Robin Brockman

It's an anthology. Some of the stories are better than others, but even the worst of them is worth at least three stars. If, as I do, you have quite a few books of ghost stories, you'd probably like to know if there are any in this book that you don't have already. That's why I've listed all 34 that are in this collection. I was lucky: all but 9 were ones I hadn't read before. I got the real names of some of the authors from the introduction, which I recommend reading after the stories because it contains spoilers.

'The Furnished Room' by O. Henry (William Sidney Porter)
A man on a desperate search rents a room in a house that sounds as if it's too disgusting even for cockroaches.

'The Canterville Ghost' by Oscar Wilde
An experienced English ghost tries his old tricks on an American family of non-believers. (This story is an old favorite of mine -- it's funnier than the 1944 movie.)

'The Oval Portrait' by Edgar Allan Poe
A wounded man is fascinated by one of the paintings in the room where he is staying.

'The Tapestried Chamber' by Sir Walter Scott
General Browne, returned to England after the American Revolution, finds his old friend's hospitality less comfortable than an old tobacco cask he once slept in during the war.

'An Account of the Strange Disturbances at Aungier Street' by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Two young cousins learn that free rent can be too costly.

'The Ghost Detective' by Mark Lemon
Was it a ghost who solved the case of the missing money?

'The Horla' by Guy de Maupassant
Who enters the journal writer's locked room at night to drink his water and milk?

'The Story of the Unknown Church' by William Morris
A master-mason tells the story of a church he helped to build.

'The Old Nurse's Story' by Mrs. Gaskell (Elizabeth Cleghorn)
The old nurse tells her current charges about a deadly peril their mother was in when she was a little girl.

'The Last Drop' by Sarah Bernhardt (Rosine Bernard)
Of what is an old duke so terrified?

'The Romance of Some Old Cloths' by Henry James
It's not wise to induce someone to break a deathbed promise...

'The Phantom Coach' by Amelia B. Edwards
A newlywed man is desperate to get back to his bride before morning.

'The Devil's Wager' by William Makepeace Thackeray
The wager is for the ultimate fate of a sinner's soul.

'Teigue of the Lee' by T. Crofton Croker
Teigue is heard, but never seen, and does not care for scoffers.

'The Captain of the Pole-star' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Bad enough that the ship could become trapped with all on board -- it's haunted, too.

'The Haunted Mill or the Ruined House' by Jerome K. Jerome
The introduction, which is a humorous look at ghost stories, takes up over half the pages, but it's the best part.

'The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton' by Charles Dickens
Scrooge had it easier.

'The Case of the Reverend Mr. Toomey' by S. B. T.
Father Toomey has a deadly secret.

'The Spectre of Tappington' by Thomas Ingoldsby (Rev. Richard Barham)
An unfortunate visitor keeps dreaming about a dead man and waking to find something of his missing.

'The Hollow of the Three Hills' by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A beautiful young woman is so desperate for information that she consults a crone with uncanny powers.

'The Lady of Rosemount' by Sir Thomas Graham Jackson
An Oxford student with antiquarian tastes makes a dangerous discovery about a long-dead countess.

'Grey Dolphin' by Thomas Ingoldsby (Rev. Richard Barham)
An arrogant baron finds a foe from which his sword, Tickletoby, can't save him.

'Miss Jéromette and the Clergyman' by Wilkie Collins
The defendant was acquitted, so why is the clergyman so certain he was guilty?

'The Homing Bone' by Conell Cearnach (Frederick O'Connell)
An anatomist covets a bone lying in a churchyard.

'The Ghost Ship' by Richard Middleton
It was definitely an ill wind that blew the ghost ship in to Fairfield.

'The Body Snatcher' by Robert Louis Stevenson
An eerie tale from the time of the infamous Burke and Hare. (The Boris Karloff movie differs from it somewhat, but retains the atmosphere.)

'Napoleon and the Spectre' by Charlotte Brontë
Bonaparte has an unwelcome night visitor.

'The Story of the Moor Road' by E. and H. Heron (Kate Pritchard and her son, Hesketh)
Something not human is lurking on the Moor Road.

'Man-size in Marble' by Edith Nesbit
A skeptic who has moved to a new neighborhood ignores a warning about going outside on Halloween.

'The Last of Squire Ennismore' by Mrs. J. H. Riddell
A very strange stranger pays a call on a wicked squire.

'The Bagman's Story' by Charles Dickens
A bagman gets advice from an unusual source.

'The Withered Arm' by Thomas Hardy
A dream has bad consequences for an innocent person.

'The Moonlit Road' by Ambrose Bierce
The son of a murder victim, the killer, and the ghost of the victim tell the story.

'Ghosts That Have Haunted Me' by John Kendrick Bangs
A man gives practical advice on dealing with ghosts and gives it in an amusing style. Mr. Bangs also wrote the equally amusing "The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall" that you might have read if your library had a copy of Ghosts, Ghosts, Ghosts, edited by Phyllis R. Fenner.… (mehr)