Sweet Williams' ghost (a popular ballad) -- The family portraits / by Johann August Apel -- The tapestried chamber, or The lady in the square / by Sir Walter Scott -- The gray champion / by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Ligeia / by Edgar Allan Poe -- No. 1 branch line : the signalman / by Charles Dickens -- Since I died / by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps -- Mrs. Zant and the ghost / by Wilkie Collins -- An inhabitant of Carcosa / by Ambrose Bierce -- The last of Squire Ennismore / by Charlotte (Mrs. J. H.) Riddell -- The philosophy of relative existences / by Frank Stockton -- The real right thing / by Henry James -- The lady's maid's bell / by Edith Wharton -- A ghost story / by Mark Twain -- Oh, whistle and I'll come to you, my lad / by M. R. James -- The shell of sense / by Olivia Howard Dunbar -- The bowmen / by Arthur Machen -- The substitute / by Georgia Wood Pangborn.
Summary:
The ghost story has long been a staple of world literature, but many of the greatest tales have been forgotten, overshadowed in many cases by their authors' bestselling work in other genres. In this anthology, little known stories from literary titans like Charles Dickens and Edith Wharton are collected alongside overlooked works from masters of horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe and M. R. James. Acclaimed anthologists Leslie S. Klinger and Lisa Morton set these stories in historical context and trace the literary significance of ghosts in fiction over almost two hundred years{u2014}from a traditional English ballad first printed in 1724 through the Christmas-themed ghost stories of the Victorian era and up to the science fiction-tinged tales of the early twentieth century.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.