The first-ever collection of Victorian Christmas ghost stories, culled from rare 19th-century periodicals

During the Victorian era, it became traditional for publishers of newspapers and magazines to print ghost stories during the Christmas season for chilling winter reading by the fireside or candlelight. Now for the first time thirteen of these tales are collected here, including a wide range of stories from a diverse group of authors, some well-known, others anonymous or forgotten. Readers whose only previous experience with Victorian Christmas ghost stories has been Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" will be surprised and delighted at the astonishing variety of ghostly tales in this volume.

"In the sickly light I saw it lying on the bed, with its grim head on the pillow. A man? Or a corpse arisen from its unhallowed grave, and awaiting the demon that animated it?" - John Berwick Harwood, "Horror: A True Tale"

"Suddenly I aroused with a start and as ghostly a thrill of horror as ever I remember to have felt in my life. Something--what, I knew not--seemed near, something nameless, but unutterably awful." - Ada Buisson, "The Ghost's Summons"

"There was no longer any question what she was, or any thought of her being a living being. Upon a face which wore the fixed features of a corpse were imprinted the traces of the vilest and most hideous passions which had animated her while she lived." - Walter Scott, "The Tapestried Chamber"

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292 pages

Average rating: 7

2 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

oh_let3
May 16, 2023
6/10 stars
a solid set of stories -- not all winners.
crabbyabbe
Nov 16, 2022
8/10 stars
I am a freaky fan of all things Victorian, especially stories. Throw in ghosts, and I'm there! Throw in Christmas, and I'll meet you with a cup of peppermint Schnapps and hot cocoa. I can never get enough of these types of stories. Mind you, this was a collection, and I had never heard of any author, so these gems are hard to find. Some were hokey, some were serious, all were fun. There's even one from Doyle, and it's not Sherlock! You had to suspend your disbelief for all of them, but you know that going into a ghost story anyway, don't you? My favorite quote sums up the "cozy" feeling one gets when reading a Victorian ghost story. Here's the quote: "[If this story is] read aloud, to an undoubting audience by the doubtful light of the closing evening, or, in silence, by a decaying taper, and amidst the solitude of a half-lighted apartment, it may redeem its character as a good ghost-story." Time to sit by the fire and start reading!

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