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The first-ever collection of Victorian Christmas ghost stories, culled from rare 19th-century periodicals.

During the Victorian era, it became traditional for publishers of newspapers and magazines to print ghost stories during the Christmas season for chilling winter reading by the fireside or candlelight. Now for the first time thirteen of these tales are collected here, including a wide range of stories from a diverse group of authors, some well-known, others anonymous or forgotten. Readers whose only previous experience with Victorian Christmas ghost stories has been Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" will be surprised and delighted at the astonishing variety of ghostly tales in this volume.

Contents:

• 7 - Introduction - essay by Tara Moore
• 13 - The Tapestried Chamber - (1828) - short story by Sir Walter Scott
• 28 - The Old Nurse's Story - (1852) - novelette by Mrs. Gaskell [as by Elizabeth Gaskell]
• 50 - Horror: A True Tale - (1861) - novelette by John Berwick Harwood
• 73 - Bring Me a Light! - (1861) - novelette by J. M. H.
• 98 - Old Hooker's Ghost - (1865) - novelette by Anonymous
• 123 - The Ghost's Summons - (1868) - short story by Ada Buisson
• 130 - Jack Layford's Friend: With an Account of How He Laid the Ghost - (1869) - novelette by L. N.
• 158 - How Peter Parley Laid a Ghost: A Story of Owl's Abbey - (1875) - short story by Anonymous
• 167 - A Mysterious Visitor - (1857) - novelette by Ellen Wood
• 189 - The Haunted Rock: A Legend of Port Guerron Cove - (1881) - short story by W. W. Fenn
• 203 - The Lady's Walk: A History of the Seen and Unseen - (1882) - novella by Margaret Oliphant
• 255 - The Captain of the Pole Star - (1883) - novelette by Arthur Conan Doyle
• 279 - The Doll's Ghost - (1896) - short story by F. Marion Crawford

Fifteen more chilling tales of Yuletide terror, collected from rare Victorian periodicals

Following the popularity of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843), Victorian newspapers and magazines frequently featured ghost stories at Christmas time, and reading them by candlelight or the fireside became an annual tradition. This second volume of Victorian Christmas ghost stories contains fifteen tales, most of which have never been reprinted. They represent a mix of the diverse styles and themes common to Victorian ghost fiction and include works by once-popular authors like Grant Allen and Eliza Lynn Linton as well as contributions from anonymous or wholly forgotten writers. This volume also features a new introduction by Prof. Allen Grove.

A new collection of twenty ghostly tales of Yuletide terror, collected from rare Victorian periodicals

Seeking to capitalize on the success of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843), Victorian newspapers and magazines frequently featured ghost stories at Christmas time, and reading them by candlelight or the fireside became an annual tradition, a tradition Valancourt Books is pleased to continue with our series of Victorian Christmas ghost stories. This third volume contains twenty tales, most of them never before reprinted. They represent a mix of the diverse styles and themes common to Victorian ghost fiction and include works by once-popular authors like Ellen Wood and Charlotte Riddell as well as contributions from anonymous or wholly forgotten writers. This volume also features a new introduction by Prof. Simon Stern.

"Before me, with the sickly light from the lantern shining right down upon it, was--a cloven hoof! Then the awfulness of the compact I had made came to my mind with terrible force..." - Frederick Manley, "The Ghost of the Cross-Roads"

"By the fireplace there was a large hideous pool of blood soaking into the carpet, and leaving ghastly stains around. I am not ashamed to confess that my brain reeled; the mysterious horror overcame me..." - Lillie Harris, "19, Great Hanover Street"

"A fearful white face comes to me; a horrible mask, with features drawn as in agony--ghastly, pale, hideous! Death or approaching death, violent death, written in every line. Every feature distorted. Eyes starting from the head. Thin lips moving and working--lips that are cursing, although I hear no sound." - Hugh Conway, "A Dead Man's Face"

Contents:

• Frederick Manley - "The Ghost of the Cross-Roads"
• Lillie Harris - "19, Great Hanover Street"
• G. B. Burgin - "Sir Hugo's Prayer"
• Mrs. J. H. Riddell - "Walnut-Tree House"
• Anonymous - "Haunted Ashchurch"
• Anonymous - "The Haunted Tree"
• Hugh Conway - "A Dead Man's Face"
• L. F. Austin - "The Ghost's Double"
• E. H. Rebton - "The Haunted Manor"
• J. E. Thomas - "The Nameless Village"
• Anonymous - "Old Simons' Ghost!"
• J. W. Hollingsworth - "Miriam's Ghost"
• Lucy Farmer - "The Vicar's Ghost"
• Mrs. Henry Wood - "The Ghost of the Hollow Field"
• Alice Mary Vince - "The Wicked Editor's Christmas Dream"
• Anonymous - "The Barber's Ghost"
• Andrew Haggard - "A Spirit Bride"
• W. L. Blackley - "The Haunted Oven"
• Lilian Quiller Couch - "The Devil's Own"
• Anonymous - "A Christmas Ghost Story"

Victorian-era Christmas ghost stories are associated primarily with Charles Dickens and other British writers, but for this new volume, editor Christopher Philippo has discovered that the tradition of telling and publishing ghostly tales at Christmas flourished in the New World as well. These tales are set in places that are familiar and yet foreign to us--Gold Rush-era San Francisco, old New Orleans, the barren and frozen plains of Iowa and the Dakotas, the early days of the Puerto Rican commonwealth.

Like their British cousins, these stories make perfect winter reading by candlelight or the fireside. This selection includes more than a dozen rare tales, most never before reprinted, along with a number of macabre Christmas-themed poems, and features a number of contributions by women and African-American authors.

Contents:

• The Green Huntsman (1841) - Joseph Holt Ingraham
• Burt Pringle and the "Bellesnickle" (1853) - Bill Bramble
• Worse Than a Ghost Story (1857) - Anonymous
• The Christmas Ghost (1857) - Lucy A. Randall
• The Frozen Husband (1869) - Frank Ibberson Jervis
• A Sworn Statement (1881) - Emma Frances Dawson
• The Snow Flower of the Sierras (1884) - Anonymous
• The Devil's Christmas (1885) - Julian Hawthorne
• Harlakenden's Christmas (1887) - Thomas Wentworth Higginson
• The Ghostly Christmas Gift (1887) - F. H. Brunell
• The Blizzard (1888) - Luke Sharp
• Warned by the Wire (1895) - Louis Glass
• Poor Jack (1892) - H. C. Dodge
• Christmas Wolves (1897) - Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi
• The Werwolves (1898) - Henry Beaugrand
• The Haunted Oak (1900) - Paul Laurence Dunbar
• The Anarchist's Christmas (1901) - Anonymous
• Camel Bells (1903) - Hezekiah Butterworth
• The Ravings (1903) - Anonymous
• Out of the Depths (1904) - Robert W. Chambers
• Old Nick and Saint Nick (1906) - Wallace Irwin
• The Cremation of Sam McGee (1907) - Robert W. Service
• Xmas (1908) - Amorel Sterne
• A Cubist Christmas (1913) - Kate Masterson
• Desuetude: A Ghost Story (1914) - Anonymous
• The Christmas Ghost (1915) - Anna Alice Chapin
• Merry Christmas (1917) - Stephen Leacock

It's the most wonderful time of the year - time for more rare ghostly tales of Yuletide terror from Victorian England!

For this fifth Valancourt volume of Christmas ghost stories, editor Christopher Philippo has dug deeper than ever before, delving into the archives of Victorian-era newspapers and magazines from throughout the British Isles to find twenty-one rare texts for the Christmas season - seventeen stories and four poems - most of them never before reprinted.

Featured here are gems by once-popular but now-forgotten 19th-century masters of the supernatural like Amelia Edwards, Barry Pain, and Florence Marryat, alongside contributions by totally obscure authors like James Skipp Borlase, a writer of penny dreadfuls who specialized in lurid Christmas horror stories, and Harry Grattan, who made history by writing the first ghost story recorded by Edison for the phonograph. Also included are an introduction and bonus materials, such as 19th-century news articles and advertisements related to Christmas ghosts.

Contents:

• Introduction by Christopher Philippo
• John Gibson Lockhart, "Little Willie Bell" (1827)
• Thomas Haynes Bayly, "The Mistletoe Bough" (c. 1830)
• Amelia Edwards, "My Brother's Ghost Story" (1860)
• Anonymous, "Old Hell Shaft" (1865)
• John Pitman, "Ejected by a Ghost" (1869)
• Mrs. S. R. Townshend Mayer, "The Netherstone Mystery" (1878)
• Florence Marryat, "That Awful Face!" (1882)
• Howell Davies, "Two Christmas Eves" (1885)
• Mabel Collins, "A Tale of Mystery" (1885)
• "Phœnix", "The Ghosts of the Bards" (1886)
• Jessie Saxby, "Hel-Ya-Water: A Shetland Legend of Yule Time" (1886)
• Barry Pain, "The Undying Thing" (1893)
• Magister Monensis, "The Siren" (1898)
• Baroness de Bertouch, "The Tryst, An Old Yule Legend" (1898)
• Adeline Sergeant, "The Mummy Hand" (1901)
• Skipp Borlase, "The Dead Hand" (1903)
• James Skipp Borlase, "The Wicked Lady Howard" (1905)
• Huan Mee, "Ghost of the Living" (1905)
• Harry Grattan, "A Christmas Ghost Story" (1905)
• Arthur Walter Berry, "Woden, the Wild Huntsman" (1911)
• F. G. Grundemann, "Squire Humperdinck and the Devil" (1913)