What do you think?
Rate this book
Famous Ghost Stories
Feel like having a good scare?
Hitch a ride on "The Phantom Coach" - the guy beside you may not be a very lively companion, but then...he's been dead for nine years! Or, spend a night alone in "The Tapestried Room" - we guarantee you won't be alone for long...
But don't stop there-be sure to meet ALL the ghosts, phantoms, and assorted "things" lurking within this collection of Famous Ghost Stories.
Hitch a ride on "The Phantom Coach" - the guy beside you may not be a very lively companion, but then...he's been dead for nine years! Or, spend a night alone in "The Tapestried Room" - we guarantee you won't be alone for long...
But don't stop there-be sure to meet ALL the ghosts, phantoms, and assorted "things" lurking within this collection of Famous Ghost Stories.
- GenresShort Stories
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
About the author
Amelia B. Edwards
317 books69 followersAmelia Ann Blandford Edwards (1831-1892) was an English novelist, journalist, lady traveller and Egyptologist, born to an Irish mother and a father who had been a British Army officer before becoming a banker. Edwards was educated at home by her mother, showing considerable promise as a writer at a young age. She published her first poem at the age of 7, her first story at age 12. Edwards thereafter proceeded to publish a variety of poetry, stories and articles in a large number of magazines.
Edwards' first full-length novel was My Brother's Wife (1855). Her early novels were well received, but it was Barbara's History (1864), a novel of bigamy, that solidly established her reputation as a novelist. She spent considerable time and effort on their settings and backgrounds, estimating that it took her about two years to complete the researching and writing of each. This painstaking work paid off, her last novel, Lord Brackenbury (1880), emerged as a run-away success which went to 15 editions.
In the winter of 1873–1874, accompanied by several friends, Edwards toured Egypt, discovering a fascination with the land and its cultures, both ancient and modern. Journeying southwards from Cairo in a hired dahabiyeh (manned houseboat), the companions visited Philae and ultimately reached Abu Simbel where they remained for six weeks. During this last period, a member of Edwards' party, the English painter Andrew McCallum, discovered a previously-unknown sanctuary which bore her name for some time afterwards. Having once returned to the UK, Edwards proceeded to write a vivid description of her Nile voyage, publishing the resulting book in 1876 under the title of A Thousand Miles up the Nile. Enhanced with her own hand-drawn illustrations, the travelogue became an immediate bestseller.
Edwards' travels in Egypt had made her aware of the increasing threat directed towards the ancient monuments by tourism and modern development. Determined to stem these threats by the force of public awareness and scientific endeavour, Edwards became a tireless public advocate for the research and preservation of the ancient monuments and, in 1882, co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society) with Reginald Stuart Poole, curator of the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Edwards was to serve as joint Honorary Secretary of the Fund until her death some 14 years later.
With the aims of advancing the Fund's work, Edwards largely abandoned her other literary work to concentrate solely on Egyptology. In this field she contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, to the American supplement of that work, and to the Standard Dictionary. As part of her efforts Edwards embarked on an ambitious lecture tour of the United States in the period 1889–1890. The content of these lectures was later published under the title Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorer (1891).
Amelia Edwards died at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on the 15 April 1892, bequeathing her collection of Egyptian antiquities and her library to University College London, together with a sum of £2,500 to found an Edwards Chair of Egyptology. She was buried in St Mary's Church Henbury, Bristol,
Wikipedia: Amelia B. Edwards
Edwards' first full-length novel was My Brother's Wife (1855). Her early novels were well received, but it was Barbara's History (1864), a novel of bigamy, that solidly established her reputation as a novelist. She spent considerable time and effort on their settings and backgrounds, estimating that it took her about two years to complete the researching and writing of each. This painstaking work paid off, her last novel, Lord Brackenbury (1880), emerged as a run-away success which went to 15 editions.
In the winter of 1873–1874, accompanied by several friends, Edwards toured Egypt, discovering a fascination with the land and its cultures, both ancient and modern. Journeying southwards from Cairo in a hired dahabiyeh (manned houseboat), the companions visited Philae and ultimately reached Abu Simbel where they remained for six weeks. During this last period, a member of Edwards' party, the English painter Andrew McCallum, discovered a previously-unknown sanctuary which bore her name for some time afterwards. Having once returned to the UK, Edwards proceeded to write a vivid description of her Nile voyage, publishing the resulting book in 1876 under the title of A Thousand Miles up the Nile. Enhanced with her own hand-drawn illustrations, the travelogue became an immediate bestseller.
Edwards' travels in Egypt had made her aware of the increasing threat directed towards the ancient monuments by tourism and modern development. Determined to stem these threats by the force of public awareness and scientific endeavour, Edwards became a tireless public advocate for the research and preservation of the ancient monuments and, in 1882, co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society) with Reginald Stuart Poole, curator of the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Edwards was to serve as joint Honorary Secretary of the Fund until her death some 14 years later.
With the aims of advancing the Fund's work, Edwards largely abandoned her other literary work to concentrate solely on Egyptology. In this field she contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, to the American supplement of that work, and to the Standard Dictionary. As part of her efforts Edwards embarked on an ambitious lecture tour of the United States in the period 1889–1890. The content of these lectures was later published under the title Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorer (1891).
Amelia Edwards died at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on the 15 April 1892, bequeathing her collection of Egyptian antiquities and her library to University College London, together with a sum of £2,500 to found an Edwards Chair of Egyptology. She was buried in St Mary's Church Henbury, Bristol,
Wikipedia: Amelia B. Edwards
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 25, 2021
We just weeded this book from the children's section of my public library. It should never have been there in the first place! The book is so short and so few pages, and the picture on the front makes it look like a kids book. But three of the authors are literary heavyweights, Sir Walter Scott, Daniel Defoe, and Edith Wharton.
The Daniel Defoe story is just a sketch, and it's told in such a dry way that you can hardly get very excited or very frightened. The Sir Walter Scott story was really disappointing -- you could see the author of Ivanhoe was really just phoning it in. The hero was a great guy, a British officer who talks about serving in the Virginia swamp country during the American Revolution. (I wish THAT had been the story.) But when he sees the ghost, not a lot happens. And then the owner of the castle is ridiculously vague, like, "oh yes, that lady was an ancestor of mine. She did some bad things and then something happened to her." Chilling!
But the last story is by Edith Wharton and it's really better than all the other stories put together. It's called "Afterward" and it's about a wealthy American couple who buy an old mansion in England and try to fix it up. The problem is the house doesn't really have a famous ghost of its own. It just sort of allows the couple to see a very different sort of ghost from their own past. Even though the story is very short Edith Wharton is able to say a whole lot about her favorite themes, class, culture, American selfishness, the fatal allure of European refinement, and much more. The one thing that really impressed me the most is that Mary and Ned genuinely seem to like each other and they have great chemistry as a couple. Certain would-be followers of Edith Wharton (looking at you, Mary Gordon) seem to imagine that she was a "real, fine lady" only because she was horrified by sex and disgusted by the idea of marriage. But that's definitely not true in this case. Mary and Ned actually cuddle!
Like Ted Williams says, print it on page one.
The Daniel Defoe story is just a sketch, and it's told in such a dry way that you can hardly get very excited or very frightened. The Sir Walter Scott story was really disappointing -- you could see the author of Ivanhoe was really just phoning it in. The hero was a great guy, a British officer who talks about serving in the Virginia swamp country during the American Revolution. (I wish THAT had been the story.) But when he sees the ghost, not a lot happens. And then the owner of the castle is ridiculously vague, like, "oh yes, that lady was an ancestor of mine. She did some bad things and then something happened to her." Chilling!
But the last story is by Edith Wharton and it's really better than all the other stories put together. It's called "Afterward" and it's about a wealthy American couple who buy an old mansion in England and try to fix it up. The problem is the house doesn't really have a famous ghost of its own. It just sort of allows the couple to see a very different sort of ghost from their own past. Even though the story is very short Edith Wharton is able to say a whole lot about her favorite themes, class, culture, American selfishness, the fatal allure of European refinement, and much more. The one thing that really impressed me the most is that Mary and Ned genuinely seem to like each other and they have great chemistry as a couple. Certain would-be followers of Edith Wharton (looking at you, Mary Gordon) seem to imagine that she was a "real, fine lady" only because she was horrified by sex and disgusted by the idea of marriage. But that's definitely not true in this case. Mary and Ned actually cuddle!
Like Ted Williams says, print it on page one.
August 31, 2010
This book says it is recommended for ages 4-8 but I would say it is more geared for a little bit older than that. I stumbled over the language a bit myself.
January 15, 2021
They're well written...i just don't like ghost stories
August 22, 2021
The weakest story was Scott's. The rest were all pretty enjoyable.
May 20, 2019
A collection of five short ghost stories from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Overall these stories were enjoyable but were not necessarily scary. I wasn’t necessarily looking for a scary book but it is somewhat expected when I pick a book of ghost stories.
I noticed that I didn’t understand some of the words in these stories. It likely is due to the stories written in a different time with a different audience.
I was actually hoping for some larger lesson or moral from a lot of these stories but in the end the stories were just simple tales to entertain.
The book was a quick read and something nice to read during Halloween.
Overall these stories were enjoyable but were not necessarily scary. I wasn’t necessarily looking for a scary book but it is somewhat expected when I pick a book of ghost stories.
I noticed that I didn’t understand some of the words in these stories. It likely is due to the stories written in a different time with a different audience.
I was actually hoping for some larger lesson or moral from a lot of these stories but in the end the stories were just simple tales to entertain.
The book was a quick read and something nice to read during Halloween.
November 29, 2013
Reminded me of the kind of books I read when I was a teenager.
Still a lot of fun, even though I'm way past those teen years.
Still a lot of fun, even though I'm way past those teen years.
January 3, 2014
Another of those juvenile horror story books that was passed down to me from my older brother and is partially responsible for my messed up fascination with the macabre.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews