Ghosts: A Classic Collection

by Walt Sturrock (Illustrator)

Book by

Genres: Horror

157 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Carie Juettner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently re-discovered this cool book I got when I was a kid. GHOSTS: A Classic Collection, Illustrated by Walt Sturrock, was published by Unicorn Publishing House in 1989. I don’t actually remember when or where I got it, but chances are it was a gift for my thirteenth birthday. (It certainly looks like the perfect Halloween-birthday gift.) The collection includes nine classic ghost stories, such as “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes” and “The Monkey’s Paw” (an all time favorite). In addition to the stories, there are thirty illustrations by Walt Sturrock, and they are beautiful and disturbing. You can see most of them on Sturrock’s website.

As a kid, I admit, it was the illustrations that I cared about. I loved the pictures and the book itself—a heavy black hardback with the headless horseman on the front and a silver skull on the back. Eventually, I did start reading the stories, but I’m honestly not sure I ever got through the whole thing. Until now. Even the ones I already know, like “The German Student,” I’m reading again because I want to read them in this unique volume.

If you can find a copy of GHOSTS: A Classic Collection, grab it. If you’re a fan of horror, the stories may not be new to you, but the experience will. Also, it makes a great gift for the young horror-enthusiasts in your life, even if they just want to look at the pictures for now.

[pietastic · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of classic stories, yet I struggled to understand the intended audience. With the illustrations and size of the volume, I had thought it was for kids. But this selection would be a hard sell for kids to take interest in, let alone read, focus on, and mentally process. A few are primarily romance, and most are only ghostly in the punchline - at the very last sentence or paragraph. And all are written in the dry descriptive style common in days of yore, with very little happening in active voice. Still, it’s a nice volume for my collection, and I'm glad to have finally read the originals of such stories as Sleepy Hollow and The Monkey's Paw.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sure this was intended for kids, but I think kids are younger in some ways these days than my generation was, and I don't think kids would get a lot of the story, would be impatient with the stories, and might find it a little gruesome. I could be wrong, now.

It is a particularly good collection of authors: M.R. James, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Henry James, Guy de Maupassant, Robert Louis Stevenson, Elizabeth Gaskell, and W.W. Jacobs. The illustrations by Sturrock are perfectly in the mood of the book.

[Regina · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of re-tellings. The illustrations are absolutely chilling. A particular standout is the version of the Monkey's Paw found within, as well as the "Lost Hearts" tale. This was my first set of truly scary stories, found in one of those huge book sales. I creeped out everyone in the sixth grade. LOL