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Ghost Stories
A spine-chilling collection of stories by the masters of horror and suspense for young adults. Thirty-two short stories by twenty-seven authors.
Contents
Walter De La Mare – The Riddle
Stanley W. Fisher – The Sybarite
Roger F. Dunkley – Echoes In The Sand
Oliver Onions – The Mortal
Michelle Maurious – Fame
H. Brinsmead-Hungerford – Giovanni Paolo’s Land
H. G. Wells – The Red Room
Paul Dorrell – Lonely Boy
Colin Thiele – The Phantom Horses
Michael Joseph – The Yellow Cat
Stanley W. Fisher – A Little House Of Their Own
E. F. Benson – Expiation
John Gordon – Kroger’s Choice
Saki – Laura
Paul Dorrell – Tea And Empathy
M. R. James – The Haunted Doll’s House
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Brown Hand
W. W. Jacobs – The Well
Robert Arthur – The Haunted Trailer
Walter De La Mare – Bad Company
Lucy M. Boston – Many Coloured Glass
Ambrose Bierce – The Stranger
Edgar Allan Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart
H. R. Wakefield – The Gorge Of The Churels
E. Nesbit – Man-Size In Marble
Brian Alderson – The Wooing Of Cherry Basnett
Ambrose Bierce – A Tough Tussle
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Glenn Chandler – The Late Departure
H. R. Wakefield – Damp Sheets
Sorche Nic Leodhas – The Battle With The Bogles
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch – A Pair Of Hands
Contents
Walter De La Mare – The Riddle
Stanley W. Fisher – The Sybarite
Roger F. Dunkley – Echoes In The Sand
Oliver Onions – The Mortal
Michelle Maurious – Fame
H. Brinsmead-Hungerford – Giovanni Paolo’s Land
H. G. Wells – The Red Room
Paul Dorrell – Lonely Boy
Colin Thiele – The Phantom Horses
Michael Joseph – The Yellow Cat
Stanley W. Fisher – A Little House Of Their Own
E. F. Benson – Expiation
John Gordon – Kroger’s Choice
Saki – Laura
Paul Dorrell – Tea And Empathy
M. R. James – The Haunted Doll’s House
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The Brown Hand
W. W. Jacobs – The Well
Robert Arthur – The Haunted Trailer
Walter De La Mare – Bad Company
Lucy M. Boston – Many Coloured Glass
Ambrose Bierce – The Stranger
Edgar Allan Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart
H. R. Wakefield – The Gorge Of The Churels
E. Nesbit – Man-Size In Marble
Brian Alderson – The Wooing Of Cherry Basnett
Ambrose Bierce – A Tough Tussle
W. W. Jacobs – The Monkey’s Paw
Glenn Chandler – The Late Departure
H. R. Wakefield – Damp Sheets
Sorche Nic Leodhas – The Battle With The Bogles
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch – A Pair Of Hands
351 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 25, 2021
This is an anthology of ghost stories assembled for kids. As I've said before, I find such things interesting, as I grew up reading many of these types of things in the late 1970s, usually produced by Scholastic Scope and sold from the bookmobile. This (despite the cover, the title page calls it merely GHOST STORIES, not HAUNTING GHOST STORIES) provides an interesting example of the type because it is from 1980 (by then I'd moved on to adult fare) and from Britain. It's a nicely produced hardcover with an eye-catching cover (lurid orange splashed, cobwebbed skull), packed full of a variety of stuff. Reg Gray provides occasional black & white illustrations - a few are quite nice (a portrait of the decrepit, evil old man of "Bad Company"), the rest merely functional. And the contents, as might be expected, are a hodgepodge of children's fiction, public domain classics and a few pieces by, possibly, friends of the editor.
A word about ghost stories - horror fiction's gentler cousin. While M.R. James may have set the standard for malignant, malevolent haunts, there *are* other ways to write ghost stories, although those approaches tend to slowly move away from the environs of Horror and out into the borderlands where the genre melds into (Dark) Fantasy. Still, it must be remembered that a ghost story just basically requires a ghost and little more - the vaguely seen, eerie, flickering figure, symbol of death (either in the distant past or imminent future), the tomb, unhappy lives, murder ("you mean she was a g-g-g-ghost!?!), unfulfilled desires, etc. Easily dismissible today, no doubt, but if one is charitable, still able to work their delicate, chilling charm. Not every story here is technically a ghost story, just to say it... but the general focus is as the label on the tin says and really, it's a logical choice for a kid's anthology, instructing them in the joys of well-paced narrative and weird suspension of disbelief.
A word about children's fiction - and here I mean only short fiction and not popular series or classic novels or "Young Adult" books. Short fiction for children is not a topic, at least that I'm aware of, that gets much discussion - do people even write short stories for kids anymore or must everything be a series, each installment at novella length? I wonder about this because it is through short fiction, and the contrasting of deliberately composed kid's short fiction with classic of the form, that children can be exposed to the idea of a variety of styles, that fiction can encompass so much variety, that there are so many *ways* to tell a story. Regardless, a number (but not all) of the stories here are purely functional kid's fiction - and by that I mean that such examples usually feature juveniles as their protagonist and focus on juvenile concerns, the pacing is compacted, the plots (and especially the resolutions) are occasionally obvious and the endings spelled out just in case the reader didn't get it. All this is fine - kids have to start somewhere and if you don't think you could tolerate such stuff, well, skip those stories.
Oliver Onions, who is well-regarded and deservedly so, had the only piece here that I disliked (actually, I disliked it when I'd read it initially elsewhere but decided to give the author the benefit of the doubt and re-read. But, no dice). "The Mortal" is that old chestnut, "the ghost who is scared of humans as if they are ghosts" (what, he doesn't remember being alive?). A kid certainly might enjoy it, but not me.
As a prime example of the work here classifiable as kid's fiction, "Echoes In The Sand" by Roger F. Dunkley illustrates all the points nicely - a kid's adventure told from the POV of the oldest boy (who solves the mystery while being irritated by his younger siblings) with a bit of action and danger before wrapping up with a didactic ending - in truth, this could easily have been expanded into a short kid's novel with no problem (maybe add a complication or two, expand the friend's character). The story itself finds vacationing children discovering a seaside cave, mysterious ghostly symbols in the sand, legends of wreckers and murderers and a nautical trap before wrapping up with everyone okay. Not my thing, but competently done with some cute, witty writing- my 10 year old self would have appreciated the hints of real ghosts after so many bust THREE INVESTIGATORS endings.
"Giovanni Paolo's Land" by Hesba Brinsmead-Hungerford is a bit *dry* for a kid's story, but still relatively engaging in providing a mystery of property ownership and family history set in the Australian outback. Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Brown Hand" was on my list to read and now I have and, well, it didn't really grab me (pardon the pun) - the ghost of an Indian man haunts a doctor who promised to bury his previously excised hand with him when he shuffled off the mortal coil. It all turns on a story trick, sadly.
speaking of the Three Investigators, Robert Arthur is represented here with a breezy, jaunty little comical ghost story (which I know I've heard adapted on some old radio show - maybe THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER, as he used to write for that one), "The Haunted Trailer", in which a man driving cross-country to reunite with his fiance finds himself plagued by hitchhiking hobo ghosts. The wiseguy voice of the time is fun but the story, while cute, is slight and, again, would probably entertain kids.
A couple forbidden to wed by a strict father continue their secret assignations in the woods until a startling discovery is made in "The Wooing of Cherry Basnett" by Brian Alderson. This is just an okay story, mostly because the final twist (which is essentially a double one) is not played up enough to be as effective as it could be (the implications are left to hang, in other words) and so feels kind of... hobbled?
Putting the "okay" stories behind us, we move on to the solid stories that still evidenced some minor flaw or problem that stopped me from being able to consider them completely "good" in a qualitative sense (yeah, I'm crazy this way, deal with it).
"The Sybarite" by Stanley W. Fisher is a nasty little conte cruel about a snob who insults some medical doctors but then has need of their skills some years later. I felt it was like a prose version of an EC Comics horror story and imagine my surprise when, a few weeks later, I happened to read "The Trophy" from a TALES FROM THE CRYPT issue published in 1951 ("Sybarite" is from 1980). The details are different but the payoff is exactly the same! A good but slight story. Paul Dorrell's "Lonely Boy" is another kid's story about a bullied little kid who finds an equally ostracized companion. Given the title of this collection, the "twist" shouldn't be hard to figure out (again - fine for a kid's story), so the author throws in a second one - also a bit familiar if less expected. Again, this felt a bit like a kid's novel crammed into short story size - in particular the transition to the "weird" second half is awkwardly conveyed and confusing.
Someone is drinking all the water on the farm at night in "The Phantom Horses" by Colin Thiele. The title, again, tips you off but this a less a ghost story (the titular creatures barely appear in the final paragraph) than a kid's mystery story written to feature the comical antics and dialogue of the obstreperous old German Grandpa who talks like a Katzenjammer Kid. not much to mention but, again, for a kid, perfectly serviceable. "A Little House of Their Own" by Stanley W. Fisher (again), is a familiar "true-life haunting" scenario in fictional form as a newlywed couple inexplicably find their newly built house is haunted (the fact that the builders cleared away a foundation on the lot might be a clue, hmmmm?). The ending, while totally expected, was nicely blunt for what's basically a completely adequate kid's ghost story. A young girl finds herself plagued by hideous visions of a poisoned woman in "Tea & Empathy" - as with the previous kid's stories (don't worry, they're not *all* kid's stories) this sets up a good situation and then rushes the pacing and over-explains the pat ending (the girl solves a mystery *and* frees a soul to its final reward in the bargain!) but the descriptions of the ghost are alarmingly gruesome and creepy so, extra points!
M.R. James is a master, no doubt, but I've never been a big fan of "The Haunted Doll's House". Rereading it here, I enjoyed the authorial intrusions that satirize little aspects of ghost stories (and short fiction in general) in a knowing way, the passive/aggressive haggling dialogue that opens the piece and the brief description of the hideous haunter is effective (James is nothing if not an assured writer). But still, this story of a collector who buys a marvelous and enormous doll's house for a song, only to find that in the evening it becomes something like a miniature stage on which terrible historical deeds are replayed, still seems too much like a rehash of James' superior "The Mezzotint" to me, and the passive aspect of the main characters makes it feel a little removed from the fear. An obnoxious, blustering, self-important British businessman just manages to catch his last train home, only to find that it seems to be held up from leaving the station in Glenn Chandler's "The Late Departure" - but is he on the right train at all? This, again, is a good kid's read (it may have been intended for adults, hard to say, but any adult can probably see the end coming). Actually, that last point is kind of interesting because as the story progressed I felt that there were two likely endings - one a bit more on the nose and nastier, the other a bit more eerie but kinder - and surprisingly the latter was chosen.
A scheming couple invite their sickly but wealthy uncle over for a visit to hit him up for some cash, but the slightly craftier wife of the duo has more final plans in H. Russell Wakefield's "Damp Sheets" - this is a fairly typical "revenge of the murdered spirit" story, wrapped up in some black comic character sketches - something like a more pedestrian and lower-class Saki. I liked the almost existentially absurd last line. Sorche Nic Leodhas (who seemed to specialize in stuff like this) turns in a pleasant little Scots folktale in "The Battle With The Bogles", about a young man who inherits a gloomy, dusty old house plagued by noisy spirits. Good thing true love (and diligent housekeeping!) conquer all! Perfectly amiable.
The image of "disembodied hands" is a staple of ghost and horror fiction - W.F. Harvey, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Guy de Maupassant - IIRC, even Ambrose Bierce got in on the act. Arthur Quiller-Couch gets *his* hand in with "A Pair of Hands" as a women renting a cottage in Cornwall (complete with a mysteriously industrious maid) experiences a haunting that manifests in an unlikely manner. This wistful, charming little story is oddly heartwarming and not at all scary, but a good read nonetheless.
CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT
A word about ghost stories - horror fiction's gentler cousin. While M.R. James may have set the standard for malignant, malevolent haunts, there *are* other ways to write ghost stories, although those approaches tend to slowly move away from the environs of Horror and out into the borderlands where the genre melds into (Dark) Fantasy. Still, it must be remembered that a ghost story just basically requires a ghost and little more - the vaguely seen, eerie, flickering figure, symbol of death (either in the distant past or imminent future), the tomb, unhappy lives, murder ("you mean she was a g-g-g-ghost!?!), unfulfilled desires, etc. Easily dismissible today, no doubt, but if one is charitable, still able to work their delicate, chilling charm. Not every story here is technically a ghost story, just to say it... but the general focus is as the label on the tin says and really, it's a logical choice for a kid's anthology, instructing them in the joys of well-paced narrative and weird suspension of disbelief.
A word about children's fiction - and here I mean only short fiction and not popular series or classic novels or "Young Adult" books. Short fiction for children is not a topic, at least that I'm aware of, that gets much discussion - do people even write short stories for kids anymore or must everything be a series, each installment at novella length? I wonder about this because it is through short fiction, and the contrasting of deliberately composed kid's short fiction with classic of the form, that children can be exposed to the idea of a variety of styles, that fiction can encompass so much variety, that there are so many *ways* to tell a story. Regardless, a number (but not all) of the stories here are purely functional kid's fiction - and by that I mean that such examples usually feature juveniles as their protagonist and focus on juvenile concerns, the pacing is compacted, the plots (and especially the resolutions) are occasionally obvious and the endings spelled out just in case the reader didn't get it. All this is fine - kids have to start somewhere and if you don't think you could tolerate such stuff, well, skip those stories.
Oliver Onions, who is well-regarded and deservedly so, had the only piece here that I disliked (actually, I disliked it when I'd read it initially elsewhere but decided to give the author the benefit of the doubt and re-read. But, no dice). "The Mortal" is that old chestnut, "the ghost who is scared of humans as if they are ghosts" (what, he doesn't remember being alive?). A kid certainly might enjoy it, but not me.
As a prime example of the work here classifiable as kid's fiction, "Echoes In The Sand" by Roger F. Dunkley illustrates all the points nicely - a kid's adventure told from the POV of the oldest boy (who solves the mystery while being irritated by his younger siblings) with a bit of action and danger before wrapping up with a didactic ending - in truth, this could easily have been expanded into a short kid's novel with no problem (maybe add a complication or two, expand the friend's character). The story itself finds vacationing children discovering a seaside cave, mysterious ghostly symbols in the sand, legends of wreckers and murderers and a nautical trap before wrapping up with everyone okay. Not my thing, but competently done with some cute, witty writing- my 10 year old self would have appreciated the hints of real ghosts after so many bust THREE INVESTIGATORS endings.
"Giovanni Paolo's Land" by Hesba Brinsmead-Hungerford is a bit *dry* for a kid's story, but still relatively engaging in providing a mystery of property ownership and family history set in the Australian outback. Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Brown Hand" was on my list to read and now I have and, well, it didn't really grab me (pardon the pun) - the ghost of an Indian man haunts a doctor who promised to bury his previously excised hand with him when he shuffled off the mortal coil. It all turns on a story trick, sadly.
speaking of the Three Investigators, Robert Arthur is represented here with a breezy, jaunty little comical ghost story (which I know I've heard adapted on some old radio show - maybe THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER, as he used to write for that one), "The Haunted Trailer", in which a man driving cross-country to reunite with his fiance finds himself plagued by hitchhiking hobo ghosts. The wiseguy voice of the time is fun but the story, while cute, is slight and, again, would probably entertain kids.
A couple forbidden to wed by a strict father continue their secret assignations in the woods until a startling discovery is made in "The Wooing of Cherry Basnett" by Brian Alderson. This is just an okay story, mostly because the final twist (which is essentially a double one) is not played up enough to be as effective as it could be (the implications are left to hang, in other words) and so feels kind of... hobbled?
Putting the "okay" stories behind us, we move on to the solid stories that still evidenced some minor flaw or problem that stopped me from being able to consider them completely "good" in a qualitative sense (yeah, I'm crazy this way, deal with it).
"The Sybarite" by Stanley W. Fisher is a nasty little conte cruel about a snob who insults some medical doctors but then has need of their skills some years later. I felt it was like a prose version of an EC Comics horror story and imagine my surprise when, a few weeks later, I happened to read "The Trophy" from a TALES FROM THE CRYPT issue published in 1951 ("Sybarite" is from 1980). The details are different but the payoff is exactly the same! A good but slight story. Paul Dorrell's "Lonely Boy" is another kid's story about a bullied little kid who finds an equally ostracized companion. Given the title of this collection, the "twist" shouldn't be hard to figure out (again - fine for a kid's story), so the author throws in a second one - also a bit familiar if less expected. Again, this felt a bit like a kid's novel crammed into short story size - in particular the transition to the "weird" second half is awkwardly conveyed and confusing.
Someone is drinking all the water on the farm at night in "The Phantom Horses" by Colin Thiele. The title, again, tips you off but this a less a ghost story (the titular creatures barely appear in the final paragraph) than a kid's mystery story written to feature the comical antics and dialogue of the obstreperous old German Grandpa who talks like a Katzenjammer Kid. not much to mention but, again, for a kid, perfectly serviceable. "A Little House of Their Own" by Stanley W. Fisher (again), is a familiar "true-life haunting" scenario in fictional form as a newlywed couple inexplicably find their newly built house is haunted (the fact that the builders cleared away a foundation on the lot might be a clue, hmmmm?). The ending, while totally expected, was nicely blunt for what's basically a completely adequate kid's ghost story. A young girl finds herself plagued by hideous visions of a poisoned woman in "Tea & Empathy" - as with the previous kid's stories (don't worry, they're not *all* kid's stories) this sets up a good situation and then rushes the pacing and over-explains the pat ending (the girl solves a mystery *and* frees a soul to its final reward in the bargain!) but the descriptions of the ghost are alarmingly gruesome and creepy so, extra points!
M.R. James is a master, no doubt, but I've never been a big fan of "The Haunted Doll's House". Rereading it here, I enjoyed the authorial intrusions that satirize little aspects of ghost stories (and short fiction in general) in a knowing way, the passive/aggressive haggling dialogue that opens the piece and the brief description of the hideous haunter is effective (James is nothing if not an assured writer). But still, this story of a collector who buys a marvelous and enormous doll's house for a song, only to find that in the evening it becomes something like a miniature stage on which terrible historical deeds are replayed, still seems too much like a rehash of James' superior "The Mezzotint" to me, and the passive aspect of the main characters makes it feel a little removed from the fear. An obnoxious, blustering, self-important British businessman just manages to catch his last train home, only to find that it seems to be held up from leaving the station in Glenn Chandler's "The Late Departure" - but is he on the right train at all? This, again, is a good kid's read (it may have been intended for adults, hard to say, but any adult can probably see the end coming). Actually, that last point is kind of interesting because as the story progressed I felt that there were two likely endings - one a bit more on the nose and nastier, the other a bit more eerie but kinder - and surprisingly the latter was chosen.
A scheming couple invite their sickly but wealthy uncle over for a visit to hit him up for some cash, but the slightly craftier wife of the duo has more final plans in H. Russell Wakefield's "Damp Sheets" - this is a fairly typical "revenge of the murdered spirit" story, wrapped up in some black comic character sketches - something like a more pedestrian and lower-class Saki. I liked the almost existentially absurd last line. Sorche Nic Leodhas (who seemed to specialize in stuff like this) turns in a pleasant little Scots folktale in "The Battle With The Bogles", about a young man who inherits a gloomy, dusty old house plagued by noisy spirits. Good thing true love (and diligent housekeeping!) conquer all! Perfectly amiable.
The image of "disembodied hands" is a staple of ghost and horror fiction - W.F. Harvey, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Guy de Maupassant - IIRC, even Ambrose Bierce got in on the act. Arthur Quiller-Couch gets *his* hand in with "A Pair of Hands" as a women renting a cottage in Cornwall (complete with a mysteriously industrious maid) experiences a haunting that manifests in an unlikely manner. This wistful, charming little story is oddly heartwarming and not at all scary, but a good read nonetheless.
CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT
May 30, 2019
Difficult book to give a mark to because there maybe 8 good stories here, but that 8 is amidst a total of 32 on offer; 1 in 4 isn't really a good ratio.
My favourites are Paul Dorrell's 'Lonely Boy' (a lonely boys makes friends with what appears to be a ghost); W.W.Jacobs's 'The Well' (a man goes down a well to retrieve a bracelet, but what is there?); Ambrose Bierce's 'A Tough Tussle' (in war, a man thinks he sees a dead man moving); H.Russell Wakefield's 'Damp Sheets' (a couple invite along a relative in the hope of benefitting from his will).
Better still are Michael Joseph's 'The Yellow Cat' (good atmospheric tale of a gambler who is brought luck by a yellow cat); Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' (much anthologised, but one of Poe's best tales, this one about a murderer); Glenn Chandler's 'The Late Departure' (good atmospheric tale aboard a haunted train).
Best of all in my humble is E.F.Benson's 'Expiation' (two middle-aged men spend time in a house which has a secret. Good story, atmosphere and characters and a superb building up of the horror).
Just too much dross in this collection to highly recommend it...
My favourites are Paul Dorrell's 'Lonely Boy' (a lonely boys makes friends with what appears to be a ghost); W.W.Jacobs's 'The Well' (a man goes down a well to retrieve a bracelet, but what is there?); Ambrose Bierce's 'A Tough Tussle' (in war, a man thinks he sees a dead man moving); H.Russell Wakefield's 'Damp Sheets' (a couple invite along a relative in the hope of benefitting from his will).
Better still are Michael Joseph's 'The Yellow Cat' (good atmospheric tale of a gambler who is brought luck by a yellow cat); Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' (much anthologised, but one of Poe's best tales, this one about a murderer); Glenn Chandler's 'The Late Departure' (good atmospheric tale aboard a haunted train).
Best of all in my humble is E.F.Benson's 'Expiation' (two middle-aged men spend time in a house which has a secret. Good story, atmosphere and characters and a superb building up of the horror).
Just too much dross in this collection to highly recommend it...
January 1, 2025
3.95⭐
Walter De La Mare - The Riddle 4⭐
Stanley W. Fisher - The Sybarite 4.5⭐
Roger F. Dunkley - Echoes in the Sand 5⭐
Oliver Onions - The Mortal 2.5⭐
Michelle Maurious - Fame 3.5⭐
H. Brinsmead-Hungerford - Giovanni Paolo's Land 3.5⭐
H. G. Wells - The Red Room 5⭐
Paul Dorrell - Lonely Boy 4⭐
Colin Thiele - The Phantom Horses (Excerpt from Chapter 3 Uncle Gustav's Ghosts) 4⭐
Michael Joseph - The Yellow Cat 4⭐
Stanley W. Fisher - A Little House of Their Own 3⭐
E. F. Benson - Expiation 3⭐
John Gordon - Kroger's Choice 4.5⭐
Saki - Laura 5⭐
Paul Dorrell - Tea and Empathy 3.5⭐
M. R. James - The Haunted Doll's House 3⭐
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Brown Hand 4⭐
W. W. Jacobs - The Well 5⭐
Robert Arthur - The Haunted Trailer 2.5⭐
Walter De La Mare - Bad Company 4.25⭐
Lucy M. Boston - Many Coloured Glass 3.5⭐
Ambrose Bierce - The Stranger 5⭐
Edgar Allan Poe - The Tell-Tale Heart 5⭐
H. R. Wakefield - The Gorge of the Churels 3.25⭐
E. Nesbit - Man-Size in Marble 5⭐
Brian Alderson - The Wooing of Cherry Basnett 3⭐
Ambrose Bierce - A Tough Tussle 5⭐
W. W. Jacobs - The Monkey's Paw 5⭐
Glenn Chandler - The Late Departure 4.5⭐
H. R. Wakefield - Damp Sheets 3⭐
Sorche Nic Leodhas - The Battle with the Bogles (variants: The Bogles from the Howff; The Ghosts from the Graveyard) 3⭐
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch - A Pair of Hands 3.25⭐
Walter De La Mare - The Riddle 4⭐
Stanley W. Fisher - The Sybarite 4.5⭐
Roger F. Dunkley - Echoes in the Sand 5⭐
Oliver Onions - The Mortal 2.5⭐
Michelle Maurious - Fame 3.5⭐
H. Brinsmead-Hungerford - Giovanni Paolo's Land 3.5⭐
H. G. Wells - The Red Room 5⭐
Paul Dorrell - Lonely Boy 4⭐
Colin Thiele - The Phantom Horses (Excerpt from Chapter 3 Uncle Gustav's Ghosts) 4⭐
Michael Joseph - The Yellow Cat 4⭐
Stanley W. Fisher - A Little House of Their Own 3⭐
E. F. Benson - Expiation 3⭐
John Gordon - Kroger's Choice 4.5⭐
Saki - Laura 5⭐
Paul Dorrell - Tea and Empathy 3.5⭐
M. R. James - The Haunted Doll's House 3⭐
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Brown Hand 4⭐
W. W. Jacobs - The Well 5⭐
Robert Arthur - The Haunted Trailer 2.5⭐
Walter De La Mare - Bad Company 4.25⭐
Lucy M. Boston - Many Coloured Glass 3.5⭐
Ambrose Bierce - The Stranger 5⭐
Edgar Allan Poe - The Tell-Tale Heart 5⭐
H. R. Wakefield - The Gorge of the Churels 3.25⭐
E. Nesbit - Man-Size in Marble 5⭐
Brian Alderson - The Wooing of Cherry Basnett 3⭐
Ambrose Bierce - A Tough Tussle 5⭐
W. W. Jacobs - The Monkey's Paw 5⭐
Glenn Chandler - The Late Departure 4.5⭐
H. R. Wakefield - Damp Sheets 3⭐
Sorche Nic Leodhas - The Battle with the Bogles (variants: The Bogles from the Howff; The Ghosts from the Graveyard) 3⭐
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch - A Pair of Hands 3.25⭐
December 20, 2025
I was gifted this book in the 80s as a child (I had a taste for the macabre even then) and found it again second hand. I enjoyed the stories immensely but that is because I love the language of older writers, and spooky stories are perfect to consume tucked up on a cold night. My favourites would be The Monkeys Paw, The Sybarite (child me about to go into hospital had just read this! Not the best idea) and The Late Departure. Beautifully illustrated too.
March 18, 2025
This was a present for Christmas 1981 and it has gathered dust on various shelves ever since. I don't know why I've never read it before but I'm glad I left it til now because my 10 year self would have found most of these stories too sophisticated or disturbing! Some stories I enjoyed more than others (and I will look up some of the authors' other works) but overall it was a fun and spooky read.
November 30, 2025
A mixed bag with these stories, as I ended up skimming some, while others satisfied my horror itch. The yellow cat, The Tell-Tale heart and The Monkey's Paw were the best, and I had read the latter two before. It's a beautiful hardcover book with nightmarish illustrations throughout, and looks great on the bookshelf.
April 11, 2022
This was not particularly spine tingling or horrific but was a great and varied collection of stories.
November 4, 2014
I was given this book, clearly a British publisher and printed in Czechoslovakia in 1980. It is geared towards young adults, but as Harry Potter and the Hunger games have proven, that is not necessarily a downer for adults. Still, I wasn't expecting too much. But there was a good range of stories, from the bland to the sad to the clever and even heart-warming. Nothing too creepy, though, which would give this much higher marks. Unlikely anyone will ever find this, but probably worth a look if you do. Some decent pen drawings done for each story are included.
Read
August 22, 2008Haunting Ghost Stories (1980)
September 1, 2013
Probably one of the best anthologies I've read, it showcases the different types of ghost story. The one by Robert Arthur I thoroughly enjoyed and I want to read more Oliver Onions.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews