Note, May 4, 2020: When I read short story collections intermittently over a long period of time, my reactions are similarly written piecemeal, while they're fresh in my mind. That gives the reviews a choppy, and often repetitive, quality. Recently, I had to condense and rearrange one of these into a unified whole because of Goodreads' length limit; and I was so pleased with the result that I decided to give every one of these a similar edit! Accordingly, I've now edited this one.This anthology

Ok, confession: I read a majority of this book in the stacks while working at the library. Don't judge me--if you had to shelf-read for hours on end, you would take the occasional break to. But anyway, I loved the stories in this book. They're the old-fashioned, downright creepy stories that are, unfortunately, seldom seen nowadays. My favorites were The Monkey's Paw and this story about a creepy bird-like creature that I can't remember the title of (it was the simplest story yet I can't help bu...

I enjoyed 90% of these stories. Smee and On The Brighton Road I never tire of rereading.

As well-written as all of these stories are, as bona-fide classic as many are judged to be, I couldn't help but often feel a sense of Been There Done That as I trudged through this volume. Maybe I've been reading too many classic ghost story/gothic horror collections over the past couple of years and I'm a bit burned out, but I found a lot of this stuff frankly hasn't aged particularly well. Still, there were some stellar pieces in here that I'd never heard of before, including W.F. Harvey's sho...

This anthology, superbly edited and introduced by Michael Cox and R.A. Gilbert, is a great way to begin your library of supernatural fiction. Even the connoisseur will find some rare gems. From the first of the chronologically arranged stories, "The Tapestry Room" by Sir Walter Scott, you'll be intrigued by the incredible variety. Whether you enjoy the swooning Romanticism of Vernon Lee's "A Wicked Voice," the dry restraint of M.R. James "Oh, Whistle," or the naturalistic American dialogue of Ma...

Beautiful collection. Contains ghost stories of a lot of good known writers, not only of the well known ghost story writers.

A quintessestial compilation that leaves no one behind. Of course, this is just one volume, and there are many more wonderful ghost stories, but here, we can use this book as a guide to start searching for them. Awesome.

Homes with characterlovers meant but never metghosts that do dishes.

I love this book and have read it several times! I think my favorite story in this anthology is "The Empty House" but there are few that disappoint! A good spooky book!

The English really do excel at writing ghost stories. I can honestly say that I didn't regret reading one of these stories in this book. I actually read it in a very short amount of time, which is impressive for an anthology that is sizable. There is just something about the English setting for a ghost story that resonates with me. I also believe that the menace of what is unseen is much more impressive when the narrator of the story is a dignified sort not given to believe in such things. Proba...

Great collection of ghost stories, some well known, some not.

PLACEHOLDER REVIEW: Read something from here in another collection, so thought I'd throw the review in for the time being.Uncharacteristically shorter than his usual work, Robert Aickman's "The Cicerones" is a solid condensation of his general approaches - growing unease, abstract details, a feeling of vague threat, and psychological complexity. Trant, a single, middle-aged man who prides himself on his travels, is off to Belgium to visit a cathedral with some infamously grotesque paintings. But...

This British book was originally published in 1986. There are some good tales in it- I've always loved "The Monkey's Paw" and read it to students at Halloween (The Simpsons did a nice "TreeHouse of Horror" episode with it), and I also enjoyed "The Upper Berth," "The Judge's House," "Man-Size in Marble," "The Red Room," and "The Lost Ghost," among others. Several authors are also well-known, such as Sir Walter Scott, HG Wells, and Henry James.However, there are some flaws. Many of these stories a...

This one had quite a few good stories in it. :)

A pleasent enough read, but really a mixed bag overall. The further in the book I went, the stories seemed to get longer and less entertaining, though there were an exceptional few. Notable stories include The Tapistried Chamber; The Phantom Coach; The Judge's House; The Red Room; The Monkey's Paw; and The Clock (my personal fave) and a few other, lesser ones.. Sadly, many of the other stories are skipable. I would recomend borrowing this book or buying it second-hand. If you can find most of th...

2019: Started this for Halloween, but I'm stopping for the season about eight stories in. Most of these are familiar in a good way, and at least three (the Nesbit, Crawford, and Stoker stories) are favorites of mine. Great cover.

I stole this book from my college, don’t worry I did pay for it, because I fell in love with the multitude of stories contained within. This book ended up inspiring me as a horror writer in my own right and gave me many hours of intense reading. If you can find this book it is worth not just the read but worth owning.

This was a book that I dipped in and out of over a couple of years. It's an excellent collection of classic short ghost stories, mostly from the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.In many ways it presents the classic ghost story as a period-specific genre, i.e. typically Victorian/pre-war stories about the protagonist experiencing (and surviving) ghostly goings-on, often at the home of a friend or colleague (who's recently moved into a house that is CLEARLY haunted).Susan Hill's...

Fun, though when you read so many ghost stories together like this, you realize how the basic plots show up over and over again. 1. Someone encounters an evil ghost and flees in horror. 2. Someone sees a loved one acting strange; realizes later that the loved one was ALREADY DEAD. Et cetera. But there are enough variations to make it enjoyable. Some are genuinely original and wonderfully creepy.

I have nearly worn this copy out, which I have had for a couple of decades. Love the collection. Love to keep this, and several other short stories (with ghosts and scariness) by my bedside for some "light" reading.