Victorian ghost stories : an Oxford anthology
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Bibliographic Information
Victorian ghost stories : an Oxford anthology
Oxford University Press, 1991
Available at 23 libraries
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Note
Includes bibliographical references
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Ghost stories were something at which the Victorians excelled. In an age of rapid material and scientific progress the idea of a vindictive past able to reach out and violate the present held an especial potential for terror, and throughout the nineteenth century fictional ghost stories developed in parallel with the more general Victorian fascination for death and what lay beyond it. Though they were as much a part of the cultural and literary fabric of the age as imperial confidence, the best of them still retain their power to unsettle and surprise. In this anthology, the editors of the "Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories" map out the development of the ghost story from 1850 to the early years of the twentieth century and demonstrate the importance of this form of short fiction in Victorian popular culture. As well as reprinting stories by supernatural specialists such as J.S. Le Fanu, M.R. James, and Algernon Blackwood, this selection also emphasizes the key role played by women writers - Elizabeth Gaskell, Mrs Craik, Rhoda Broughton, Mrs Henry Wood, M.E. Braddon, Amelia B. Edwards, Charlotte Riddell, B.M. Croker, and E.
Nesbit, among many others - and offers one or two genuine rarities for the supernatural fiction enthusiast to savour. Other writers represented include Charles Dickens, Henry James, George MacDonald, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, R. L. Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Jerome K. Jerome, Bernard Capes, R.H. Benson, and W.W. Jacobs. The editors also provide an informative introduction, detailed source notes, and an extensive survey of ghost-story collections from 1850 to 1910. This collection is for all lovers of traditional ghost stories: here are 35 tales of haunted houses, vengeful spirits, spectral warnings, invisible antagonists, and motiveless malignity from beyond the grave, every one designed to generate "the pleasurable shudder".
Table of Contents
- "The Old Nurse's Story" (1852), Elizabeth Gaskell
- "An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street" (1853), J.S. Le Fanu
- "The Miniature" (1853), J.Y. Akerman
- "The Last House in C--- Street" (1856), Dinah Mulock (Mrs Craik)
- "To be Taken with a Grain of Salt" (1965), Charles Dickens
- "The Botathen Ghost" (1867), R.S. Hawker
- "The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth" (1868), Rhoda Broughton
- "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" (1868), Henry James
- "Pichon & Sons, of the Croix Rousse" (1968), Anon
- "Reality or Delusion?" (1868), Mrs Henry Wood
- "Uncle Cornelius His Story" (1868), George Macdonald
- "The Shadow of a Shade" (1869), Tom Hood
- "At Chrighton Abbey" (1871), Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- "No Living Voice", (1872), Thomas Street Millington
- "Miss Jeromette and the Clergyman" (1875), Wilkie Collins
- "The Story of Clifford House" (1878), Anon
- "Was it an Illusion?" (1881), Amelia B. Edwards
- "The Open Door" (1882), Charlotte Riddell
- "The Captain of the Pole-Star" (1883), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- "The Body-Snatcher" (1884), R.L. Stevenson
- "The Story of the Ripping Train" (1887), Mary Louise Molesworth
- "At the End of the Passage" (1890), Rudyard Kipling
- "To Let" (1890), B.M. Groker
- "John Charrington's Wedding" (1891), E. Nesbit
- "The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly" (1891), Rosa Mulholland
- "The Man of Science" (1892), Jerome K. Jerome
- "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" (1895), M.R. James
- "Jerry Bundler" (1897), W.W. Jacobs
- "An Eddy on the Floor" (1899), Bernard Capes
- "The Tomb of Sarah" (1900), F.G. Loring
- "The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit" (1901), Barry Pain
- "The Shadows on the Wall" (1902), Mary E. Wilkins
- "Father Macclesfield's Tale" (1907), R.H. Benson
- "Thurnley Abbey" (1908), Perceval Landon
- "The Kit-Bag" (1908), Algernon Blackwood.
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