Hauntings

Lee, Vernon, 1856-1935Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.2

Word count: 315K words
Chapters: 32

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Hauntings by Vernon LeeAuthor: Lee, Vernon, 1856-1935,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2006

Editor's review

Hauntings is a collection of short supernatural stories published in 1890 by the British writer Vernon Lee (Violet Paget) and one of the representative works of late Victorian Gothic psychological tales. The book contains several stories under the name of haunting, but the author's interest lies not in bloodshed or shock tactics but in ambiguous psychological atmosphere: is it a ghost at work, or the characters' own desires, obsessions, and artistic imagination? The narration often leaves room, and the endings offer no clear explanation, leaving judgment to the reader. The style is refined and the pace unhurried, with dense descriptions of scenery and emotion, carrying an aestheticist and fin-de-siècle decadent flavor. As a public-domain ebook, this edition is provided by Project Gutenberg as plain text, easy to search and cite, suitable as an introductory reader for late Victorian English ghost stories, women's Gothic writing, and the psychological horror tradition, and also for researchers doing textual comparison. It is best read slowly, paying attention to the narrator's reliability. Note that this is the original English edition, completed at the end of the nineteenth century, and some vocabulary and syntax pose a threshold for contemporary readers.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English readers who enjoy Victorian Gothic and psychological tales
Undergraduates and graduate students studying women's Gothic writing and fin-de-siècle literature
Advanced language learners who want to practice close reading in English through short stories
Literary enthusiasts interested in ambiguous narrative and unreliable narration

Not a good fit for

Horror readers expecting intense frights and fast-paced plots
Readers still at the beginning stage of English reading who need annotation support
Readers who prefer clear endings and revealed mysteries

Reading tips

Read in order, pausing after each story to recall which details could actually have another explanation.
Compare with common tropes of Victorian ghost stories and note where the author deliberately withholds answers.
Do not look up unfamiliar words immediately; finish a passage first, prioritizing overall atmosphere and narrative tone.
Read alongside Henry James's The Turn of the Screw to compare how the two handle psychological ambiguity.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story collection?

It is a short story collection. Each story stands alone while sharing the theme of haunting and psychological ambiguity. There is no continuous plot between stories, so you can start with any one.

Does Hauntings in the title mean there really are ghosts?

Not entirely. The author often interweaves supernatural phenomena with characters' inner obsessions, desires, and artistic imagination. Many stories do not give a definite answer to whether it is a ghost or a demon of the mind, and this ambiguity is precisely the feature.

Is the original English edition difficult to read?

Completed at the end of the nineteenth century, it has long sentences, dense description, and period-flavored vocabulary, posing a threshold for non-native readers. Upper-intermediate to advanced English reading ability is recommended, and allow yourself to slow down and tolerate some unfamiliar words.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

This is a free public-domain electronic text, usually in plain text format, easy to search, copy, and cite, but without modern annotations or introductions, so readers need to supply background materials themselves.

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About the author

Lee, Vernon, 1856-1935 Author

Lee, Vernon (1856–1935) was the pen name of the British writer Violet Paget. Under this name she published fifteen works, spanning essays, fiction, and art criticism. Her essay collections Belcaro and Laurus Nobilis discuss aesthetics and the artistic life in a refined and reflective style, while Euphorion explores the Renaissance tradition from the perspective of literature and art history. In fiction, Hauntings and A Phantom Lover are notable for their psychological suspense and subtle, eerie atmosphere, and The Countess of Albany engages with the biography of a historical figure. Other volumes include Limbo, and Other Essays and Hortus Vitae. Public information is limited, but her works reveal a sustained interest in aesthetics, imagination, and the supernatural, securing her a place in the late nineteenth-century British essay and weird-fiction traditions.