What is your favorite ghost story?

Started by Xenophanes, October 20, 2021, 05:57:19 PM

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Xenophanes

My favorite ghost story is Edith Wharton's "Afterward," from 1909.  There is a discussion of just what a ghost is, philosophically speaking.  The rest of the story is just working out some story details. An American couple wanted an old house without all the modern conveniences, but it should have a ghost.  Doesn't everyone want one?

The reasons she gave for its being obtainable on these terms—its remoteness from a station, its lack of electric light, hot-water pipes, and other vulgar necessities—were exactly those pleading in its favor with two romantic Americans perversely in search of the economic drawbacks which were associated, in their tradition, with unusual architectural felicities.

"I should never believe I was living in an old house unless I was thoroughly uncomfortable," Ned Boyne, the more extravagant of the two, had jocosely insisted; "the least hint of 'convenience' would make me think it had been bought out of an exhibition, with the pieces numbered, and set up again." And they had proceeded to enumerate, with humorous precision, their various suspicions and exactions, refusing to believe that the house their cousin recommended was really Tudor till they learned it had no heating system, or that the village church was literally in the grounds till she assured them of the deplorable uncertainty of the water-supply.

"It's too uncomfortable to be true!" Edward Boyne had continued to exult as the avowal of each disadvantage was successively wrung from her; but he had cut short his rhapsody to ask, with a sudden relapse to distrust: "And the ghost? You've been concealing from us the fact that there is no ghost!"

Mary, at the moment, had laughed with him, yet almost with her laugh, being possessed of several sets of independent perceptions, had noted a sudden flatness of tone in Alida's answering hilarity.

"Oh, Dorsetshire's full of ghosts, you know."

"Yes, yes; but that won't do. I don't want to have to drive ten miles to see somebody else's ghost. I want one of my own on the premises. Is there a ghost at Lyng?"

His rejoinder had made Alida laugh again, and it was then that she had flung back tantalizingly: "Oh, there is one, of course, but you'll never know it."

"Never know it?" Boyne pulled her up. "But what in the world constitutes a ghost except the fact of its being known for one?"

"I can't say. But that's the story."

"That there's a ghost, but that nobody knows it's a ghost?"

"Well—not till afterward, at any rate."

"Till afterward?"

"Not till long, long afterward."

"But if it's once been identified as an unearthly visitant, why hasn't its signalement been handed down in the family? How has it managed to preserve its incognito?"

Alida could only shake her head. "Don't ask me. But it has."

"And then suddenly—" Mary spoke up as if from some cavernous depth of divination—"suddenly, long afterward, one says to one's self, 'that was it?'"


https://www.gutenberg.org/files/306/306-h/306-h.htm?fbclid=IwAR2wXWSzgF7X0m-dZPf4J55mciMO4O01fjunxtcNRi905kZxJhYZsVZX4HY#link2H_4_0001

Good old Project Gutenberg!

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Xenophanes on October 20, 2021, 05:57:19 PM
My favorite ghost story is Edith Wharton's "Afterward," from 1909.  There is a discussion of just what a ghost is, philosophically speaking.  The rest of the story is just working out some story details. An American couple wanted an old house without all the modern conveniences, but it should have a ghost.  Doesn't everyone want one?

The reasons she gave for its being obtainable on these terms—its remoteness from a station, its lack of electric light, hot-water pipes, and other vulgar necessities—were exactly those pleading in its favor with two romantic Americans perversely in search of the economic drawbacks which were associated, in their tradition, with unusual architectural felicities.

"I should never believe I was living in an old house unless I was thoroughly uncomfortable," Ned Boyne, the more extravagant of the two, had jocosely insisted; "the least hint of 'convenience' would make me think it had been bought out of an exhibition, with the pieces numbered, and set up again." And they had proceeded to enumerate, with humorous precision, their various suspicions and exactions, refusing to believe that the house their cousin recommended was really Tudor till they learned it had no heating system, or that the village church was literally in the grounds till she assured them of the deplorable uncertainty of the water-supply.

"It's too uncomfortable to be true!" Edward Boyne had continued to exult as the avowal of each disadvantage was successively wrung from her; but he had cut short his rhapsody to ask, with a sudden relapse to distrust: "And the ghost? You've been concealing from us the fact that there is no ghost!"

Mary, at the moment, had laughed with him, yet almost with her laugh, being possessed of several sets of independent perceptions, had noted a sudden flatness of tone in Alida's answering hilarity.

"Oh, Dorsetshire's full of ghosts, you know."

"Yes, yes; but that won't do. I don't want to have to drive ten miles to see somebody else's ghost. I want one of my own on the premises. Is there a ghost at Lyng?"

His rejoinder had made Alida laugh again, and it was then that she had flung back tantalizingly: "Oh, there is one, of course, but you'll never know it."

"Never know it?" Boyne pulled her up. "But what in the world constitutes a ghost except the fact of its being known for one?"

"I can't say. But that's the story."

"That there's a ghost, but that nobody knows it's a ghost?"

"Well—not till afterward, at any rate."

"Till afterward?"

"Not till long, long afterward."

"But if it's once been identified as an unearthly visitant, why hasn't its signalement been handed down in the family? How has it managed to preserve its incognito?"

Alida could only shake her head. "Don't ask me. But it has."

"And then suddenly—" Mary spoke up as if from some cavernous depth of divination—"suddenly, long afterward, one says to one's self, 'that was it?'"


https://www.gutenberg.org/files/306/306-h/306-h.htm?fbclid=IwAR2wXWSzgF7X0m-dZPf4J55mciMO4O01fjunxtcNRi905kZxJhYZsVZX4HY#link2H_4_0001

Good old Project Gutenberg!
That was a fun read--thanks! :)  There's one problem that I have with the timeline though...Note: spoiler alert!  Read no further at the risk of spoiling your enjoyment of the story!

I'll try to find a way not to mention the characters' names so as to not mess things up for those who still want to read the story:  It's this----




The husband (whilst writing to his friend back in the States) said that he had just learned of the news of so-and-so's passing from his friend's letter.  And then he received the unknown visitor.  Supposedly, the person died the day before (this person being in the US).  There's no way that he could have received the letter with the news in one day....from US to England.  Or did I misunderstand something?

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Jo498

E. F. Benson: The room in the tower
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Room_in_the_Tower

It's not really my favorite nowadays and overall quite conventional but it's one that really scared me as a kid. I was only 10 or 11 I think, maybe even younger. As my grandfathers birthday was Xmas day we always went to their place on this day in the afternoon. My uncle and aunt also lived there but in another house on the same premises across a courtyard. So between the meals we kids often went to my older cousins room in that other house. She had an anthology with scary stories that seemed not inappropriate for children and the first few stories were more funny than scary. For some reason, I ended up alone in her room and kept on reading while the other kids rejoined the main party in some living room in another house or at least on another floor.  The stories got scarier and the most frightening one was the one mentioned above. I suddenly realized that I was alone at least on the floor and there were dark corridors and staircases to brave to get back to adults and safety... I managed but I was really scared and until today I think the editor of that anthology should have been punished for cruelty towards children.
There is nothing wrong with scary stories but one cannot mix funny, silly or ironic stories with horrifying ones but have title and design suggest that it's all funny ones. If I am not mistaken two others in that volume were MR James: "A school story" and Lovecraft: "The outsider" (Fortunately, I didn't really get the last one at first).
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Pohjolas Daughter

I used to love reading ghost stories when I was a kid!  I don't recall the titles of any from my childhood other than "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".  Read collections of stories "Alfred Hitchcock....." and ate up stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

One story that I did read a few years ago and remember enjoying was in a collection of short stories by George R.R. Martin.  The book is a combo of horror and sci-fi and is in a book of his called "Dreamsongs, Vol. I".  It's called "Remembering Melody".

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Mandryka

THE BAGMAN'S STORY

and he used to tell it, something in this way.


'One winter's evening, about five o'clock, just as it began to
grow dusk, a man in a gig might have been seen urging his tired
horse along the road which leads across Marlborough Downs


Full text here

http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Pickwick-Papers5.html
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

DaveF

"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

Xenophanes

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on October 21, 2021, 07:44:38 AM
That was a fun read--thanks! :)  There's one problem that I have with the timeline though...Note: spoiler alert!  Read no further at the risk of spoiling your enjoyment of the story!

I'll try to find a way not to mention the characters' names so as to not mess things up for those who still want to read the story:  It's this----




The husband (whilst writing to his friend back in the States) said that he had just learned of the news of so-and-so's passing from his friend's letter.  And then he received the unknown visitor.  Supposedly, the person died the day before (this person being in the US).  There's no way that he could have received the letter with the news in one day....from US to England.  Or did I misunderstand something?

PD

I see what you mean.  Good catch. 

The stranger appeared Oct. 20, the day he tried to kill himself. 

The second appearance of the stranger is 2 months later.  In the meantime, we learn there was a lawsuit but according to the lawyer, it was withdrawn.  The man has also just received a letter from the lawyer saying the stranger has died,  and the man has started to write a letter to his lawyer.  However, the stranger appears before he can finish it.

As I see it, you are making a plausible assumption, that the stranger would appear on the day he died, just as he had appeared on the day he tried to kill himself.  So, it would seem that the lawyer's letter could not possibly have reached him before the ghost got there.

I can see some ways around this.

Objection 1:  This ghost doesn't follow the rules, anyway, so maybe he did not come immediately, but only after some days. Maybe he waited until after the funeral.

Objection 2:  Maybe the lawyer had actually sent him a telegram, which could have arrived pretty quickly.  We don't actually know the time frame of the story, but it was published in 1910, so it is probably set around the turn of the century.  We know there were electric lights (which Lyngs did not have!) and telegrams had been around for some decades.  A difficulty is that it is not stated that it was a telegram, just a letter.

As I said, my primary interest was the discussion of just what ia ghost is.  Then, there is the issue of just what rules the ghost follows, if any.  They ask why the ghost has not been identified and why there is no real tradition for it.  For one thing, it does not seem to be an individual but a power used by other ghosts.

T. D.

#7
Might stretch the definition a bit (the possible ghost is created during the course of the story and never actually appears), but The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs.

https://americanliterature.com/author/w-w-jacobs/short-story/the-monkeys-paw

SimonNZ


Xenophanes

Quote from: T. D. on October 21, 2021, 08:44:55 PM
Might stretch the definition a bit (the possible ghost is created during the course of the story and never actually appears), but The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs.

https://americanliterature.com/author/w-w-jacobs/short-story/the-monkeys-paw

It's a good story to tell around the camp fire, as we did in the Boy Scouts.  Only later did I actually read it.

Artem

True ghost story, sort of.

Charlotte was a student in the Grim-Smith Hospital nursing program. She died over the winter break of the 1930-1931 school year. She was supposedly diabetic and stayed at Grim Hall over winter break. Unable to get insulin because of the storm she went into diabetic shock and died.

Her ghost is supposed to be in the Grim Hall of Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.

As a student I stayed at the Grim Hall during one winter break many years ago. There was not a single person on campus, no single person at Grim Hall. Everyone went home for the winter break. The first night I went to bed in Grim Hall, I couldn't sleep. I felt like somebody was pressing on my chest, making it difficult to breath. The second night was the same. I couldn't fall asleep and felt short of breath. So until the end of the break I slept in the main lounge of the hall on the couch.

My room was on the fourth floor. Do you know which floor Charlotte died?  ???

geralmar

The Upper Berth, F. Marion Crawford.

If only because for "story time" at the front of the class in fifth grade I eagerly told it to my classmates.   I could tell the teacher did not approve.  She wasn't keen on slimey corpses, I gather.

Xenophanes