What do you think?
Rate this book
More Winter Ghosts: A Further Collection of Classic Ghost Stories for Christmas
A further selection of vintage ghost and horror stories by masters of the genre. Set during the Christmas period, these are perfect festive reading for long winter nights...
- GenresGhost Stories
420 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 26, 2014
17 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 1, 2017
A good, old fashioned, collection of ghost stories
An enjoyable read, with some stories better than others. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.
An enjoyable read, with some stories better than others. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.
November 3, 2015
Again, a very good, entertaining collection of ghost stories. However, the book would be better with a contents or an index.
Some favorites:
"Christmas Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens is really just a tiny collection of vignettes as if told by a group of people:
There is "a young woman, deadly pale, and with long fair hair, who glides to the fire, and sits down in the chair we have left there, wringing her hands...Her clothes are wet; her long hair is dabbled with moist mud; she is dressed in the fashion of two hundred years ago; and she has at her girdle a bunch of rusty keys."
"Thus, in such another house there is a haunted door, that never will keep open; or another door that never will keep shut, or a haunted sound of a spinning-wheel, or a hammer, or a footstep, or a cry, or a sigh, or a horse’s tramp, or the rattling of a chain. Or else, there is a turret-clock, which, at the midnight hour, strikes thirteen when the head of the family is going to die; or a shadowy, immovable black carriage which at such a time is always seen by somebody, waiting near the great gates in the stable-yard."
I could go on, but you get the idea. Really delightful.
"The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall" by John Kendrick Bangs has been one of my favorite ghost stories since childhood. I came across it in a collection of humorous ghost stories for children. It's very funny and has a delightfully ingenious way to take care of an annoying ghost.
"An Anniversary at the Hare and Billet" by E. Nesbit and Oswald Barron is set in 1770 at an inn that reminds me of Jamaica Inn. A highwayman and his partner, the innkeeper, make the mistake of trying to rob a supposedly easy victim. They should have paid more attention to the dog - he knew something was wrong.
"Snap-Dragon" by James Hain Friswell reminds me of "A Christmas Carol," except this is one miser who doesn't reform, despite the numerous chances he is given.
Personally, I found "Amore Duree Passages from the Diary of Spiridion Trepka" by Vernon Lee rather tedious. I found it very melodramatic and far too long.
Some favorites:
"Christmas Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens is really just a tiny collection of vignettes as if told by a group of people:
There is "a young woman, deadly pale, and with long fair hair, who glides to the fire, and sits down in the chair we have left there, wringing her hands...Her clothes are wet; her long hair is dabbled with moist mud; she is dressed in the fashion of two hundred years ago; and she has at her girdle a bunch of rusty keys."
"Thus, in such another house there is a haunted door, that never will keep open; or another door that never will keep shut, or a haunted sound of a spinning-wheel, or a hammer, or a footstep, or a cry, or a sigh, or a horse’s tramp, or the rattling of a chain. Or else, there is a turret-clock, which, at the midnight hour, strikes thirteen when the head of the family is going to die; or a shadowy, immovable black carriage which at such a time is always seen by somebody, waiting near the great gates in the stable-yard."
I could go on, but you get the idea. Really delightful.
"The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall" by John Kendrick Bangs has been one of my favorite ghost stories since childhood. I came across it in a collection of humorous ghost stories for children. It's very funny and has a delightfully ingenious way to take care of an annoying ghost.
"An Anniversary at the Hare and Billet" by E. Nesbit and Oswald Barron is set in 1770 at an inn that reminds me of Jamaica Inn. A highwayman and his partner, the innkeeper, make the mistake of trying to rob a supposedly easy victim. They should have paid more attention to the dog - he knew something was wrong.
"Snap-Dragon" by James Hain Friswell reminds me of "A Christmas Carol," except this is one miser who doesn't reform, despite the numerous chances he is given.
Personally, I found "Amore Duree Passages from the Diary of Spiridion Trepka" by Vernon Lee rather tedious. I found it very melodramatic and far too long.
February 9, 2023
A few Christmases ago, I picked up a cheap and cheerful collection of seasonal ghost stories, mainly Victorian and Edwardian, called 'Winter Ghosts.' It turned out to be a real gem that I thoroughly enjoyed, especially at the price.
I would like to say the same about this second collection from the same source. I would like to but...
My overall impression and it could be nothing of the sort, is that these are the stories that weren't quite good enough for volume one. It does have its moments but there is so much filler. Essays about ghost stories, rather than actual stories. Stories that aren't stories but essays on the good old days and how new fangled ideas have over complicated things, disguised as stories. Lesser known stories by big names in the genre, that are lesser known for a good reason.
And then there are the ones that really haven't aged well. If you are going to read a collection like this you do have to make allowances for the fact that they did things differently in those days, it took a while to tell a tale back then. Even allowing for that, there was one meandering story of a fairly unlikeable protagonist set in Italy that nearly made me lose the will to live and go and join the ghosts myself.
As I said though, it does have its moments, it was cheap and it has a certain interest as a social history document, that would probably be useful as research if you were writing a period piece.
So, for those reasons it gets a slightly flattering three stars and not the two stars it probably deserves.
I would like to say the same about this second collection from the same source. I would like to but...
My overall impression and it could be nothing of the sort, is that these are the stories that weren't quite good enough for volume one. It does have its moments but there is so much filler. Essays about ghost stories, rather than actual stories. Stories that aren't stories but essays on the good old days and how new fangled ideas have over complicated things, disguised as stories. Lesser known stories by big names in the genre, that are lesser known for a good reason.
And then there are the ones that really haven't aged well. If you are going to read a collection like this you do have to make allowances for the fact that they did things differently in those days, it took a while to tell a tale back then. Even allowing for that, there was one meandering story of a fairly unlikeable protagonist set in Italy that nearly made me lose the will to live and go and join the ghosts myself.
As I said though, it does have its moments, it was cheap and it has a certain interest as a social history document, that would probably be useful as research if you were writing a period piece.
So, for those reasons it gets a slightly flattering three stars and not the two stars it probably deserves.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews