Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories

Title: Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories
Selected & Introduced by Rex Collings
Publication: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (5 Jan 2008)
Paperback:  304 pages 
Rating: 4 out of 5

Yet another collection of ghostly tales from the Wordsworth publishing house! The Victorians loved their ghosts and the Edwardians carried that love on to some extent. This collection has the traditional fare on offer, from greats such as Dickens, Collins and R.L. Stevenson to surprising contributions from Elizabeth Gaskell, Edith Nesbit and William Thackery, individuals we associate with other types of literature than supernatural. 

Sir Walter Scott – strictly Regency - gives us The Tapestried Chamber which is rather basic in its elements: an old castle, a haunted room and the residential ghost making its presence felt. The Spectre of Tappington is another equally weak offering from the pen of Richard Harris Barham. It’s meant to be a farcical take on the genre and is dreary and longwinded. 

All is not lost, what with 2 ghastly tales, as Edgar Allan Poe’s popular and well loved story, The Tell-Tale Heart, takes its place as a stalwart of the genre. There are 2 Le Fanu tales as well: An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street and the fantastically odd Narrative of a Ghost of a Hand. Thankfully M.R. James isn’t ignored; his The Haunted Doll’s House and A School Story provide more credit to the collection.

The surprising (to me) inclusion of Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Squire’s Story doesn’t really add up to much. The same goes for Thackery’s The Story of Mary Ancell. 

As to my favourites, there were pleasant discoveries. Charles Dickens (← I avoid him like the plague) gives the chills in To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt. Miss Braddon’s tale, Eveline’s Visitant, proves to be horrifying and fatalistic, evoking a melancholy sigh of regret from me on Eveline’s behalf. Edith Nesbit, the author of Railway Children, definitely wrote a memorable yet simple tale of village superstition come to life in Man-Size in Marble. 

The collection concludes with 3 true ghost stories as well but only one, A Ghostly Manifestation written anonymously by a clergyman, is truly frightening. It takes place in Calcutta in the 19th century and has some seemingly authentic details plus a violent back-story. The other 2 tales deal with famed manifestations of supernatural phenomena in the Tower of London, including the incident of the phantasmic bear.