The Virago Book Of Ghost Stories [Paperback]

I had already read Richard Dalby's The Mammoth Book of Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories (The mammoth book series) which was quite good, so this collection seemed like a safe bet. He also collaborated with Rosemary Pardoe to produce one of my favorite collections of supernatural short stories, i.e. "Ghosts and Scholars."

The 31 stories in this collection are compiled from "The Virago Book of Ghost Stories: The Twentieth Century" (two volumes, 1987 & 1991) and "The Virago Book of Victorian Ghost Stories" (1988), all by some of the best-known female authors of the supernatural, including Edith Wharton, Rosemary Pardoe, Joan Aiken, and Charlotte Brontë. There are only a few really terrifying tales in this collection, although "The Book" by Margaret Irwin is one of my picks for Top 100 Ghost Stories. Pathos is the overriding emotion.

These are a few of my favorite stories in this collection:

"The Old Nurse's Story" by Mrs. Gaskell--Here's an old classic that all ghost story connoisseurs must read at least once. A young orphan and her loving nursemaid must go to live with a distant great-aunt in Northumberland. The five-year-old soon wins over her new relative and the staff of the once-grand mansion, but who is the little girl who keeps begging her to come out and play in the snowstorm?

"The Book" by Margaret Irwin--A book so evil that it corrupts all of its companions in the bookcase, including "The Old Curiosity Shop" and "Treasure Island." Soon it also holds sway over the owner of the bookcase.

"The Vacant Lot" by Mary E. Wilkins--After inheriting a substantial legacy, the Townsend family moves to an upscale address in Boston. They are amazed at how cheaply they were able to purchase their mansion--at least until a phantom starts hanging laundry in the vacant lot next-door.

"The Eyes" by Edith Wharton--A young man who has just offered up a proposal of marriage wakes up to find a pair of evil old eyes staring at him from the foot of his bed.

"The Haunted Saucepan" by Margery Lawrence--I guessed from the title that this story was going to be humorous, but I was wrong. Three grown men grow to fear a sauce pan that bubbles merrily away in the kitchen, even after the gas has been turned off.

"The Haunting of Shawley Rectory" by Ruth Rendell--Not everyone who lives in Shawley Rectory sees the ghosts. Those who do say a mother killed her daughter in the drawing room, but the skeptics outnumber them, and no one can find historical verification of the murder.

"The Mistress in Black" by Rosemary Timperly--The new English teacher keeps seeing her predecessor, who burned to death while trying to set fire to the school.

This ghost story collection is noteworthy on several counts. Presented here are 31 short stories, written by women, from the early 19th century to the dawn of the 21st century. Along with reliables such as Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Charlotte Riddell, there are stories from Edith Wharton and Stella Gibbons. While a few of the older stories have been numerously anthologized, the majority of this fiction is hasn't been widely published. There are some interesting variations of the genre as well, particularly A.S. Byatt's "The July Ghost" and Angela Carter's "Ashputtle."

Ghost stories might not necessarily make you believe in ghosts, but if their aim is to catch you off-balance and leave you at least a little uneasy, the tales in this collection are quite successful. This anthology should satisfy both the ghost story fancier as well as students and enthusiasts of feminine and feminist literature. The accompanying scholarship is limited to a preface by editor Richard Dalby and a series of biographical profiles in the end pages.

This is a truly excellent collection of ghost stories by women. There is something for every taste: stories amusing, tender, unexpected, and/or truly bone-chilling. The stories, which range in length from a few pages to novella, are arranged in chronological order; and the focus is by no means only on women.

Come a dark and stormy night you will be glad to have the company of this compendium of pleasant horrors.