The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Volume 19

Twenty ghostly tales for Christmas from the supernatural masters of the Victorian age.Wimbourne Books presents the nineteenth in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 19 contains stories published in Britain, Ireland and America between 1839 and 1900, and all set at or around the Christmas period. Readers new to this genre will discover its pleasures; the Victorian quaintness, the sometimes shocking difference in social norms, the almost comical politeness and structured etiquette, the archaic and precise language, but mostly the Victorians’ skill at stoking our fears and trepidations, our insecurities and doubts. Even if you are already an aficionado of the ghostly tale there is much within these pages to interest you. Wait until the dark of the snowy night, lock the doors, shutter the windows, light the fire, sit with your back to the wall and bury yourself in the Victorian macabre. Try not to let the creaking floorboards, the distant howl of a dog, the chill breeze that caresses the candle, the shadows in the far recesses of your room, disturb your concentration.Includes the stories; The Dead Man’s Race (1839) – William Jerdan; The Ghost in the Top-Story (1864) – Frances Browne; Asher’s Last Hour (1867) – George Manville Fenn; The Ghost of the Hollow Field (1867) – Ellen Wood; Walnut-Tree House (1878) – Charlotte Riddell; Christmas at Cairnforth (1879) – Kitty Clover; The Wraith of Barnjum (1879) – F. Anstey; Mansleigh Grange (1881) – Frances Collins; Goblet or Goblin (1882) – Edward Bradbury; The Pearl Princess (1882) – Augustus Cheltenham; What Was He? (1884) – Theo Gift; Ould Skinner (1886) – Ethel Greene; Our Ghost Party (1891) – Jerome K. Jerome; The Antique Bedstead (1891) – William Wilthew Fenn; The Wicked Editor’s Christmas Dream (1893) – Alice Mary Vince; Lady Dorothy (1894) – Ralli West; The Mystery of My Grandmother’s Hair Sofa (1896) – John Kendrick Bangs; The Blue Room (1897) – Lettice Galbraith; Out on the Leads (1900) – Sabine Baring-Gould; Ghosts Who Became Famous (1900) – Carolyn Wells.

Reviews

News