The first, The Haunted House is narrated by a loquacious and haughty gentleman who moves with his sister and their three servants into a house in disrepair, allegedly haunted as the servants' bells ring by themselves at all hours. After the servants are frightened off, they invite their friends to join them for the Christmas season--all total, nine. The narrator sees people in a mirror when shaving. The next night he sees the talking ghost of "Mr. B", which takes him on wild night journeys into the ghost of his own childhood, grievously changed by the death of his father. A ghost leading someone into journeys from their past....hmmm, where have I read that before?

The second, The Trial for Murder, is narrated by a Foreman of the Jury, who is haunted before and throughout the trial by the ghost of the murdered man. The murderer is haunted in turn by a vision of the Foreman of his Jury.

The narrator of the third, The Signal-Man, is curious about a signal-man working on the railway in a steep narrow passage just outside a tunnel, hails him, and rambles down to talk with him. The signal-man is haunted by an apparition he sees just before disaster strikes. The narrator tries to talk him out of his superstition, but alas, the third time, the apparition signals calamity for the signal-man himself.

Dickens is a master at revealing the character of the narrators through their ways of describing the events that befall them. ( )

So often we get caught up reading "The Great Dickens." It's easy to miss these smaller gems that endeared him to so many readers of his day.

Although a bit dated, Dickens' writing is to the eye, what satin is to the hand. ( )

I had multiple lengthy ebooks to read, but wanted a bit more short Christmas stories to pass the time - so of course I thought of Dickens. I suppose I should add that I was also trying to read this while others were watching tv and every now and then trying to have a conversation with me - so I'd stop, chat a bit, and then go back to reading. Short stories are usually the easiest for this sort of situation. (Previously in the past weeks I've read old Christmas, a Christmas Carol, and Cricket on the Hearth.)

I should add that none of these are set in anything resembling Christmas atmosphere. The Christmas ghost story doesn't actually have to occur act Christmas time - it's simply that there began to be a trend of sharing or telling or reading ghost stories at Christmas, and that's one tradition I like to keep up with. Well, the reading part, anyway.

This book is again one of those really, really short "books" we find on Gutenberg - here's the link, while I remember to pass it on. It consists of three stories:

The Signal-Man
This gets anthologized a lot, and it's not a particular favorite of mine simply because I've read it so many times. It's a railroad story, and it's not entirely clear if what we're hearing of is technically a ghost or not.

The Haunted House
Good lord, this story is tedious and all over the place. I had to stop several times and wonder if this was one Dickens had written on a deadline or when he needed something to fill some magazine's empty space (or if he was being paid by the word). At first it seems to be a skeptic's story of people seeing ghosts that don't exist, then possibly a ghost, then a childhood memory, and then an odd ending that I'm not quite sure what to make of.

I did find this bit amusing:

" I then casually asked Ikey if he were a judge of a gun? On his saying, “Yes, sir, I knows a good gun when I sees her,” I begged the favour of his stepping up to the house and looking at mine.
“She’s a true one, sir,” said Ikey, after inspecting a double-barrelled rifle that I bought in New York a few years ago. “No mistake about her, sir.”
“Ikey,” said I, “don’t mention it; I have seen something in this house.”
“No, sir?” he whispered, greedily opening his eyes. “ ’Ooded lady, sir?”
“Don’t be frightened,” said I. “It was a figure rather like you.”
“Lord, sir?”
“Ikey!” said I, shaking hands with him warmly: I may say affectionately; “if there is any truth in these ghost-stories, the greatest service I can do you, is, to fire at that figure. And I promise you, by Heaven and earth, I will do it with this gun if I see it again!”

The Haunted House is a story I really should go research and find its publication date and history, but meh, I'm traveling and will do this later. (Which means I'll probably put this on the read shelf and promptly forget.)

The Trial For Murder
Ah, much better, and I wished this story had been first. The story of a trial and a ghost, which peters out at the end, but still satisfying. Definitely not one of Dickens best, but so much better than The Haunted House. Perhaps I'm praising it so much more because it was a relief after that one. ( )

Another disappointing book. One can definitely tell, even in this short collection, that Dickens was paid by the word. Damn, so much erroneous text that it feels like it takes ages to read a single page! I read one of these stories (The Signal-Man) last night. *yawn* Better than Ambien.

The other two stories (The Haunted House and The Trial for Murder) I read this morning. Fantastic way to start the day. Boring. I wanted to go right back to sleep.

I'm sure that back when these were written, they would have been something to cluck over as being scandalously awful (in a good, daring way, as opposed to being just awful now), but the times have changed and stories like these are, well... just not all that interesting now. But, it's a classic, so I guess I'm glad I read it for that reason, if no other. ( )

The Signalman, The Haunted House and The Trial For Murder - all three excellent classics by Mr. Dickens himself. ( )