Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories (Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural)
£4.70
This is a book to be read by a blazing fire on a winter’s night, with the curtains drawn close and the doors securely locked. The unquiet souls of the dead, both as fictional creations and as ‘real’ apparitions, roam the pages of this haunting selection of ghost stories by Rex Collings.
Some of these stories are classics while others are lesser-known gems unearthed from this vintage era of tales of the supernatural. There are stories from distant lands – ‘Fisher’s Ghost’ by John Lang is set in Australia and ‘A Ghostly Manifestation’ by ‘A Clergyman’ is set in Calcutta. In this selection, Sir Walter Scott (a Victorian in spirit if not in fact), keeps company with Edgar Allen Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu and other illustrious masters of the genre.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Wordsworth Editions (5 Jan. 2008) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 304 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 184022066X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1840220667 |
| Dimensions | 12.45 x 1.78 x 19.56 cm |
by W. Thompson
Whenever I buy books from Amazon I normally buy them three at a time. So far I have managed to buy some really great books which I have yet to get round to reading as my library is filling up. But it’s hard to let bargain books go by so even though I may not read them straight away, they are there for when I am ready. The books are really great value for the money and plus you get free postage.
by Glennis Deacon
I found stories long and not as scary and ghostly as I thought
by Stephen Harris
I enjoyed this book of short stories. Notice that I said ‘short stories’ and not ‘ghost stories’ as at least three tales included : ‘The Squires Story’ by Mrs Gaskell, ‘The Story of Mary Ancel’ by Thackeray and ‘The Traveller’s Story of a Terribly Strange Bed’ by Wilkie Collins have no supernatural element whatsoever. They are all good short stories though.
Other highlights in the book include ‘The Tapestried Chamber’ by Sir Walter Scott – one of the earliest modern ghost stories, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe – a great short story by a great writer, ‘To be Taken With a Grain of Salt’ by Charles Dickens, which has elements similar to M.R.James and was probably written before James was even born, two stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu including ‘An Account of Some Strange Distubances in Aungier Street and ‘A School Story’ by M.R.James which I consider to be one of his very best.
Humour is present in this collection including ‘The Canterbury Ghost’ by Oscar Wilde and ‘Laura’ by Saki, as well as two little known gems ‘Eveline’s Visitant’ by Miss Braddon and ‘Thurnley Abbey’ by Percival Landon both of which are memorably chilling.
Of course many of the best writers of supernatural fiction of this era are not included such as Guy de Maupassant, Edith Wharton and Algernon Blackwood, however there is a lot of lesser known material and this book is an enjoyable (if sometimes eccentric) read.
by LadyLionheart
Interesting
by james crichton
This series of affordable paperbacks are great fun.
This volume is a good starting point to delve into the short ghost story genre.
Lots of writers, Victorian gems and Edwardian classics from the ghost story-boom period.
You’ll get a feel for writers you like and can pursue them further in books in the set.
by Vicky Reed
I loved this book. Finished it in 4 hours whilst i was on an airplane and will most definitely be reading again. My favourite stories in this book are The Haunted Doll’s House, A School Story (both by Montague Rhodes James) and A Ghostly Manifestation (by an anonymous Clergyman)
10/10 would recommend to everyone
by gezkc
With the evenings rapidly drawing in, and being a huge fan of ghost stories, I set out with the aim of finding a fresh collection of ghostly tales to read. This book seemed to me to be the perfect answer as, although I recognised several of the titles in this book as classics of the genre (The Tapestried Chamber, The Tell Tale Heart and The Phantom Coach to name but three), there were many more in this collection I had not heard of before. With most Victorian ghost story collections sticking to the same tried and tested authors and stories, it was quite appealing to find a book featuring some “new” ones (to me at least).
Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the reason I hadn’t heard of several of these ghost stories is because they are not ghost stories at all. Some would even struggle to be termed “mysterious”, and contain nothing at all of the supernatural. That’s not to say they’re not good stories, but for a book that’s entitled Classic Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories, it is a little disappointing for several of them to be totally devoid of ghosts in any way, shape or form.
If you’re in the market for some miscellaneous Victorian and Edwardian tales of no particular genre, then by all means buy this book. However, if you’re looking for good ghost stories, I recommend looking elsewhere.
by Dawnie
Brilliant stocking filler and price. Some weird little Victorian stories in there