Collected Ghost Stories

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Jens Raab It is a GR policy to group various editions of a work together, even if there are minor variations.

The vast majority of editions of this collection of…more
It is a GR policy to group various editions of a work together, even if there are minor variations.

The vast majority of editions of this collection of James' ghost stories seem to be reprints of the 1931 collection which effectively can be seen as an omnibus of four previous story collections published between 1904 and 1925 with the addition of four uncollected stories.
After the Collected Ghost Stories came out, three more stories were released in James' lifetime; these are obviously missing in the 1931 collection (see Alicia's answer).

A relatively recent edition, edited by Darryl Jones and published by Oxford University Press, adds these three stories (as well as informative story notes). This edition usually comes with a blueish cover showing an angel statue.

[I should maybe also point to an electronic version that is available at Project Gutenberg Australia. It is called "Collected Ghost Stories (A Project Gutenberg Australia compilation)" and contains all of the 30 stories found in Collected Ghost Stories as well as the three that seem to only be included in the Oxford University Press edition by Jones. Since PG only offers texts that are in the Public Domain, this version does not have any of the story notes by Jones, of course.
Texts offered by PGA are in the Public Domain in Australia. They might not yet be in the PD in other jurisdictions, even though AFAIK the website is accessible from anywhere.]

Many decades after James' death a couple more stories were published, albeit most of them are unfinished. Theses have been collected in a book called "The Fenstanton Witch and Others".

Finally, there is "A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings" which contains all of the aforementioned stories (the ones published in James' lifetime as well as the posthumous ones in "Fenstanton"), tons of annotations, James' children's book "The Five Jars" as well as a lot of other stuff.
Have a look at some of the GR reviews of this one if you are interested in a complete collection. This seems to be a very good deal.(less)

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