bedroom unoccupied? Why does Arthur Inglis present our hero with a caterpillar in a cardboard pill-box one lunchtime? And rather more bizarrely, why do luminous, bloated and gigantic versions of this creature haunt his dreams? Or could it possibly be that he is wide awake?
E. F. Benson is well known for his Mapp and Lucia novels, but his ghost and supernatural stories are marvellous jewels, combining elegant writing and moments of blood-curdling horror. Here Greg Wagland narrates one of the best of them, for Magpie Audio.
Length: 24 minutes.
E. F. Benson is well known for his Mapp and Lucia novels, but his ghost and supernatural stories are marvellous jewels, combining elegant writing and moments of blood-curdling horror. Here Greg Wagland narrates one of the best of them, for Magpie Audio.
Length: 24 minutes.
1 pages, Audible Audio
First published January 1, 1912
1 person is currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
E.F. Benson
1,030 books358 followersEdward Frederic "E. F." Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.
Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
Last paragraph from Wikipedia
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.
Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
Last paragraph from Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
April 30, 2019
Absolutely eerie story on caterpillars haunting an Italian villa. This might even have been the source for John Halkin's novel Squelch. The main character spends his time in an old Italian mansion and is haunted by eerie caterpillars he sees at night in bizarre formations. Then he names one caterpillar after the English painter who lives there too. There is cancer in that given name. Does the Latin word have any impact on the course of events? You won't regret reading this uncanny creeper by night or by sleeping with the window open, will you... Highly recommended. This is a masterpiece of a gothic story!
June 20, 2018
Read this gruesome short story at night, read it with door to a empty room open, read it and hate bugs forever. E. F. Benson is the master of chills.
June 2, 2021
I’m still trying to comprehend what in the world I just read... I have so many questions.
May 27, 2016
I love the eeriness and the mystery in this story even though it was extremely short.
I already hated insects, and especially caterpillars, before this. But now, my hate - and fear- of them is intensified.
I already hated insects, and especially caterpillars, before this. But now, my hate - and fear- of them is intensified.
May 3, 2020
I picked this up as an ebook on a long bus journey because I thought it was short and I could get through it quickly. Didn't realise it was so short it would only take me 10 minutes to read! For a short book, it is very impactful and gruesome.
June 18, 2021
Maybe this was scary when people didn't know what cancer was?
September 23, 2021
"Then, as I looked, it seemed to me as if they all suddenly became conscious of my presence."
Although short, this story is full of depth and atmosphere. I feel as though I'm at the Villa Cascana. I see the beauty and serenity the home exudes with the lush garden and sparkling blue of the sea. But I can also sense the character's unease as he traverses the large and mostly empty home.
This is my first read of Benson's work and I can say, it's a swift journey into the depths of the unknown, and possibly, a man's irrational dark fears. Benson starts with the beauty of the Villa, continues with the mundane of the visit, then gradually drifts in and out of the horrific events of the character's nights. Everything is even: the length of the story, the amount of characters present, the balance of beauty vs horror, all leading up to the abruptly clipped ending.
This is good. Honest. Natural. Nature is a mystery and can often manufacture the worst of phobias which, like the unnamed character in this story, come out in all their terrifying glory at night.
Although short, this story is full of depth and atmosphere. I feel as though I'm at the Villa Cascana. I see the beauty and serenity the home exudes with the lush garden and sparkling blue of the sea. But I can also sense the character's unease as he traverses the large and mostly empty home.
This is my first read of Benson's work and I can say, it's a swift journey into the depths of the unknown, and possibly, a man's irrational dark fears. Benson starts with the beauty of the Villa, continues with the mundane of the visit, then gradually drifts in and out of the horrific events of the character's nights. Everything is even: the length of the story, the amount of characters present, the balance of beauty vs horror, all leading up to the abruptly clipped ending.
This is good. Honest. Natural. Nature is a mystery and can often manufacture the worst of phobias which, like the unnamed character in this story, come out in all their terrifying glory at night.
December 20, 2019
(Audible)
Creepy short story in a science fiction horror genre. The rhythm of exposition felt poetic at times as the creepy creepy crawlies become a thing of nightmares.
Staying in the beautiful Villa Cascana on the Italian Riviera our narrator notes that something seems amiss. Why does the hostess leave a perfectly charming bedroom unoccupied? Why does Arthur Inglis present our hero with a caterpillar in a cardboard pill-box one lunchtime?
At night he dreams that he goes to the empty bedroom and encounters luminous, bloated, and gigantic caterpillars.
The caterpillars return each night and the one in the pill-box, while the correct size, seems menacing.
We view caterpillars as a symbol of metamorphosis, yielding something beautiful. This story presents an alternative narrative. The caterpillars represent something else and ultimately--death. Metamorphosis for sure, but not really one most of us thing of in positive terms.
Creepy gothic horror. Well written.
~~shudder~~~
RECOMMEND
Creepy short story in a science fiction horror genre. The rhythm of exposition felt poetic at times as the creepy creepy crawlies become a thing of nightmares.
Staying in the beautiful Villa Cascana on the Italian Riviera our narrator notes that something seems amiss. Why does the hostess leave a perfectly charming bedroom unoccupied? Why does Arthur Inglis present our hero with a caterpillar in a cardboard pill-box one lunchtime?
At night he dreams that he goes to the empty bedroom and encounters luminous, bloated, and gigantic caterpillars.
The caterpillars return each night and the one in the pill-box, while the correct size, seems menacing.
We view caterpillars as a symbol of metamorphosis, yielding something beautiful. This story presents an alternative narrative. The caterpillars represent something else and ultimately--death. Metamorphosis for sure, but not really one most of us thing of in positive terms.
Creepy gothic horror. Well written.
~~shudder~~~
RECOMMEND
November 5, 2025
Stuff You Should Know Halloween Special podcast '25.
April 29, 2019
I listened to this twice. Great short story, creepy and atmospheric. I have a hatred for moths and as such I'm not a massive fan of caterpillers but still, I enjoyed listening to this.
December 21, 2025
Had a good atmosphere but I think the story goes a bit too off the rails for it to be genuinely entertaining.
October 30, 2024
Atmospheric and strange short story, an enjoyable weird tale.
January 2, 2019
It was a good story, but I didn’t find the caterpillars very scary. If it was about spiders then I think I’d understand the spookiness.
January 8, 2023
Caterpillars is the story of a very strange, unsettling visit to the mysterious Villa Cascana where from the moment the narrator stepped into the villa, he felt that something was wrong. On the first floor one bedroom is inexplicably always kept empty. This uneasy feeling that the visitor feels immediately on arriving, although there is no obvious reason why it should, persists, and then the nightmares begin. Or are they nightmares? Surely the sinister, terrifying caterpillars which infest the empty room cannot be more than just a bad dream or can they?
That night when searching for his book to finish reading the narrator was able to peer into the unoccupied bedroom since the door was open and saw . . .
"that the greyish light of the bedroom came from the bed, or rather from what was on the bed. For it was covered with great caterpillars, a foot or more in length, which crawled over it. They were faintly luminous, and it was the light from them that showed me the room. Instead of the sucker-feet of ordinary caterpillars they had rows of pincers like crabs, and they moved by grasping what they lay on with their pincers, and then sliding their bodies forward. In colour these dreadful insects were yellowish-grey, and they were covered with irregular lumps and swellings. There must have been hundreds of them, for they formed a sort of writhing, crawling pyramid on the bed."
BOY OH BOY! That description sure gives me the willies.
That night when searching for his book to finish reading the narrator was able to peer into the unoccupied bedroom since the door was open and saw . . .
"that the greyish light of the bedroom came from the bed, or rather from what was on the bed. For it was covered with great caterpillars, a foot or more in length, which crawled over it. They were faintly luminous, and it was the light from them that showed me the room. Instead of the sucker-feet of ordinary caterpillars they had rows of pincers like crabs, and they moved by grasping what they lay on with their pincers, and then sliding their bodies forward. In colour these dreadful insects were yellowish-grey, and they were covered with irregular lumps and swellings. There must have been hundreds of them, for they formed a sort of writhing, crawling pyramid on the bed."
BOY OH BOY! That description sure gives me the willies.
December 16, 2023
SYNOPSIS: "In the beautiful Villa Cascana on the Italian Riviera, all is not as it seems. Why does the hostess leave a perfectly charming bedroom unoccupied? Why does Arthur Inglis present our hero with a caterpillar in a cardboard pill-box one lunchtime? And rather more bizarrely, why do luminous, bloated and gigantic versions of this creature haunt his dreams? Or could it possibly be that he is wide awake?"
August 8, 2022
Caterpillars
Author: E.F Benson
Genre: Gothic thriller
Rating: 3.8/5
The story begins with a story telling of an unmanned narrator who reminice a horrible thrilling event he ever experienced. All about a pile of Caterpillars those have a very grossy and goosebump giving body shape.
This is a Gothic thriller story. You might like it if you are a horror lover.
Happy Reading !!
Author: E.F Benson
Genre: Gothic thriller
Rating: 3.8/5
The story begins with a story telling of an unmanned narrator who reminice a horrible thrilling event he ever experienced. All about a pile of Caterpillars those have a very grossy and goosebump giving body shape.
This is a Gothic thriller story. You might like it if you are a horror lover.
Happy Reading !!
December 7, 2021
This story was very original in matter with regards to the horror genre that deals with the tremors of terminal illness. I found the analogy of ravenous caterpillars and their weaving of cocoons with malignancy very well imagined and original.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 23, 2022
Creepy fantasy listening 🎧
A very intense will written fantasy novella by E. F. Benson if you do not like creepy things it may not be for you. Enjoy the adventure of reading or listening to novels. 🐛🎉😎 2022
A very intense will written fantasy novella by E. F. Benson if you do not like creepy things it may not be for you. Enjoy the adventure of reading or listening to novels. 🐛🎉😎 2022
November 29, 2024
A talented writer of a book with a good atmosphere. But the story was just lacking in additional frills - just a bit too plain and one dimensional. And for me the ending was rather lack lustre and anticlimactic.
October 23, 2017
This story made my skin crawl. A man deals with mutated caterpillars, but then has the added problem of wondering if it was real or not.
January 16, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this!
August 30, 2020
Gross.
Read
August 10, 2021Who isn't scared of those little biggers?
October 18, 2022
Creepy crawlies are not always spiders or snakes.
March 16, 2023
The suspense builds admirably. I was not too impressed with the outcome but it was ok.
June 1, 2023
I know nothing!
July 11, 2023
made me glad i don’t dream, ending is lacklustre though
October 2, 2023
Damn, it was gruesome. I don't think I love reading this type of story at night but I still do read them.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews