Ghosts: A Haunting Treasury of 40 Chilling Tales

by Marvin Kaye

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0883658364
• ISBN13: 9780883658369
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: BBS Publishing Corporation
• Length: 510 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Marvin Kaye: It just ghost to show you

He starts out this book with a series of true-life tombstone carvings, some of which will be familiar to anyone who has seen the collection at the Ripley Believe-It-Or-Not Museum on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf ("Hurrah! My boys, at the Parson's fall/For if he'd lived he'd a buried us all").But with his collection of 40 tales of otherworldly refugees, and accompanying remarks, Marvin Kaye not only entertains his readers but makes us philosophize about the nature of ghosts.In any collection of similarly-themed stories that is this large, there's bound to be some very good stories, as well as some clunking chains. But Kaye makes the concept of ghosts more believable by delivering stories and analytical commentary that makes them seem to be potentially a normal part of any setting, like paint on the wall or noise in the background."Doorslammer" isn't exactly a chilling Halloween story, but by placing a door-slamming ghost in a setting as mundane as an office building, author Donald Wollheim "normalizes" the spirit dimension. So does the dry humor of Isaac Asimov and Frederick Pohl in "Legal Rites", a tale about a ghost bringing a lawsuit to enforce his right to haunt a house (but a refresher course on the common law and on the "full faith and credit" clause of the Constitution would have been in order for them).This collection also includes the original hilarious Oscar Wilde classic "The Canterville Ghost" (horribly butchered by Columbia Pictures in 1986) about an old English phantom agitated by the arrival at his castle of a thoroughly modern American family too steeped in New World claptrap about commerce and democracy to display the traditionally proper amount of dread towards him. "We really have everything in common with America nowadays," Wilde remarks, at one point. "Except, of course, language".Of course, the collection also includes the obligatory chillers, such as the stark poem "A Suffolk Miracle", "Smee", "The Monk of Horror" and a Robert Louis Stevenson entry, "The Body Snatcher", as well as a bittersweet ghostly love story called "The Spectre Bride".But while the thrillers entertain, it's still the more prosaic tales that make you think. A ghost might be other than a disembodied spirit of someone that once lived in a human body. In "Thurlow's Christmas Tale", John Kendrick Bang's "ghost" is actually his living protagonist's evil Doppleganger. In "The Philosophy of Relative Existences", Frank Stockton suggests that ghosts might be images of the yet-unborn echoing from the FUTURE instead of the past.My personal favorite is Fritz Lieber's very entertaining "Four Ghosts in Hamlet" about a troupe of Shakespearean actors, in which it is suggested that a "ghost" might be nothing more than a flash of divine artistic inspiration. The more possibilities that are suggested by these tales, the more possible it seems that a ghost might actually represent a higher level of sensory perception, and the more "scientific" the inquiry into

My Favorite Collection of Ghost Stories

I have had this book for 20 years, and I still go back to it to re-read my favorite stories from it. The absolute best story in the book is "How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery" by E. F. Benson. My favorite story is "Four Ghosts in Hamlet" by Fritz Leiber. As the title says, this book is a mix of older, classic stories and modern ones. At the end of the book, Mr. Kaye tells the story of his personal experiences with a ghost. He also includes hints on ghost hunting. There is a section, arranged by state, of the "most-haunted houses". Totally enjoyable. This book has led me to several other good anthologies, as well. Happy Haunting!

Terrific anthology

This collection has a few clunkers, but not many. I thoroughly enjoyed all but a few of the stories, especially "Smee", "Last Rites", and "Miss Jeromette and the Clergyman." I recommend this to anyone who loves ghost stories!

A great collection

I've read all of Marvin Kaye's compilations, and this is my favorite. I thought I'd read every great ghost story that existed, until I came across "Smee", which still sends shivers up my spine. That tale is worth the price of the collection alone, but this book also contains "The Wind in the Rose-Bush", "The Doll's Ghost" and "Who Rides With Santa Anna?", other wonderful stories. This book will keep you awake on many rainy nights.

Varied ghosts abound in this excellent collection

Wonderful book is a must for anyone who collects ghost stories. A. M. Burrage's shuddery and evocative "Smee", Fritz Leiber's warm and wonderful "Four Ghosts in Hamlet", Barbara Gallow's modern and sweet "Jane", and Mary Wilkins-Freeman's suggestive and shadowy "The Wind in the Rose Bush" are just a few of the over 50 stories in this book. Many different varieties and styles of hauntings, and all lots of fun to read.