The Fifth Ghost Story Megapack 25 Classic Haunts Read online

  Table of Contents

  COPYRIGHT INFO

  A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

  The MEGAPACK™ Ebook Series

  INTRODUCTION, by Shawn M. Garrett

  A TALE OF A GAS-LIT GHOST, by Anonymous

  DOG OR DEMON? by Theo Gift

  THE STORY OF MEDHANS LEA, by E. Heron & H. Heron

  HOW FEAR DEPARTED FROM THE LONG GALLERY, by E. F. Benson

  ON THE BRIGHTON ROAD, by Richard Middleton

  THE NEW PASS, by Amelia B. Edwards

  THE VIOLET CAR, by E. Nesbit

  KENTUCKY’S GHOST, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward

  THE SHIP THAT SAW A GHOST, by Frank Norris

  CHRISTMAS EVE ON A HAUNTED HULK, by Frank Cowper

  YUKI-ONNA, by Lafcadio Hearn

  THE ADVENTURE OF THE GERMAN STUDENT, by Washington Irving

  FULLCIRCLE, by John Buchan

  THE GHOST IN THE CAP’N BROWN HOUSE, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  THE STRANGER, by Ambrose Bierce

  THE SOUTHWEST CHAMBER, by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

  THE READJUSTMENT, by Mary Austin

  EVELINE’S VISITANT, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

  SIR EDMUND ORME, by Henry James

  THE HAUNTED DRAGOON, by Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

  THE PICTURE ON THE WALL, by Katharine Tynan

  THE BANSHEE’S WARNING, by Charlotte Riddell

  THE SERPENT’S HEAD, by Lady Dilke

  THE DEAD MAN OF VARLEY GRANGE, by Anonymous

  THE SCREAMING SKULL, by F. Marion Crawford

  COPYRIGHT INFO

  The Fifth Ghost Story MEGAPACK™ is copyright © 2015 by Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

  * * * *

  The MEGAPACK™ ebook series name is a trademark of Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

  A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

  This volume was edited by Wildside staffer Shawn M. Garrett, who also wrote his own intro. (He’s a great reader and scholar of classic horror fiction.) Please skip ahead to his intro to find out more about this volume. He is also assembling The Sixth Ghost Story MEGAPACK™—so look for that volume shortly!

  —John Betancourt

  Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

  www.wildsidepress.com

  ABOUT THE SERIES

  Over the last few years, our MEGAPACK™ ebook series has grown to be our most popular endeavor. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

  The MEGAPACK™ ebook series (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Shawn Garrett, Helen McGee, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, A.E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)

  RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?

  Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the MEGAPACK™ ebook series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://movies.ning.com/forum (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).

  Note: we only consider stories that have already been professionally published. This is not a market for new works.

  TYPOS

  Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.

  If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at [email protected] or use the message boards above.

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  INTRODUCTION, by Shawn M. Garrett

  Here, for your enjoyment, please find a selection of 25 ghost stories. As the ghost story is a sub-genre that overlaps many others genres, not every one will be a horror story intended to scare or chill—but some certainly will, and we hope the variety will allow for the frightening ghosts to “hide in plain sight” as it were, mixing in unobtrusively with their literary brethren until they chose to unexpectedly turn the cold touch of the grave on the reader.

  For ghosts can be many things—representatives of the personal dead, certainly, as well as symbols for death itself. They can stand in for unresolved conflicts, guilty memories and lost chances, as well as strike the more sentimental chords of grieving and personal loss. Ghosts, in fact, are one of the most malleable literary genre creatures that exist—for even longer than the vampire, they have dwelt in the human mind and cultures, manifesting whenever a figure of otherness is required in the telling of a tale. And so, here, you will find a myriad of ghosts, malevolent and benign, gothic and modern.