Humorous Ghost Stories

Scarborough, Dorothy, 1878-1935Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 547K words
Chapters: 55

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.Humorous Ghost Stories by Dorothy ScarboroughAuthor: Scarborough, Dorothy, 1878-1935,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Oct 18, 2008

Editor's review

Humorous Ghost Stories is an English ghost-story anthology edited by Dorothy Scarborough, a selected collection of works in the language and literature category. Its distinctive feature is that it turns the ghost, a subject usually tied to horror, toward humor: ghosts are no longer merely a source of fright but become vehicles for comedy, social satire, and wry commentary on human affairs. For readers familiar with Gothic horror, the book offers a lighthearted reverse reading experience, showing how different authors arrange misunderstandings, contrasts, and witty dialogue within a supernatural framework. As a public-domain e-book, it is easy to search and excerpt at any time, making it suitable as English short-fiction reading material and for casual browsing by readers studying variants of the ghost-story genre in popular literature. There is no need to read it straight through; reading it in scattered pieces by selection better reveals the differences in humor among the stories.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers who enjoy ghost stories but do not want a strongly horrific atmosphere
Literature enthusiasts interested in how humor and the supernatural can be combined
Learners who need English short fiction for extensive reading practice
Researchers interested in variants of popular literary genres

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting intense scares and graphic horror
Readers who need a Chinese translation and are not used to reading English originals
Readers seeking systematic literary history rather than an anthology

Reading tips

Read in scattered pieces, one or two stories at a time; no need to read straight through in order.
Start with the titles that appeal to you most, then return to the rest.
Mark unfamiliar expressions as you go, and look them up together after finishing a story.
After reading, compare the humorous techniques of each story and note which passages work best.

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

Are the ghost stories in this book very scary?

Judging from the title and the editorial selection, humor is the main tone of these stories; ghosts serve more to create comedy and satire than to build sustained fear. If you cannot tolerate any supernatural elements at all, you should still be cautious; but if you merely want to avoid intense horror writing, this book is relatively easy to read.

What English level is needed to read this book?

As an anthology of early twentieth-century English works, its language bears the marks of its era, and its sentences may be more complex than those in contemporary popular reading. It suits readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability who can use a dictionary for unfamiliar words; beginners can try a short story first and then decide whether to continue.

Is this a Chinese book or an English book?

This is an English-language work, a public-domain e-book released by Project Gutenberg. The content is in the original English with no Chinese translation, so it suits readers who read English directly or with reference tools.

Comments

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About the author

Scarborough, Dorothy, 1878-1935 Author · American · 1878–1935

Dorothy Scarborough (1878–1935) was an American writer and folklorist. She devoted sustained attention to Texas folklore, collecting and organizing local oral traditions while also writing fiction, and her interests spanned both folk narrative and supernatural themes. Two of her works are held in this collection: Humorous Ghost Stories and The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction. The former treats ghost stories with a comic touch, while the latter systematically examines supernatural elements in modern English fiction, showing that her interest in the uncanny lay in both creative taste and literary study. Public information on the details of her life is limited; her influence is chiefly visible through these two kinds of work—linking folklore with popular narrative on the one hand, and offering an early survey of supernatural fiction on the other.