These ghost story books collect the classics that taught readers to fear an empty room. Start with Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, the most debated ghost story ever written.
Here you'll find Victorian ghost stories, haunted novels and Christmas tales made to be read by the fire. Each one is a complete classic, written long before horror movies existed.
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Classics
Classic Ghost Stories
These classic ghost stories come from the masters of the short form, led by M. R. James and Algernon Blackwood. Read one per night, from English cathedrals to the spirits of Japanese folklore.
The first and most famous collection by M. R. James, with eight tales of scholars who disturb old books, churches and ruins. Includes "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" and "Lost Hearts", the stories that set the rules for the English ghost story.
The second M. R. James collection, home to "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" and "Casting the Runes". Seven quiet, precise stories where a single careless act lets something follow you home.
Five later tales by M. R. James, including "The Residence at Whitminster" and "An Episode of Cathedral History". Short, dense and unsettling, perfect for one sitting late at night.
The last collection M. R. James published, with the title story about a buried crown that must not be dug up, plus "A View from a Hill" and "The Haunted Dolls' House".
Algernon Blackwood's first book, ten ghost stories that open with a night spent in a house where a murder still replays itself. Atmospheric and genuinely frightening.
Oliver Onions' collection of psychological ghost stories, opening with "The Beckoning Fair One", often called one of the finest ghost stories in English. The haunting grows from the mind outward.
Ten stories by Edith Wharton where guilt, secrets and the supernatural blur together, including "The Bolted Door" and "Afterward". Elegant, cold and quietly chilling.
E. F. Benson's first book of spook stories, from the recurring nightmare of "The Room in the Tower" to haunted gardens, vengeful spirits and seaside horrors. Witty, vivid and very readable.
Rudyard Kipling's ghost stories of colonial India, led by the tale of a man haunted by the woman he abandoned. Also includes "My Own True Ghost Story" and "The Man Who Would Be King".
Thomas Carnacki investigates haunted rooms and cursed houses armed with an electric pentacle. These cases blend detective fiction and pure terror, and some of the ghosts turn out to be real.
Japanese ghost stories retold by Lafcadio Hearn, including the blind musician Hoichi and the snow woman Yuki-Onna. A gentle, eerie entry point to the ghosts of Japanese folklore.
A proud English ghost meets an American family that refuses to be scared. Oscar Wilde's comic ghost story is funny, warm and surprisingly moving at the end.
The schoolmaster Ichabod Crane rides home through a haunted valley and meets the Headless Horseman. America's best-known ghost legend, short and atmospheric.
A cursed charm grants three wishes, and a grieving family learns what the dead bring back with them. One of the most famous short ghost stories ever written.
A ship's cabin where every passenger who sleeps in the upper berth goes overboard. F. Marion Crawford's sea ghost story is a classic of cold, damp terror.
Two ghost stories by Sheridan Le Fanu, the Irish master of the Victorian supernatural. A young servant discovers the secret of a dead woman's locked room.
A schoolboy visits his friend's aunt, a woman who seems to commune with the dead. Walter de la Mare's long story is subtle, menacing and unforgettable.
Arthur Conan Doyle's early supernatural tales, led by a whaling captain haunted by a figure on the Arctic ice. Includes "The Ring of Thoth" and other strange stories.
These ghost novels stretch a single haunting across a whole book. Follow Henry James's governess, a cursed Venetian hotel and ships stalked by the dead.
A governess becomes convinced that two ghosts are reaching for the children in her care. Henry James's short novel is the most debated ghost story ever written.
A Venetian palace turned hotel hides the truth about a man's death, and guests in one room sleep badly. Wilkie Collins mixes mystery and ghost story in a fast, gripping novel.
No tenant can stay in River Hall, and a young law clerk is sent to find out why. Charlotte Riddell's novel is a classic Victorian haunted house story with a sharp eye for money and class.
The dead return to a small French town and drive the living out of its walls. Margaret Oliphant's ghost novel is told by several witnesses and is unlike any other in the genre.
A long Victorian novel of murder, secrets and a haunted house in a village near Dublin. It contains one of Le Fanu's most famous ghost episodes, the tale of the disembodied hand.
The son of the Flying Dutchman sets out to free his father's cursed ship. Frederick Marryat's novel retells the great sea legend, and includes the famous werewolf chapter.
Long before Halloween, the Victorians told ghost stories on Christmas Eve. Charles Dickens made the tradition famous with A Christmas Carol, and these books keep it alive.
Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his partner and three spirits on Christmas Eve. The ghost story that made the Victorian Christmas tradition famous.
Three ghost stories Dickens wrote for his Christmas issues: The Haunted House, The Trial for Murder and The Signal-Man. Short and chilling, made to be read aloud by the fire.
A poor messenger is shown visions of the future by the spirits of the church bells on New Year's Eve. Dickens's second Christmas book, written in the shadow of A Christmas Carol.
The Christmas issue of 1859, in which a group of friends spend a season in a haunted house and each tells the story of their room. With contributions by Wilkie Collins and Elizabeth Gaskell.
Written for Dickens's Christmas issue of 1852, the story of a child lured out into the snow by a phantom girl. A short, sad and genuinely eerie winter ghost story.
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