In an age of rapid scientific progress, the idea of a vindictive past able to reach out and violate the present held a special potential for terror. Throughout the nineteenth century, fictional ghost stories developed in parallel with the more general Victorian fascination with death and what lay beyond it. Though they were as much a part of the cultural and literary fabric of the age as imperial confidence, the best of the stories still retain their original power to surprise and unsettle. In Victorian Ghost Stories, the editors map out the development of the ghost story from 1850 to the early years of the twentieth century and demonstrate the importance of this form of short fiction in Victorian popular culture. As well as reprinting stories by supernatural specialists such as J. S. Le Fanu and M. R. James, this selection emphasizes the key role played by women writers--including Elizabeth Gaskell, Rhoda Broughton, and Charlotte Riddell--and offers one or two genuine rarities. Other writers represented include Charles Dickens, Henry James, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and R. L. Stevenson. There is also a fascinating Introduction and a chronological list of ghost story collections from 1850 to 1910.Includes:The old nurse's story by Elizabeth GaskellAn account of some strange disturbances in Aungier Street by J.S. Le FanuThe miniature by J.Y. AkermanThe last house in C-Street by Dinah MulockTo be taken with a grain of salt by Charles DickensThe Botathen ghost by R.S. HawkerThe truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth by Rhoda BroughtonThe romance of certain old clothes by Henry JamesPichon & Sons, of the Croix Rousse by AnonymousReality or delusion? by Mrs Henry WoodUncle Cornelius, his story by George MacDonaldThe shadow of a shade by Tom HoodAt Chrighton Abbey by Mary Elizabeth BraddonNo living voice by Thomas Street MillingtonMiss Jéromette and the clergyman by Wilkie CollinsThe story of Clifford House by AnonymousWas it an illusion? by Amelia B. EdwardsThe open door by Charlotte RiddellThe captain of the "Pole-star" by Sir Arthur Conan DoyleThe body-snatcher by Robert Louis StevensonThe story of the rippling train by Mary Louisa MolesworthAt the end of the passage by Rudyard Kipling"To let" by B.M. CrokerJohn Charrington's wedding by E. NesbitThe haunted organist of Hurly Burly by Rosa MulhollandThe man of science by Jerome K. JeromeCanon Alberic's scrap-book by M.R. JamesJerry Bundler by W.W. JacobsAn Eddy on the floor by Bernard CapesThe tomb of Sarah by F.G. LoringThe case of Vincent Pyrwhit by Barry PainThe shadows on the wall by Mary E. WilkinsFather Macclesfield's tale by R.H. BensonThurnley Abbey by Perceval LandonThe kit-bag by Algernon Blackwood

    Stories about ghost of Gettysburg battlefield.

    She probably won't like him; no one else seems to. So the last thing Benjy expects to do is make a friend--especially one who's a ghost!Cadet William Hugh McDowell was killed at the Civil War battle of New Market more than one hundred years ago. He's doomed to haunt the battlefield until he finds his grandfather's gold watch--the watch he'd hidden from the Yankees just before he died.If Hugh's spirit is ever to rest in peace, Benjy must help him find the watch and get it back to its rightful place in history. Benjy is scared. After all, no one has ever depended on him for anything. Now Benjy's new best friend is betting all eternity that he will succeed.

    What she got was a skeleton, suspicious cops ... and Charlie. Ex-truckstop waitress/new heiress Lizbet Lange inherited a mansion from her ex-husband, who neglected to put in an outdoor, Olympic-size pool in the back "grounds" before he died. So, thinking it would be just the thing to cheer her up, seeing as how she's young and alone, she sets up a "dig" with the local pool company, who promptly unearth a human skeleton. And if that isn't bad enough, what with the cops and FBI and all, tromping around in her back yard, thirty minutes later the skeleton's owner, also shows up, albeit in ghost form, and asks Lizbet to help him find out who murdered him back in 1969!

    Color illustrations throughout.

    

     There are tales as old as Native American ghostlore, as new as the one about a haunted airplane. There are stories about haunted presidents and haunted swimming pools. There are tales of the dead and famous and of the faceless dead. Visit that altered state of consciousness--Haunted Ohio. Stories from the following Ohio counties: Ashland, Auglaize, Butler, Champaign, Clark, Clermont, Columbiana, Coshocton, Crawford, Cuyahoga, Defiance, Erie, Fairfield, Franklin, Greene, Guernsey, Hamilton, Hardin, Knox, Lawrence, Licking, Mahoning, Marion, Medina, Meigs, Miami, Montgomery, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Portage, Richland, Sandusky, Summit, Tuscarawas, Vinton, Wood, Wyandot. Includes general index and index by county, bibliography, source notes, and directory of haunted places open to the public.