The Giant Book of Ghost Stories

Lots of stuff that has been anthologized elsewhere (like "The Signal-Man" by Charles Dickens and "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes," Henry James's earliest and least effective ghostly tale), as well as one authentic masterpiece ("Schalken the Painter" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu) and a handful of intriguing curios. I enjoyed Fitz-James O'Brien's eerie hallucinatory fantasy "The Lost Room": in my opinion it's a better piece of writing than "What Was It?," which is generally considered to be O'Brien's finest story. Also good were "The Bridal Pair," a grimly florid romantic ghost story by Robert W. Chambers, and Lafcadio Hearn's "Yuki-onna," a vignette based on a Japanese folktale (and dramatized in Masaki Kobayashi's classic film show more Kwaidan).

Not life-changing, but not bad. show less