Wandering Ghosts: The Dead Smile, The Screaming Skull, Man Overboard!, For the Blood is the Life, The Upper Berth, By the Water of Paradise, The Doll's Ghost

by F. Marion Crawford

"Wandering Ghosts" is a collection of weird and horror stories by Francis Marion Crawford. This collection includes stories such as "The Upper Berth", "For the Blood Is the Life", "The Dead Smile", and "The Screaming Skull", which are considered as the true classics of the horror genre.
The Dead Smile
The Screaming Skull
Man Overboard!
For the Blood is the Life
The Upper Berth
By the Water of Paradise
The Doll's Ghost

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

185 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 22, 2019

About the author

Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was an American writer noted for his many novels. He was born at Bagni di Lucca, Italy. In 1879 he went to India, where he studied Sanskrit and edited the Allahabad Indian Herald. Returning to America he continued to study Sanskrit at Harvard University for a year, contributed to various periodicals, and in 1882 produced his first novel, Mr Isaacs. This book had an immediate success, and its author's promise was confirmed by the publication of Doctor Claudius: A True Story (1883). After a brief residence in New York and Boston, in 1883 he returned to Italy, where he made his permanent home. He also published the historical works, Ave Roma Immortalis (1898), Rulers of the South (1900) renamed Sicily, Calabria and Malta in 1904, and Gleanings from Venetian History (1905). The Saracinesca series is perhaps known to be his best work, with the third in the series, Don Orsino, set against the background of a real estate bubble, told with effective concision. A fourth book in the series, Corleone, was the first major treatment of the Mafia in literature.

Reviews

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭✭

“The Dead Smile” (1899) ✭½
“The Screaming Skull” (1908) ✭✭✭✭½
“Man Overboard!” (1903) ✭✭✭✭✭
“For the Blood Is the Life” (1905) ✭✭✭✭
“The Upper Berth” (1885) ✭✭✭✭✭
“By the Waters of Paradise” (1886) ✭✭½
“The Doll’s Ghost” (1896) ✭✭✭

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dead Smile: 1/5
The Screaming Skull: 3/5
The Upper Berth: 5/5 - Classic
Man Overboard!: 1/5 - Did Not Finish
For the Blood is the Life: 2/5 - Creepy early vampire story but overlong
By the Waters of Paradise: 4/5 Gothic Romance
The Doll's Ghost: 4/5

[Hal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong collection of ghost & horror stories. The atmosphere of The Dead Smile was great, felt always slightly dreamlike like the characters were drifting toward some concealed fate which they could all nonetheless feel the outline of. The Screaming Skull is told in as one side of a dialogue, which really gave a kind of confessional feel as the central character gradually admits parts of the story, and wonders about their guilt in it. The Upper Berth seems quite well liked as a short ghost story, I liked it pretty well but found it a little too straightforward perhaps, the narrative structure of men investigating a haunted room felt less mysterious than some of the other stories here.

In some cases the endings seek a too happy resolution for the content of the stories I think, slightly weakening their impact. Also, every third noun in Man Overboard was some nautical term - a lot of chat about 'the spanker'. Fine story though.

[Sheerin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creepy and atmospheric, you don't get ghost stories better than this.

[Jeffrey Powanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb collection of six horror stories, first published in 1911. All the stories are good, but three are among the most effective ghost stories I’ve ever read: “The Screaming Skull,” “Man Overboard!” and “The Upper Birth.” I downloaded the free ebook from Project Gutenberg.