Stories by Anon., Grant Allen, S. Baring-Gould, Harriet Beecher Stowe, A.C. Benson, Robert Benson, Ambrose Bierce, Mary E. Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, Bernard Capes, Robert W. Chambers, Frank Cowper, Ralph Adams Cram, Charles Dickens, Amelia B. Edwards, Erckmann-Chatrian, F. Marion Crawford, Lettice Galbraith, Tom Gallon, Theo Gift, J.B. Harwood, Alexander Harvey, William Hope Hodgson, Lafcadio Hearn, Henry James, M.R. James, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Richard Marsh, W.C. Morrow, J.E.P. Muddock, Dinah Maria Mulock, E. Nesbit, Fitz-James O'Brien, Thomas Nelson Page, Clive Pemberton, Alice Perrin, Bram Stoker, Allen Upward

A fine collection of ghost stories from the Victorian and pre-World War I era. Includes American and British selections, and contributions from both well known authors, such as Henry James, Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe (with dreadful "slave" dialect!) and Bram Stoker, and many others from less famous authors. Most were published in magazines of the times and are no longer well known, but almost all were very well done and enjoyable. Great October reading to get you in the mood for Halloween. ( )

Overall a very good collection of stories:

Schalken the Painter - the earliest "modern" ghost story, apparently, sightly chilling in places, but only average in my view.

*M Anastasius - a tragic and creepy story that also says a lot about 19th century English attitudes towards the Catholic church.

The Lost Room - quite funny, but unremarkable.

*The Signalman - best haunting Dickens short ghost story.

Haunted - bog standard magazine fodder of a ghost seeking revenge on his murderer.

The Romance of Certain Old Clothes - jealousy of a woman for her younger sister. Really only a ghost story in the final sentence.

John Granger - another standard story of a ghost appearing to the living until his murderer is discovered.

Ghost in the Mill/Ghost in the Cap'n Brown House - unremarkable little mysteries narrated in a 19th century rural New England vernacular - bit of a chore.

Poor Pretty Bobby - predictable story where man appears to his loved one as a ghost at the moment of his death far away in a naval engagement.

The New Pass - another ghost providing a warning of impending disaster, this time the collapse of an Alpine tunnel.

The Black and the White - didn't get this at all.

*The Underground Ghost - quite creepy and suffocating, a good story.

*Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk - very good and creepy

*Dog or Demon? - horribly compulsive and tragic

A Ghost from the Sea - pretty average ghost takes revenge on its killer story

A Set of Chessmen - amusing story if you like chess as I do

*The Judge's House - a terrifying story with lots of classic ingredients - a creaky old house, a hanging judge, rats, all overlaid with a sense of creeping dread.

Pallinghurst Barrow - a reasonable ghost story, but more infamous for me in its depiction of stone age people as uniformly savage bloodthirsty brutes , reflecting the dominant Victorian view of early humankind.

The Mystery of the Semi-Detached - very short but quite shocking.

Sister Maddelena - very predictable but quite sad and moving even so

The Trainer's Ghost - run of the mill and a bit too much horse and jockey vernacular for me

An Original Revenge - interesting take on ghostly revenge.

Caulfield's Crime - slightly different type of story in an Indian setting

*The Bridal Pair - sad, bittersweet story of a lost love

The Watcher - spirit of nature haunts a man who shoots a bird for pleasure

The Spectre in the Cart - more of a story about racial crime and lynchings in late 19th century America than a ghost story really. Shocking in places to a modern reader, but not for ghostly reasons.

HP - a ridiculous story where the ghost of a prehistoric man (portrayed in typical Victorian/Edwardian style as a one dimensional bloodthirsty savage) rues not having experienced the comforts of 19th/20th century life.

Yuki-Onna - odd little Japanese tale

*The Ash-Tree - a horrible, creepy tale by the master of the genre, M R James

The Story of the Green House, Wallington - a short story, fairly unremarkable, but with a certain chilling air.

The Slype House - quite a creepy story, though I didn't understand the ending.

A Ghost-Child - sad, but rather twee.

The Bead Necklace - an average story, but with a grisly twist at the end.

A Dead Man's Bargain - slightly unusual, a fairly good atmosphere of horror built up, but too short really to get going

The House That Was Lost - a macabre murder mystery, though not really a ghost story

The Jolly Corner - longest story in the collection, but very boring so I gave up on it.

*The Doll's Ghost - very creepy and touching story.
The Moonlit Road - an interesting structure, but I'm not clear whther the father killed the mother or not.
The Forbidden Floor - an interesting theory of how ghosts originate in this powerfully emotional tale.

*The Shadow - this started off in a low key way, but was actually one of the most terrifying very short ghost stories in this collection.

*The Gateway of the Monster - a very good, creepy and horrific story ( )