Ghosts! They come in all shapes and sizes, all genders and species, and they have manifold reasons for manifesting--or, as is sometimes the case, not manifesting. For more than two centuries ghosts have haunted the imaginations of writers around the world, who have chronicled their exploits with a vividness and zeal that is just a little bit incongruous for entities whose relative lack of material substance leads many among us to question their existence.
Great Ghost Stories pays tribute to the long literary legacy of the ghost story by gathering together in one volume 101 of the best short ghost stories of all time. Here you will find ghosts of virtually every stripe and semblance: ghosts who seek revenge against the living, ghosts who dutifully keep appointments made while their hosts were still alive, ghosts who appear to convince skeptics of their existence, and even ghosts who don't know that they're ghosts. Some of the ghosts depicted here are helpful, while others are horrifyingly malevolent. Some have a disconcerting physicaliy--for example, the phantom limb whose owner claims committed the murder that he's accused of. Others are so insubstantial--among them the lingering influence of a suicide that imbues a boarding house room--that their power over the living seems completely out of proportion.
The stories collected in this volume show the great variety of ghostly experience as conceived by some of the greatest weird fiction writers of all time. You don't have to believe in ghosts to enjoy these stories--but you dismiss their power to terrify you at your own peril.
