Best Ghost Stories

by Marcus Clapham (Editor)

The short story is the perfect format for traditional ghost stories. They have their roots in folklore, but in modern form they can be traced back to the romanticized writers of the Gothic tradition. Authors include Charles Dickens, Sheridan Le Fanu, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Mrs. Henry Wood, F. Marion Crawford, Elizabeth Gaskell, and H. H. Munro (Saki). Perhaps the finest exponent of the genre was M. R. James whose sly, academic tales are well represented in this collection, as well as those of Le Fanu, whom James acknowledged as his inspiration. This is a book to be relished by the fireside, with the curtains drawn against ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night.

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

380 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Maria João · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars to "The Body-Snatcher", by Robert Louis Stevenson

[fraigee · Rating 2 out of 5]

More like surprisingly mediocre ghost stories.
I get it, sir Walter Scott and friends are actual founders of the genre, but luckily for us all the idea of a ghost story has seriously evolved since the 1800s.

[Caroline Johansson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this in 2014 in York because I thought the cover was cool and I love a good ghost story but I’m sad to say that it was not worth it. I liked five of the stories but the majority was neither scary nor interesting. I’m also not so fond of anthologies so there’s that.

[Aileen]

Tiny print and I realised I'd read a good many of the stories before.

[4cats · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good mix of classic ghost stories from a nice mix of authors famous and not so famous. As with any collection there are ones that stand out. Good October read.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book, the greatest of all ghost story writers should be summariesed the qualities of a ghost story. I on purpose wrote should , because like the Dickens ghost stories, I wasn`t entertainted here either. In contrary, during reading most of the stories ( a little bit of an exception was the "The shadow in the corner" story) I was quite bored. I searched in vain for malevolence and terror, where were the glare of evil faces , the story grin of unearthly malice, pursuing forms in darkness, distant screams, scary moments?
For me, the stories in this book don't meet these requirements. Well of course , I have to admit, that the horror in these stories may be in the mind of the reader but even that I have read better.
I expected some stuff to read against curtains drawn be the fireside, some spooky ghostie stuff, but at least for me, it was a very dissapointed reading.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine and diverse collection of ghost stories. Well worth the read. I found this a good way to find some new ghost story-type authors to investigate in the future. Some of the stories in this collection were spine-chilling (The Shadow in the Corner), some spooky (Man-Size in Marble), and some were even humorous (Laura). There's really too many stories in this collection to go into each of them in detail, but I didn't find any of these tales to be boring or poorly written, and what better praise could be given to such a diverse collection?

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion, the only story that was at least a touch scary was "The Shadow in the Corner". It made me a bit restless on my way to sleep and it didn't help when I read it at 11:30pm.
I enjoyed the collected stories within the volume, but the way I rated it was from how scary/spooky they were; not how much of a pleasing read it was. Some might say that's harsh. But I'm rating them on how spine chilling they are.
So overall, I give this book 2/5 stars