"Ghosts! They come in all shape and sizes, all genders and species, and they have manifold reasons for manifesting--or, as is sometimes the case, not manifesting. For more than two centuries, ghosts have haunted the imaginations of writers around the world, who have chronicled their exploits with uncommon vividness for entities whose relative lack of material substance leads many among us to question their very existence. Great Ghost Stories pays tribute to the long literary legacy of the ghost story by gathering together in one volume 101 of the best short ghost stories of all time. Here you will find ghosts of virtually every stripe and semblance: ghosts who seek revenge against the living, ghosts who dutifully keep appointments made while their hosts were still alive, ghosts who appear to convince skeptics of their existence, and even ghosts who don't know that they're ghosts. Some of the ghosts depicted here are helpful, while others are horrifyingly malevolent. Some have disconcerting physicality--for example the phantom limb whose owner claims committed the murder he's accused of. Others are so insubstantial for instance, the lingering influence of a suicide that imbues a boarding house room that--that their power over the living seems completely out of proportion."--