Public-domain ebook
Masterpieces of Mystery in Four Volumes: Ghost Stories
Language: en4,336 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Short Stories·Crime, Thrillers and Mystery
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #27722.
About this book
This volume gathers a selection of short ghost stories that trace the evolution of the genre from antiquity to the early twentieth century. The editor opens with a scholarly foreword that situates the haunted tale alongside the earliest recorded apparition, citing Pliny the Younger, and then moves through the contributions of celebrated nineteenth‑century writers such as Ann Radcliffe, Sir Walter Scott and the early “Craig Kennedy” stories before arriving at more recent experiments in the form. The anthology’s first story, Algernon Blackwood’s “The Listener,” begins with a diarist’s mundane account of moving into a dilapidated London flat, his interactions with a thin, reticent landlady, and the unsettling atmosphere of a storm‑laden alley. The narrative quickly shifts from ordinary domestic details to a creeping sense of unease, setting the tone for the varied, carefully chosen pieces that follow.
The prose is unmistakably Victorian and Edwardian, marked by elaborate description, a measured, almost journalistic cadence, and a preoccupation with the psychological effects of isolation and superstition. Blackwood’s meticulous observation of weather, architecture, and the protagonist’s inner monologue creates a palpable tension that will appeal to readers who relish atmospheric, character‑driven hauntings. Fans of classic gothic literature, admirers of the subtle dread found in Henry James or M. R. James, and anyone who enjoys a well‑crafted tale where the ordinary becomes uncanny will find this collection both rewarding and evocative.
The opening · free to read
The ghost story is as old as human speech,--and perhaps even antedates it. A naive acceptance of the supernatural was unquestionably one of the primal attributes of human intelligence. The ghost story may thus quite conceivably be the first form of tale ever invented. It makes its appearance comparatively early in the annals of literature. Who that has read it is likely to forget Pliny's account in a letter to an intimate of an apparition shortly after death to a mutual acquaintance? Old books of tales and legends are full of the ghost story. It has persisted throughout the ages. It began to attain some real standing in literature,--to take its definite place,--a little more than a century ago. Like the apparition it embodies it had always been--and is still to-day even--more or less discredited. Mrs. Radcliffe gave it a new being and even a certain dignity in her "Castle of Otranto"; and after her came Sir Walter Scott who frankly surrendered to the power and charm of the theme. The line of succession has been continuous. The ghost has held his own with his human fellow in fiction, and his tale has been told with increasing skill as the art of the writer has developed. To-day the case for the ghost as an element in fiction is an exceedingly strong one. There has indeed sprung into being within a couple of decades a new school of such writers. Nowadays almost every fictionist of account produces one good thriller at least of this sort. The temptation is irresistible for the simple reason that the theme imposes absolutely no limit on the imagination.
The reader will find here a careful selection illustrating the growth in art of this exotic in literature during the past fifty years, and for a contrast, spanning the centuries, the naive narration of Pliny the Younger.
JOSEPH LEWIS FRENCH.
The book keeps going
Keep reading, and see it illustrated
Reading is free forever. Sign up and watch scenes appear while you read.
Scenes Storieta drew for other classics.
