Ghost Stories

Many of the finest ghost stories ever written have slipped out of view, often because their authors are better remembered for novels or poems in other forms. This anthology gathers those neglected tales, placing lesser-known work by writers such as Charles Dickens and Edith Wharton beside pieces by horror pioneers like Edgar Allan Poe and M. R. James.

Leslie S. Klinger, who annotated The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, and Lisa Morton, author of A Haunted History, provide context for each selection. Their notes show how ghosts have appeared in fiction across nearly two centuries, beginning with a traditional English ballad printed in 1724 and moving toward the science fiction tinged stories of the early twentieth century.

The collection also includes work by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Sir Walter Scott, and Mark Twain. It is meant for longtime readers of the genre as well as those who are new to it.