The Shadows on The Wall

by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

The three sisters' souls seemed to meet on one common ground of terrified understanding through their eyes. The old-fashioned latch of the door was heard to rattle, and a push from without made the door shake ineffectually. "It's Henry," Rebecca sighed rather than whispered. Mrs. Brigham settled herself after a noiseless rush across the floor into her rocking-chair again, and was swaying back and forth with her head comfortably leaning back.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Ghosts, Gothic, Supernatural

30 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1903

About the author

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman was born in Randolph, Massachusetts, and attended Mount Holyoke College (then, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in South Hadley, Massachusetts, for one year, from 1870–71. Freeman's parents were orthodox Congregationalists, causing her to have a very strict childhood.

Religious constraints play a key role in some of her works. She later finished her education at West Brattleboro Seminary. She passed the greater part of her life in Massachusetts and Vermont.

Freeman began writing stories and verse for children while still a teenager to help support her family and was quickly successful. Her best known work was written in the 1880s and 1890s while she lived in Randolph. She produced more than two dozen volumes of published short stories and novels. She is best known for two collections of stories, A Humble Romance and Other Stories (1887) and A New England Nun and Other Stories (1891). Her stories deal mostly with New England life and are among the best of their kind. Freeman is also remembered for her novel Pembroke (1894), and she contributed a notable chapter to the collaborative novel The Whole Family (1908). In 1902 she married Doctor Charles M. Freeman of Metuchen, New Jersey.

In April 1926, Freeman became the first recipient of the William Dean Howells Medal for Distinction in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She died in Metuchen and was interred in Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.

Reviews

[Federico DN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shadow play.

The Glynn family, Henry, Emma, Rebecca and Caroline, mourn the recent loss of their beloved brother Edward, who passed away just a few days prior. Nobody is sure exactly what he died of, but somber suspicions rise over the terrible fight he had with his brother Henry the night before. And an ever increasing alarm, over a hideous shadow that now seems to lurk around the parlor.

Nice! Very nice. This little gothic tale had all the vibes of one of Edgar Allan Poe or MR James finest, but with a much more approachable style of writing and vocabulary. Easy to read, easy to like. A bit predictable, but very good nevertheless. I definitely have to read more by this author, someday soon.

It’s public domain. You can find it HERE.



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PERSONAL NOTE :
[1903] [30p] [Horror] [3.5] [Conditional Recommendable]
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???????? The Wind in the Rosebush and Other Stories of the Supernatural <--

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Juego de sombras.

La familia Glynn, Henry, Emma, ​​Rebecca y Caroline, lamentan la reciente pérdida de su amado hermano Edward, fallecido apenas unos días antes. Nadie está seguro exactamente de qué murió, pero surgen sombrías sospechas sobre la terrible pelea que tuvo con su hermano Henry la noche anterior. Y una alarma cada vez mayor, por una sombra espantosa que ahora parece acechar el salón.

¡Bien! Muy bien. Este pequeño corto gótico tuvo toda la vibra de uno de los mejores de Edgar Allan Poe o MR James, pero con un estilo de escritura y un vocabulario mucho más accesible. Fácil de leer, fácil de querer. Un poco predecible, pero igualmente muy bueno. Definitivamente tengo que leer más de este autor, algún día pronto.

Es dominio público, lo pueden encontrar ACA.



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NOTA PERSONAL :
[1903] [30p] [Horror] [3.5] [Recomendable Condicional]
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[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem of Gothic literature. Edward, the youngest brother, dies at night. Before he had an argument with his elder brother Henry. His three sisters (they are described in a marvelous way) are speculating about what the argument was all about. One of them was eavesdropping (as it turns out in the course of their dialogue). Later on as they sit in their study a mysterious shadow appears on the wall. Henry states that everything is only due to the arrangement of the furniture. Really? He isn't able to make the shadow vanish. What happens when there is a second shadow on the wall? The author comes up with a brilliant piece of Gothic fiction. Extremely eerie, frightening and uncanny but without violence and bloodshed. This is psychological horror at its very best. Absolutely recommended!

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“there is no accounting for shadows”

I loved this one. An old house, squabbling siblings, a death occurs, and undertones of guilt and blame creep into every conversation. Wonderful detailed descriptions, particularly of voices and movements.

My first exposure to this author, but I’ll be seeking out more. Can be read online here: https://frightlibrary.org/lib/shadows...

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Kathleen for this eerie little tale. So much implied, so little known. Perfect for the season.

I am providing the link in case someone else might like a bit of a spine tingle.

https://frightlibrary.org/lib/shadows...

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freeman always seems to write good ghost stories. I think this was adapted for a "Night Gallery" episode. And yes this one was a bit of a creeper.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enertaining listening 🎧
Another will written ghost👻 story by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. I listened to this as part of the free book Famous Ghost 👻 Stories by various authors. I would highly recommend to readers of paramormal fantasy novels ✨🎉 2023

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written but mediocre ghost story.

[Latasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

oh my! the sisters were so annoying! it really ruined the story for me.

[Emily]

Well, it's a story that does well in creating a creepy Gothic environment and in playing with readers' psychological activities, but to me it seems that's all.

The ghost story is not surprising nor unexpected, because I had known roughly what would have happened next ere I read the actual following paragraphs. Indeed, Rebecca's unnatural demeanour, Edward's death, Henry's death, the brothers' arguing, and even the shadows on the wall, all of them are not fully explored, being here for the sake of being here.

Strange enough, all the three sisters acted like the shadows were nothing so scary to them; they barely did anything to protect themselves-I believe such a protection was reasonably and understandably needed for their own sake. They responded so much naturally that I even felt like it was they three that were the supernatural beings!

Anyways, to wrap it up, the shadows on the wall seemed to be the ghosts of the dead brothers, and that's all. They didn't move, as dead and still as their owners. It will definitely be much much creepier if the shadows can talk, move, even communicate with the people present! Sorry Mary, no offense. But It's a not-bad story all the same, though.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

“He began to speak, then his eyes followed the direction of the others'. He stood stock still staring at the shadow on the wall. It was life size and stretched across the white parallelogram of a door, half across the wall space on which the picture hung.”

[1900 photograph of author Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman]

“The Shadows on the Wall” is an atmospheric and interesting ghost story. I read this tale because it is featured in The Literature of Lovecraft, Vol. 1 , a collection of stories that were admired by the American author H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). In his literary essay Supernatural Horror in Literature, Lovecraft wrote:

Horror material of authentic force may be found in the work of the New England realist Mary E. Wilkins; whose volume of short tales, The Wind in the Rose-Bush, contains a number of noteworthy achievements. In “The Shadows on the Wall” we are shewn with consummate skill the response of a staid New England household to uncanny tragedy; and the sourceless shadow of the poisoned brother well prepares us for the climactic moment when the shadow of the secret murderer, who has killed himself in a neighbouring city, suddenly appears beside it.

Title: “The Shadows on the Wall”
Author: Mary E. Wilkins
Dates: 1903
Genre: Fiction - Short story, gothic horror
Word count: 5,362 words
Date(s) read: 8/28/22
Reading journal entry #244 in 2022

Link to the story: http://wilkinsfreeman.info/Short/Shad...
Link to Lovecraft’s essay: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/...

Sources:
Fifer, C., & Lackey, C. (2014, September 4). Episode 223 - The Shadows on the Wall. H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast
https://www.hppodcraft.com/list/2014/...

Lovecraft, H. P., & Joshi, S. T. (2012). The annotated supernatural horror in literature (second edition). Hippocampus Press. https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/... (Original work published 1927)

Wilkins, M.E. (2021). The shadows on the wall. In H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (Ed.), The literature of Lovecraft, vol. 1.. (S. Branney, Narr.; A. Leman, Narr.) [Audiobook]. HPLHS. https://www.hplhs.org/lol.php (Original work published 1903)

Link to the image:

The contents of The Literature of Lovecraft, Vol. 1 are:
"The Adventure of the German Student" by Washington Irving
"The Avenger of Perdóndaris" by Lord Dunsany
"The Bad Lands" by John Metcalfe
"The Black Stone" by Robert E. Howard
The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" by William Hope Hodgson
"Count Magnus" by M.R. James
"The Dead Valley" by Ralph Adams Cram
"The Death Mask" by Henrietta Everett
"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Ghost of Fear" by H.G. Wells (also called “The Red Room”)
"The Ghostly Kiss" by Lafcadio Hearn
"The Horla" by Guy de Maupassant
"The House and the Brain" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
"The House of Sounds" by Matthew Phipps Shiel
"Idle Days on the Yann" by Lord Dunsany
"Lot #249" by Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Man-Wolf" by Erckmann-Chatrian
"The Middle Toe of the Right Foot" by Ambrose Bierce
"The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs
"One of Cleopatra's Nights" by Théophile Gautier
"The Phantom Rickshaw" by Rudyard Kipling
The Place Called Dagon by Herbert Gorman
"Seaton's Aunt" by Walter de la Mare
"The Shadows on the Wall" by Mary E. Wilkins
"A Shop in Go-By Street" by Lord Dunsany
"The Signal-Man" by Charles Dickens
"Skule Skerry" by John Buchan
"The Spider" by Hanns Heinz Ewers
"The Story of a Panic" by E.M. Forster
"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson
"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith
"The Tapestried Chamber" by Sir Walter Scott
"The Upper Berth" by F. Marion Crawford
"The Vampyre" by John Polidori
"The Venus of Ille" by Prosper Mérimée
"The Were Wolf" by Clemence Housman
"What Was It?" by Fitz-James O'Brien
"The White People" by Arthur Machen
"The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains" by Frederick Marryat
"The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood
"The Yellow Sign" by Robert W. Chambers
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Here is a list of the stories in the order in which they were written, with links to my reviews of them:
The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori
The Adventure of the German Student (1824) by Washington Irving
The Tapestried Chamber (1828) by Walter Scott
The Minister's Black Veil (1836) by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Venus of Ille (1837) by by Prosper Mérimée
The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains (1839) by Frederick Marryat
The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) by Edgar Allan Poe
What Was It? (1859) by by Fitz-James O'Brien
The House and the Brain (1859) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Signal-Man (1866) by Charles Dickens
The Man-Wolf by Erckmann-Chatrian
The Ghostly Kiss (1880) by Lafcadio Hearn
One of Cleopatra's Nights (1882) by by Théophile Gautier
The Upper Berth (1886) by F. Marion Crawford
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Horla (1887) by Guy de Maupassant
The Phantom Rickshaw (1888) by Rudyard Kipling
”The Middle Toe of the Right Foot” (1891) by Ambrose Bierce
Lot #249 (1892) by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Ghost of Fear (1894) by H.G. Wells- also called The Red Room
The Yellow Sign (1895) by Robert W. Chambers
The Dead Valley (1895) by Ralph Adams Cram
The Were-Wolf (1896) by Clemence Housman
The Monkey's Paw (1902) by W.W. Jacobs
The Shadows on the Wall (1903)
Count Magnus (1904)
The White People (1904)
The Willows (1907)
The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" (1907)
Idle Days on the Yann (1910)
The Story of a Panic (1911)
The House of Sounds (1911)
A Shop in Go-By Street (1912)
The Avenger of Perdóndaris (1912)
The Spider (1915)
The Death Mask (1920)
The Bad Lands (1920)
Seaton's Aunt (1922)
The Place Called Dagon (1927)
Skule Skerry (1928)
The Tale of Satampra Zeiros (1929)
The Black Stone (1931)

*The difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Diff...

Vignette, prose poem, flash fiction: 53 - 1,000 words
Short Stories: 1,000 - 7,500
Novelettes: 7,500 - 17,000
Novellas: 17,000 - 40,000
Novels: 40,000 + words

[summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

SÖYLEDİĞİM HER ŞEYİ UNUTUN LÜTFEN

bugün derste hoca gruplara böldü bize hikâyeler dağıttı bana bu gelmişti işte o yüzden daha detaylı düşünmem gerekti ve sonra aslında NE KADAR SEVDİĞİMİ FARK ETTİM.

evet, klasik, gotik tarzda yazılmış bir hayalet hikâyesi ama çok başarılı çünkü hayalet hikâyelerinden beklediğiniz her şey var. ama dahası beni etkileyen hikâyenin sonu olmuştu ve ne anlama geldiğini fark etmediğim için salak gibi hissettim.

spoiler verip kısa hikâyenin büyüsünü bozmak istemiyorum ama şu hikâyeden sonra bu alıntı tüm her şeyi değiştiriyor


second reread (14.12.2025)

this story is one of my favorite ghost stories ever. like it's genius. from the beginning, it haunts you and makes you feel the tension, the fear, the terror. and the fact that the object of this terror is Henry, the brother of Rebecca, Emma, and Caroline, doubles this feeling. If you're not safe next to your brother, in your own house that is left to all of you by your father, then where can you be safe at all? it's so a wonderful criticism of patriarchy that it leaves me speechless. Like i have goosebumps all over me right now. even when patriarchy looks like it doesn't harm you or affect you because it's a shadow on the wall and therefore, it can't touch you physically, still, it keeps messing with your head. it keeps watching you, and no matter what you do, it's always there. you can't escape it. i beg everyone to read this story, please!!! it's amazing.

[Rick West · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fine little predictable ghost story.

The story starts with the Glynn family, after the death of Edward Glynn, surviving siblings, Henry, Rebecca, Caroline, and Emma. A couple of days before the death of Edward Henry had a loud argument the with Edward. Rebecca heard the argument and tells her sisters that Henry shouted that Edward "had no business" living at the family estate, Edward replied that "he would stay here as long as he lived, and afterward too."

The sisters have questions as to extent of Henry's involvement in Edward's death. Emma, seems afraid to light the lamp in the large front room at sun set. When the lamp is finally lit we see the strange shadow on the wall… What follows is a somewhat predictable story but never the less is a very interesting one.

[Rob Ó Sionnaigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, atmospheric ghost story. A compact "family curse," brief and to the point; nothing wasted.

Little known fact: The title gave its name to more than one film adaptation, and was also the title of the so-called story bible of the 1960's gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, which was nearly entitled Shadows on the Wall.

If your familiar with the atmosphere of the TV show's Collins house, this tale will likely seem quite comfortable.

[Namrata · Rating 1 out of 5]

In any story there has to be a hint of how and why, even if invoking the reader's imagination is the ultimate goal. A nudge in the right direction is all we ask for, for us to build our own dreams or nightmares. This story gave me nothing, except to say that there are shadows on the wall. Well, perhaps, the name of the book should have been enough.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here you have a ghost that really isn't a ghost in the true sense. After a death a shadow appears on the wall and nothing can be found that causes the shadow. But notice the title is plural. But that would give the ending away.

[Ken B · Rating 3 out of 5]

During an argument between siblings the younger brother threatens the older stating that he would not leave the family home and would stay as long as he lived and afterward, too, if he was a mind to.

He died the following day. But, he did not leave the house.

3 STARS

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty average "ghost" story. Three sisters, a dead brother, and mean living brother compose the characters in this short story.

[Elleigh]

Liked it well enough, read in a volume of ghost stories , appealed to me mainly because the house described sounds like my creepy family home

[Megalion · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for discussion:
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/92211/...

I didn't care for the writing at all. Style or content.

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have arranged my thoughts into a haiku:

"Small use in pretense,
Cornered by what can't be ignored,
Even if unvoiced."

[Robert Bussie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story of gothic tale of horror has genuine spooky moments and an excellent abrupt ending.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25⭐


A Victorian ghost story involving the death of Edward a member of a family, whose shadow haunts the wall of their study after his mysterious death of a gastric disorder following an argument with his older brother Henry. When Henry departs for a three day trip after Edward's funeral and doesn't return, his three sisters receive a telegram informing them he has died. The sisters shockingly notice that Henry who was Edward's enemy while living has now joined Edward's shadow on the study wall.

[Amaranta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this short story, I dont know why some of the reviews are like "this was really basic" or "the sisters were annoying"??? at first, I liked the story, but when I re-read it I realized it is even better that I first thought.
...
I think Wilkins did not tell us about the sisters' life as an statement: they are not important in their world, they depend economically, politically, etc, on men. That is why the shadows means 1. (edward's) the fear that the sisters have of Henry 2. (henry's) the uncertainty in their lifes after the death of both brothers

[Chris Cotton]

This is the first of eleven short ghost stories by M.E. Wilkins Freeman. Her prose is sparse without flourishes superfluous to the narrative. The effect, in this reader, was a slow accumulation of dread.
Definitely one for your anthology.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three sisters and their brother are plagued by a shadow that resembles their recently deceased brother. A quiet story without enough suspense to be really good. Originally published in 1902.

[Erik Wennermark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great tale of manners with some ghosts.

[Piya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gothic Horror Stories are a guilty pleasure for me!

[Cynthia Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

very engrossing tale

[Jörg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Habe schon bessere Geschichten gelesen, zum Glück keine zu lange Geschichte, für einmal lesen OK

[Colin Mcclusick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes murder isn't enough to get rid of someone!