I got this UK-edition softcover at a local Barnes and Noble, for another release copy. It's from the British Library "Tales of the Weird" series, featuring ghost stories - mostly from the 1800s - with some interesting choices, including some tales that have seldom been anthologized. (I enjoyed the notes about each story and its author as well.) Among my favorites:

"The Blue Room" by Lettice Galbraith (one of the authors about whom surprisingly little is known), a classic ghost story in which the haunting is dealt with by an intrepid young woman.

"On the Northern Ice" by Elia Wilkinson Peattie features a man venturing to skate up a frozen river to support a friend at his wedding, and being led quite a chase by a mysterious woman skating ahead of him. When he reaches his destination - well, I won't spoil it, but there's a poignant twist to this little story.

Hugh Walpole's "Mr Huffam" has a rather whimsical concept: some time "long after the Great War" a party of folk celebrating Christmas find themselves with a new guest, the titular Mr. Huffam, whose affability and general air of charm seems to make almost everyone feel better about themselves. There are plenty of clues in the story as to who this really is - and it's revealed at the end for those who didn't guess!

"The Man Who Came Back" by Margery Lawrence deals with a seance at a holiday party - one in which the medium warns two of the guests very clearly to avoid the proceedings. They ignore her - at first - but one eventually does flee, and the other... finds out that there may be more to this spiritualism business than had been guessed. [Justice-from-beyond-the-grave theme here.]

H. Russel Wakefield's "The Third Shadow" is another one about ghostly vengeance, this one involving mountain climbers - one of whom went climbing with his much-detested spouse and came back alone, so you may guess who's doing the avenging. (The story does involve long-standing tales from mountaineers of having seen or sensed an additional person on their ropes at times...)

"The Apple Tree" by Daphne du Maurier (which I read in a standalone "Ghost Story for Christmas" edition): This is one of du Maurier's psychological-horror tales, which begins with a man who's living a peaceful, happy life following the death of his wife. At first we see the relationship through his eyes, and the wife seems to have been annoyingly passive-aggressive - but as the story proceeds we learn more about how their relationship began and the ways in which he withheld affection or even rudimentary interest, to the point of breaking the poor woman. The title refers to a drooping and unproductive apple tree that reminds him of his wife, and which he wants to have cut down - but the gardener points out new blossoms and urges him to wait and see if the tree bears fruit this season. And so it does, but the fruit - which others seem to find perfectly fine - tastes awful to the man, increasing his hate and fear of the tree and all it represents. Whether the conclusion is due to actual ghostly interference or simply the results of a guilty man's own actions can be left for the reader to decide.

"A Fall of Snow" by James Turner, in which the narrator has a very odd experience as a young man, involving a toboggan on a snowy day and a near-collision at a stone gate - and then, years later, sees something that may explain what he thought he saw back then. A haunting? A vision? Who knows...

The other stories have their points as well, with lots of snowy-winter/holiday-party atmosphere in among the dark and/or creepy elements.

I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

Released for:

** 2024 Decemberish challenge **