50 Great Ghost Stories

by John Canning

Book Overview

A collection of ghost and horror stories. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517136708
• ISBN13: 9780517136706
• Release Date: November 1988
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 5.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A gripping and entertaining, if haunting and eery set of narratives

50 Great Ghost Stories by John Canning, explores a number of legends and accounts involving ghosts and other supernatural and paranormal phenomena. Much of what is written seems indeed to be taken from eyewitness accounts, and carefully recorded historical documentation, and does indeed put forward the case that ghosts do exist. The stories are mainly set in Britain, but also involve accounts of ghosts in Egypt, India, China, Germany, France, Iceland, the United States, Canada and Australia. These stories are rich in history, and we can learn a lot from them, as well as being entertained. We read about the hauntings and mysterious deaths of those involved in unearthing Tutenkhamen's tomb, and other Ancient Egyptian burial sites; the accounts of the ghosts of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, executed on the orders of the brutal Henry VIII;The White Lady of Berlin; the tragic tales of the ghosts of children who met tragic and untimely ends, which excite pity as well as frightening people; the very different nature of ghosts in China, which are often indistinguishable from the living, and are frequently beautiful maidens who return from the other world, not to frighten man, but to play with him, tease him, make love to him, or help him in his tasks; and ghosts in India, spirits of those cruelly murdered during the 1957 Sepoy Rebellion, as well as the malignant demons known as the ayah. These tales are both intricate and entertaining, and while all are eery and haunting, the circumstances, times and places vary as to the natures of the ghosts, who can be beautiful or hideous, playful, melancholy, spiteful, vicious and frigthening or simply fulfilling a quest unfulfilled in life. Many are the ghosts of young people, whose lives have been cruelly cut short. Often these ghosts in these stories resent the living and set out to terrify them, sometimes even ending the lives of their victims. Many of the stories in this volume involve such ghosts, and often their victims die, or flee the haunted abodes. In short they will excite a large variation of feelings and emotions in the reader. In reading these stories , we also learn much of the customs and life of the people during the times examined. For example the cruel punishment for nuns who fell in love or lost their chastity, of being left to die of hunger and thirst, in an enclosed walled up space. Many of these accounts are taken from the archives of The Society of Psychical Research. Other records were destroyed during the 1940 German Blitz of Britain. What follows is a gripping and entertaining, if haunting and eery set of narratives.

I wish the negative reviewer had stated the edition

I have the Bell edition of 1971. There is no grouping of stories by type nor extensive editorial comments (although there is an editor's note at the beginning of the volume). The author for each story is plainly listed in the table of contents. There are notes on them (Vida Derry, Michael and Molly Hardwick, Robin Miller, Tony Parker, Ronald Seth, Frank Usher, and James Wentworth Day)on the back flap of the dust jacket. There's even an index. I first read this book when I was in school. It's still a nice collection of old stories retold. Most of the stories are about British ghosts, such as No. 50 Berkeley Sqaure, Borley Rectory, Ballechin, Hinton Ampner, Itchells Manor, Raynham, etc. There are helpful ghosts, evil ghosts, ghosts getting revenge, military ghosts, royal ghosts, etc.

My first book ever.

This was the first book that I ever remember reading just for the sake of reading. I think I was in the 3rd grade. Maybe 10 years old? I don't remember. I read it, and I read it, and I read it again. I must have read it 10 times. It was a paperback and I ended up tearing it into several pieces just from flipping through the pages so many times.I remember buying it, it was at some sort of book fair at my elementary school. I think it was the same day as parent-teacher conferences, although I don't remember well. I remember picking out that book (and another book about the "black sheep squadron" which was my favorite TV show). As I recall my Mom wasn't crazy about me getting it.I'm older now (well, I'm OLD now), but I'd give a lot to curl up with that book again.

Reader from Australia: 50 Great Ghost Stories

I read this book many years ago as a teenager and found it fascinating. It focusses not on the fictional, but the recorded and historically accepted hauntings. Unlike much of its genre, it is not a series of 'Boy's Own Rollicking Good Yarns', nor is it a 'Believe it or Not'-style compedium of the trite and incredulous. It is well written, well researched and, unlike the typical anthology of this style is not parochial. It follows ghostly legends and hauntings globally and presents them in a manner which is enthralling for young people interested in the topic and still makes for a fascinating read for adults as well - hence its 5-star (in my view) status.