The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Volume 21

Twenty ghostly tales from the supernatural masters of the Victorian age.Wimbourne Books presents the twenty-first in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories is the largest and most comprehensive collection of the genre anywhere. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 21 contains stories published mostly in America between 1852 and 1899. 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 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 Haunted Well (1852) – Margaret Casson; The Phantom of the Bottomless Lake (1854) – Corolla Hiacynthia Criswell; The Legend of Starved Rock (1856) – Mary W. Janvrin; Willie Johnson’s Mother: A Ghost Story (1862) – Elizabeth Sheridan Carey; A Dead Vashti (1877) – Louise Stockton; The Haunted Chamber (1878) – Sarah Dorr; The Ghost of Morcar’s Tower (1879) – Mrs. McAlpine Leny; Miss Pringle’s Neighbors (1887) – Fanny van der Grift Stevenson; Thrilling Experience (1888) – Manda L. Crocker; “As Haggards of the Rock” (1890) – Mary Tappan Wright; Duncan’s Ghost Story (1890) – Ada Marie Peck; The Soul of Marse Ralph (1890) – Mary A. P. Stansbury; Ignoto (1895) – Louise Clarkson Whitelock; The Creeping Shadow (1896) – R. Pardepp; Marm Phœbe’s Fortune (1896) – Edith Robinson; A Message from Beyond (1898) – Genevieve Thorndike Clark; The Passing of Cesare (1898) – Helen Pitkin; The Haunted Wardrobe (1899) – Margaret Vane; The Blue Man (1899) – Mary Hartwell Catherwood; A South Carolina Ghost Story (1899) – Florence Howard Wingate.

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