The Complete Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens

A fascinating and lesser known side of Charles' Dickens work is his flair for ghost stories. Dickens showed a fascination with ghosts and the macabre and was a masterpiece of this wonderful genre. Most well known is his ghostly parable-'A Christmas Carol', of the visit to the bitter and tight fist ed miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, by three ghosts which started the tradition of 'the ghost story at Christmas'. Other Christmas ghost stories by Dickens in this volume include ' the weird and wonderful 'Christmas Ghosts' and 'The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton'. And another story of redemption by ghosts is 'The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain'. From the gruesome 'Captain Murderer and the Devil's Bargain' to the brilliantly humorous 'The Lawyer and the Ghost' and 'The Queer Chair'. There is the strange twist in the adventure 'The Ghosts of the Mail' and an examination of insanity and villainy in 'A Madman's Manuscript'. Eerie stories of revenge, bizarre coincidences and the macabre from a pioneer in modern ghost stories, written in beautiful and penetrating English, while after one a half centuries still guarantees to thrill and chill.

Dickens is considered a genius in the area of the macabre. And it makes one consider whether genius is born to one or developed/influenced at an early age. In any case, his classic stories will never be forgotten.This collection includes all of Dickens's 20 ghost stories which include: Captain Murderer and the Devil's Bargain; The Lawyer and the Ghost; The Queer Chair; The Ghosts of the Mail; A Madman's Manuscript; The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton; Baron Koeldwethout's Apparition; A Christmas Carol; The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain; A Child's Dream of a Star; Christmas Ghosts; To Be Read At Dusk; The Ghost Chamber; The Haunted House; Mr. Testator's Visitation; The Trial for Murder; The Signal Man; Four Ghost Stories; The Portrait Painter's Story; and Well Authenticated Rappings.

I was never a huge fan of yesterday's classics. Sometimes they come off boring to me; who knows, maybe I don't have the intellectual ability or patience to read anything published before 1920. But after reading this collection from front to back I truley understood why Charles Dickens is considered by some to be a literary genius. Scary, Witty, Clownish, Entertaining. You can't go wrong, especially with characters like CAPTAIN MURDERER, who has kept fresh within my imagintation over handfuls of years and piles of novels, as one of the most devious fiends.