The Christmas season has been a ghostly one for many a decade, and the tradition of reading ghost stories by candlelight or around a fire at Christmas is one that the Victorians absolutely revelled in. No British household is complete without a ghostly reading at Yuletide, so Gorezone has taken the liberty of selecting 12 especially ghoulish offerings from ye olde times. All of these are available online as e-texts, so won’t cost you a penny to read. Suffice to say, you may want to think twice before reading some of these alone at night in a shadowy room…
12. The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by
Irving’s status as the originator of the American short story often casts a shadow on his supernatural works, of which this is certainly the best. A slow tale, paying most of its attention to the relationships between the townsfolk, but the chase at the end is still thrilling to this day and it has one of the most brilliantly written scene-setting opening paragraphs of the short story form.
11. The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs
Doug Bradley once described W.W. Jacobs’ The Monkeys Paw as “an old chestnut for a very good reason – it’s brilliant”. I suppose for any author, to have your tale featured on The Simpsons is a mark of success. Few endings are as powerfully creepy as the one in this tale though. Not for what happens, but for what DOESN’T happen…
10. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
It was, of course, inevitable that the revered Mr. Poe was going to make this list, and picking just one of his tales hasn’t been easy. The Black Cat remains one of his cleverest stories though. Is it supernatural? The deluded ramblings of a madman? Or merely the story of one poor cat’s unfortunate lot in life? I guess the only way to know, is to read it and decide for yourself…
09. The Phantom Coach by Amelia B. Edwards
Phantom Coach’s, along with phantom brides/grooms (featured elsewhere on this list) are a staple of the great British ghost story tradition. Amelia Edward’s classic story of a man who gets lost on the moors when trying to get a ride home to see his family and boards a mysterious coach is a great lesson in gradual story escalation of the weird. The climax is both chilling and exciting.
08. At Crighton Abbey by Mary E. Braddon
Obviously there was going to be one story about phantom hounds on here, and At Crighton Abbey gives you a whole hunting pack of them, which spells very bad fortune for one Aristocratic family. What makes Braddon’s tale stand out from other ‘spectral warning’ tales is her brilliant characterisation, and how she shows the supernatural affecting the lives of real people.
07. The Last Squire Of Ennismore by J.H. Riddell
Charlotte Riddell, to give her full name, belonged to a great stock of fantastic Irish horror writers which includes Bram Stoker and J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Criminally she remains far less well known than either of them though. This classic story takes a well known folk-tale, with an ending that is many centuries old, but presented here in perhaps its creepiest form…
06. The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell
With its forlorn children and emphasis on women’s interactions with the supernatural, The Old Nurse’s Story is arguably the archetypal feminist ghost story. Let us not allow politics to obscure the view of our objective though! This is first and foremost a terrific ghost story, and a tragic one too. The snowy atmosphere of this one in particular, makes it the perfect read at Christmas!
05. The Upper Birth by F. Marion Crawford
The ultimate ghost story set at sea? Certainly, outside the writings of William Hope Hodgson, there are few to rival it. Essentially it’s a haunted house story set on a boat, in which one of two occupants of a bunk bed is not quite what he seems. In fact he has a penchant for driving people to suicide. Damn creepy and a likely influence on
04. Amour Dure by
Along with Henry James’ The Turn Of The Screw and Oliver Onions’ The Beckoning Fair One (both too long for this list), Amour Dure is one of the best psychological ghost stories. Read this to five people and you’ll get five different interpretations. A brilliantly layered tale set in
03. A Warning To The Curious by M.R. James
What needs to be said about M.R. James, or this story in particular? Certainly it’s enough to put you off taking up archaeology for life. There’s a reason you shouldn’t mess with ancient Saxon burial grounds and this is it! Written quite late into James ghost story career, it’s one of his best, and one of his most archetypal. Brilliant use of under-statement and a bloody terrifying ending.
02. Strange Event in the Life of Schalken The Painter by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Poor Godfrey Schalken is an unfortunate man; a master painter whose one true love is wedded by her father to an unknown yet apparently wealthy man, who mysteriously can never be traced. Perhaps the best example of the ‘demon lover’ motif in any short story, Schalken The Painter is without doubt J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s finest hour. The scariest ghost story ever written? Maybe…
01. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Tempting as it was to include Dicken’s other classic ghost story The Signalman, it was obviously going to be this one at number one wasn’t it really? The most famous ghost story in the English language (NO, HAMLET IS NOT A PROPER GHOST STORY!) and for good reason too. Far more than just the piece of Victorian sentimentalism it is often reputed as, A Christmas Carol is a classic story of redemption, penned by one of the English language’s master craftsmen.