Your Favorite Ghost Stories?

[Palanan]

I'm looking for recommendations for ghost stories, or supernatural tales in general. I'm not looking for horror or gore, and definitely not internet urban legends; I'm looking for classic stories, old legends and folktales, anything that's creepy and suspenseful, unnerving or simply wistful in an ethereal way.

Anthologies and collections are fine, but recommendations for individual stories would be especially helpful.

[hamishspence]

A Christmas Carol is pretty classic.

[factotum]

A Christmas Carol has nothing as a ghost story on "The Signalman"--if you read one Dickens ghost story, that's the one to go for. It's one of my favourites, along with "The Haunted and the Haunters, or The House and the Brain" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (yes, he of the famous "It was a dark and stormy night" line).

[BWR]

M.R. James is the guy for ghost stories. It doesn't really matter which you read.
J. Sheridan LeFanu also wrote some good stuff, like "Mme Crowl's Ghost"
Guy de Maupassant's "The Horla" scared the **** out of me when I was a kid. More Lovecraftian than Victorian ghost story, but it still counts.
H.G. Wells "The Inexperienced Ghost"
William Hope Hodgeson "The Ghost Pirates"
Tanith Lee "Kill the dead"

[HandofShadows]

Try the HP Lovecraft story collection called "The Tomb". Much less cosmic horror, more ghosty.

[Palanan]

I've read a number of ghost stories here lately, and I'm surprised no one's mentioned Bram Stoker. Maybe not too frightening in this day and age, but still effectively creepy, and I love his use of language.

Guy de Maupassant is another good one, based on "Who Knows?"--more surreal and peculiar than anything, but a few unnerving moments partway through.

[Grinner]

Ghosts: The Straight Dope (http://www.atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/ghosts.rtf), in which an alcoholic makes a strong argument as to why Plato was wrong.

[Gopher Wizard]

AYAOTD: The Tale of the Dark Music

For some reason I never caught this episode as a kid, but as an adult, I went back an rewatched a bunch of the old episodes and this on freaked me out.:smalleek:

[Aka-chan]

Neil Gaiman has a couple of excellent ones: "October in the Chair" from Fragile Things, "The Flints of Memory Lane" also from Fragile Things, and The Graveyard Book.

Everybody knows Stephen King for his novels, but he also has a number of short story collections, and I actually really like some of his older ones. "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" from Skeleton Crew isn't strictly a ghost story, but I think it fits the sort of thing you're looking for.

You might also enjoy Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, which is a collection of classic Japanese ghost stories.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Gopher Wizard
AYAOTD: The Tale of the Dark Music…

I have no idea what that acronym is.


Originally Posted by Aka-chan
You might also enjoy Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, which is a collection of classic Japanese ghost stories.

I've been meaning to read this for a couple of years now, thanks for the reminder. Definitely on the list.

Thanks also for the Neil Gaiman recommendations. I've never read anything by him, these might be a good intro.

[Tvtyrant]

I have no idea what that acronym is.



I've been meaning to read this for a couple of years now, thanks for the reminder. Definitely on the list.

Thanks also for the Neil Gaiman recommendations. I've never read anything by him, these might be a good intro.

Are you afraid of the dark. Kids horror show from the 1990s, like goosebumps for tv.

[veti]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned 'The Turn of the Screw' yet. Or Wuthering Heights'.

Some of my favourite ghost stories are those that don't involve any actual ghosts, but hints and fears of them form an undercurrent to the whole story and shape the protagonist's motivation. This category includes such classics as 'The Hound of the Baskervilles', 'The Woman in White', 'Rebecca' - all of which go to show that ghosts don't have to exist, in order to be powerful.

[Oneris]

"The Woman in Black" of the stage play and Daniel Radcliffe movie fame is much tamer on scares than the movie.

"Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" which is a collection of Chinese ghost and supernatural stories. "The Painted Skin" is the most popular short, I believe.

Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost" is about a ghost that (unsuccessfully) tries to terrify an American family who are thoroughly unperturbed by his antics. It's mostly amusing, but has a rather sweet ending.