The Best Ghost Stories

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.6
Word count
450K words
Chapters
45

Tags

English Originals Horror and Thriller SupernaturalNight ReadingHorror AtmosphereVision NarrativeSuspense BuildingDark FantasyShort Story CollectionGothic StyleFolk Legend

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.The Best Ghost Stories by Arthur B. Reeve and Joseph Lewis FrenchAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Mar 1, 2006

Editor's review

This is a collection of ghost stories compiled and edited by Arthur B. Reeve and Joseph Lewis French, a genre anthology within public-domain literature. Its value lies not in the literary height of any single piece but in presenting a concentrated picture of early English-language ghost stories: old houses, specters, omens, revenge, and inexplicable strange events form common motifs later found in horror literature and the Gothic tradition. As an anthology, the styles of the pieces may not be uniform—some emphasize atmosphere, others rely on plot twists—and readers can treat it as a tour of the genre. It suits scattered reading at night or in leisure time; there is no need to finish it in one go. For readers studying the origins of horror literature or wanting to understand early twentieth-century popular reading taste, this book offers a convenient sample; readers seeking the depth of modern psychological horror should adjust their expectations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the pieces separately, pausing to savor each one or two rather than reading straight through.
  2. Note recurring motifs such as old houses, omens, and vengeful ghosts.
  3. Compare with other public-domain ghost story anthologies to observe differences in editorial taste.
  4. When English reading is difficult, grasp the plot outline first, then return to the wording of atmospheric description.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45

FAQ

Which authors' works are included in this book? The information indicates that the book was compiled in connection with Arthur B. Reeve and Joseph Lewis French, but it does not list the specific pieces and full author list. It is certain to be a ghost story anthology; the specific contents should be checked in the ebook's table of contents and should not be supplemented from memory beyond the available information.
Is this book very scary? As an early English-language ghost story anthology, it relies more on atmosphere, suggestion, and plot twists than on the bloodshed or high-intensity shocks of modern horror. Readers used to contemporary horror may find the fear factor relatively mild, though individual pieces still leave an eerie aftertaste.
Is it suitable for bedtime reading? Yes, depending on personal tolerance. These are mostly short stories, suited to reading one or two before bed; if you are sensitive to ghost themes, read them during the day to avoid affecting sleep. It is best treated as light touring through the genre.
How does this book differ from modern horror fiction? Early ghost stories focus more on scene setting, omens, and moral meaning, with slower pacing and explanations often left open; modern horror fiction emphasizes psychological depth, social issues, and sensory impact. Reading the two side by side reveals how the horror genre has evolved over a century.

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About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.