Even though I know not to judge a book by its cover, that is exactly what attracted me to this anthology. I should not have judged it by the title either since I expected ghost stories and the majority of these tales are absent of spirits.

There were a few stories that I enjoyed, even though there were no scares to be found. Most of the stories were just not to my liking. Even "The Waxwork" which was made into one of my favorite episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents was kind of dull and flat here. Whoever they hired to turn it into a tv script is the one who added all the flavor and flair that is missing in this book.

The few stories that I liked were more whimsical than scary

I did enjoy The Wonderful Day in which a young boy drifts off to sleep after listening to his family gossip about the residents of their town. He thinks to himself that adults are confusing since they often say things they don't mean. He makes a wish as he falls asleep and soon the figurative becomes literal which is wonderful for some people but less so for others.

I also enjoyed Miss Emmeline Takes off, about a woman who sneaks into the home she lost after a financial difficulty to retrieve an important item that the new owner refused to let her take.

The Truth About Pyecraft was a fun story about a prescription for weight loss that works far too well.

The illustrations by Fred Banbery are amazing

I'm not sure that 3 stories out of 11 make a convincing argument in favor of this book but you may enjoy the rest more than I did. If you are interested there are plenty of used copies in decent condition floating around out there. ( )

When I was a kid, there were a couple of Alfred Hitchcock anthologies on our shelves, but since Scooby Doo scared the crap out of me, I'd never really do more than take them off the shelve and stare at the covers.

Now I'm just about a hardened enough cynic to be able to finally read the stories and delight in them. This one had a cover that looks vaguely Autumnal, which I needed for a challenge, and that was a good enough excuse.

11 stories, most better than average. The first one, Miss Emmeline Takes Off, was just purely delightful in that way it feels like authors today just never achieve. I doubt it would have even scared little-kid me, and I further doubt it was written to be; I imagine my nieces giggling in delight over this one.

The Valley of the Beasts by Algernon Blackwood was, far and away, my favorite as an adult. The writing was gorgeous and the plot, while incredibly simple, was a morality tale that never dates. A lot of people today would read this and think "racist!!", as Blackwood's choice of character descriptions is revealing of the sensibilities of his time and age. Those people would miss the forest for the trees; I'd argue there's a definite satiric bent to his word choices, because it's the Native Canadian Indian that comes out of the story as hero, and the white Englishman who has a much deeper lesson about life and morality shoved (deservedly) down his throat.

The Haunted Trailer was the weakest of the collection for me; very meh. As was The Truth About Pyecraft by H.G. Wells, though it has an ironic twist that's very Poe. The Wonderful Day is another delight; the best of Karmic fantasy. In a Dim Room won the kewpie doll for most unexpected ending. It's short, abrupt and it works. The Waxworks by A.M. Burrage is hands down the spookiest and would definitely have scared younger-me, as would The Upper Berth by F. Marion Crawford.

The final story is The Isle of Voices by Robert Louis Stevenson. The plot didn't do that much for me, but the writing is wonderful. Nothing scary about it either, for either now-me or then-me. But it definitely made me curious about finally getting around to reading more of his work. ( )

I first discovered this volume in my elementary school library, and later acquired my own copy, but I don't think that I had actually read any of it until now. The cover terrified me as a child, kept me awake at night much like the boy on the cover, imagining faces watching me from every corner of my bedroom (you have to see the back cover as well for the full effect.) It's stuck with me in all these years and when I found it again in a public library, I decided to finally fill in the gap.

Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery (which I often confused with [b:Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful|87613|Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful|Alfred Hitchcock|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1276705311s/87613.jpg|84578]) is a collection of classic weird tales packaged for young readers, including work by H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Algernon Blackwood, F. Marion Crawford, Lord Dunsany and others. Some have a serious tone while others, particularly those by ghost-editor Robert Arthur, are more whimsical. Despite the title, only a few are ghost stories. Some of them may seem predictable to seasoned adult readers, but I have no doubt that children will be carried right along. Still, I had a lot of fun with this and was glad to put this "ghost" to rest at last!

( )

More fun ghost and paranormals stories. Alfred Hitchcock movies used to scare me silly when I was a kid, so anything with his name on it tends to grab my attention. Light little fluff read, but fun. ( )

I loved these stories when I was young. Great spooky stories, but not too scary (at least they weren't too scary for me). ( )