The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories

by Various, Michael Newton (Editor), Michael Newton (Introduction), Michael Newton (Noted by)

Overview

"The ghost is the most enduring figure in supernatural fiction. He is absolutely indestructible. . . . He changes with the styles in fiction but he never goes out of fashion. He is the really permanent citizen of the earth, for mortals, at best, are but transients."
—Dorothy Scarborough

This new selection of ghost stories, by Michael Newton, brings together the best of the genre. From Elizabeth Gaskell's "The Old Nurse's Story" through to Edith Wharton's "Afterward," this collection covers all of the most terrifying tales of the genre. With a thoughtful introduction, and helpful notes, Newton places the stories contextually within the genre and elucidates the changing nature of the ghost story and how we interpret it.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141442365
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/27/2010
Series:	Penguin Classics Series
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	216,083
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael Newton was both an undergraduate and postgraduate at University College London. He is the author of Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children (Faber & Faber, 2002) and of a book on Kind Hearts and Coronets for the British Film Institute's Film Classics series (2003). He has also edited Edmund Gosse's Father and Son for Oxford World's Classics and Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent for Penguin. He has taught at UCL, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, and Princeton University, and currently works at the University of Leiden. At present he is completing a book on the history of assassination and political violence.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Chronology of the Ghost Story 1820-1914 x

Introduction xv

Further Reading xxxvi

A Note on the Texts xlii

The Old Nurse's Story Elizabeth Gaskell 3

What Was It? Fitz-James O'Brien 25

The Haunted and the Haunters: or, The House and the Brain Edward Bulwer Lytton 39

The Cold Embrace Mary Elizabeth Braddon 67

The North Mail Amelia B. Edwards 77

No. 1 Branch Line: The Signal-man Charles Dickens 91

Green Tea Sheridan Le Fanu 105

The Ghost in the Cap'n Brown House Harriet Beecher Stowe 140

Thrawn Janet Robert Louis Stevenson 151

The Open Door Margaret Oliphant 162

At the End of the Passage Rudyard Kipling 204

Nightmare-Touch Lafcadio Hearn 224

The Monkey's Paw W. W. Jacobs 231

The Wind in the Rose-Bush Mary Wilkins Freeman 243

'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' M. R. James 261

The Moonlit Road Ambrose Bierce 281

The Jolly Corner Henry James 291

The Readjustment Mary Austin 326

Afterward Edith Wharton 333

Glossary of Scots Words 365

Biographical and Explanatory Notes 371