Great Ghost Stories (Dover Thrift Editions: Gothic/Horror)

Ten classic horror tales that will have you keeping the lights on at night! These tales were published between 1864 and 1912, which is considered by some to be the "golden age" of horror and supernatural fiction. These stories are a great cross-section of the genre, and at this low price, it makes a wonderful introduction to the classic ghost stories.

Why an "introduction"? If you are a fan of ghost stories and have a collection of books on the subject, you probably already have all the stories in this book. I will not list them all since another reviewer has already done so.Although all of the stories deal with ghosts (well, "The Monkey's Paw" is arguably not a ghost story, but spooky nonetheless), most of them do not deal with a malevolent spirit bent on our destruction. Only "The Judge's House" and "A Ghost Story" deal with an angry spirit. The rest are tales of ghostly happenings, but nothing like you might find in a horror movie.Given the price, I would recommend this to someone who does not normally read a lot of ghost stories. Otherwise, you probably have these in your collection already.

With all fairness to these legendary authors who have endured with us beyond their time, and to their mastery of writing to which we all aspire, it is a difficult old world, almost archaic, style of writing for me- to understand the story beyond the writing. I most enjoyed the first story, the haunted coach ride, and one of the other stories with the rat on the bell rope, but after that, my interest waned somewhat. The stories weren't frightening to me. But the importance of these readings- these are classic writers. I highlighted new words and looked them up- something gained after all.

This is quite a nice collection of ghost stories, very cheap in the Dover Thrift Editions. Some of the selections are classic, such as Amelia B. Edwards' "The Phantom Coach," and W. W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw," which is an excellent story to be told around a campfire at night. A story by J. Sheridan Lefanu is almost obligatory, of course, in this case, "Dickon the Devil," and one may also expect a story by Ambrose Bierce, "The Moonlit Road," which appears in a Bierce anthology, as well.Others, such as Charles Dickens' "To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt," Bram Stoker's chilling, "The Judge's House," and E. F. Benson's "The Confession of Charles Linkworth," are more unusual. These stories are from the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century, and provide and interesting insight into many of the moral values of the time.

Forget your Steven King and other modern pretenders- this classic collection has stories that have frightened readers for over 100 years. More than a few modern writers have stolen ideas from this volume. There's "August Heat"- a man happens on a stranger carving a tombstone with his name on it. In Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge" a man being hanged makes a last minute escape- or so it seems. "The Monkey's Paw" grants wishes- but at a price.Buy it. Invite a few friends over for an evening of candlelight ghost story readings. You'll thank me later.