The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories

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

Introduction by Tara Moore
1. The Tapestried Chamber (1828) by Sir Walter Scott
2. The Old Nurse's Story (1935) by Mrs. Gaskell
3. Horror: A True Tale (1861) by John Berwick Harwood
4. Bring Me a Light! (1861) by J. M. H.
5. Old Hooker's Ghost (1865) by Anonymous
6. The Ghost's Summons (1868) by Ada Buisson
7. Jack Layford's Friend: With an Account of How He Laid the Ghost (1869) by L. N.
8. How Peter Parley Laid a Ghost: A Story of Owl's Abbey (1875) by Anonymous
9. A Mysterious Visitor by Mrs. Henry Wood [as by Ellen Wood]
10. The Haunted Rock: A Legend of Porth Guerron Cove (1881) by W. W. Fenn
11. The Lady's Walk: A History of the Seen and Unseen (1882) by Margaret Oliphant
12. The Captain of the Pole Star by Arthur Conan Doyle
13. The Doll's Ghost (1896) by F. Marion Crawford