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The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
This haunting anthology is an enthralling collection of chilling tales infused with Edith Wharton's masterful exploration of human psychology and the hidden recesses of the human heart.
As a keen observer of human nature, Wharton weaves her ghostly tales with remarkable subtlety and psychological depth. Her ghosts are not mere apparitions but poignant manifestations of guilt, regret, and unrequited desires. Through her elegant prose and sharp wit, Wharton delves into the darkest corners of the human psyche, exploring themes of forbidden passions, societal constraints, and the persistent power of the past. Each setting serves as the backdrop for chilling encounters with the spectral realm.
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton is a testament to Wharton's versatility as a writer. The first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, she imbues her tales with atmospheric tension, challenging the reader to question what lies beyond our mortal existence.
As a keen observer of human nature, Wharton weaves her ghostly tales with remarkable subtlety and psychological depth. Her ghosts are not mere apparitions but poignant manifestations of guilt, regret, and unrequited desires. Through her elegant prose and sharp wit, Wharton delves into the darkest corners of the human psyche, exploring themes of forbidden passions, societal constraints, and the persistent power of the past. Each setting serves as the backdrop for chilling encounters with the spectral realm.
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton is a testament to Wharton's versatility as a writer. The first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, she imbues her tales with atmospheric tension, challenging the reader to question what lies beyond our mortal existence.
207 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1934
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About the author
Edith Wharton
1,487 books5,323 followersEdith Wharton emerged as one of America’s most insightful novelists, deftly exposing the tensions between societal expectation and personal desire through her vivid portrayals of upper-class life. Drawing from her deep familiarity with New York’s privileged “aristocracy,” she offered readers a keenly observed and piercingly honest vision of Gilded Age society.
Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.
Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character study of Lily Bart, navigating social expectations and the perils of genteel poverty in 1890s New York. In Ethan Frome, she explores rural hardship and emotional repression, contrasting sharply with her urban social dramas.
Her novella collection Old New York revisits the moral terrain of upper-class society, spanning decades and combining character studies with social commentary. Through these stories, she inevitably points back to themes and settings familiar from The Age of Innocence. Continuing her exploration of class and desire, The Glimpses of the Moon addresses marriage and social mobility in early 20th-century America. And in Summer, Wharton challenges societal norms with its rural setting and themes of sexual awakening and social inequality.
Beyond fiction, Wharton contributed compelling nonfiction and travel writing. The Decoration of Houses reflects her eye for design and architecture; Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort presents a compelling account of her wartime observations. As editor of The Book of the Homeless, she curated a moving, international collaboration in support of war refugees.
Wharton’s influence extended beyond writing. She designed her own country estate, The Mount, a testament to her architectural sensibility and aesthetic vision. The Mount now stands as an educational museum celebrating her legacy.
Throughout her career, Wharton maintained friendships and artistic exchanges with luminaries such as Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Theodore Roosevelt—reflecting her status as a respected and connected cultural figure.
Her literary legacy also includes multiple Nobel Prize nominations, underscoring her international recognition. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.
In sum, Edith Wharton remains celebrated for her unflinching, elegant prose, her psychological acuity, and her capacity to illuminate the unspoken constraints of society—from the glittering ballrooms of New York to quieter, more remote settings. Her wide-ranging work—novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, travel writing, essays—offers cultural insight, enduring emotional depth, and a piercing critique of the customs she both inhabited and dissected.
Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.
Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character study of Lily Bart, navigating social expectations and the perils of genteel poverty in 1890s New York. In Ethan Frome, she explores rural hardship and emotional repression, contrasting sharply with her urban social dramas.
Her novella collection Old New York revisits the moral terrain of upper-class society, spanning decades and combining character studies with social commentary. Through these stories, she inevitably points back to themes and settings familiar from The Age of Innocence. Continuing her exploration of class and desire, The Glimpses of the Moon addresses marriage and social mobility in early 20th-century America. And in Summer, Wharton challenges societal norms with its rural setting and themes of sexual awakening and social inequality.
Beyond fiction, Wharton contributed compelling nonfiction and travel writing. The Decoration of Houses reflects her eye for design and architecture; Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort presents a compelling account of her wartime observations. As editor of The Book of the Homeless, she curated a moving, international collaboration in support of war refugees.
Wharton’s influence extended beyond writing. She designed her own country estate, The Mount, a testament to her architectural sensibility and aesthetic vision. The Mount now stands as an educational museum celebrating her legacy.
Throughout her career, Wharton maintained friendships and artistic exchanges with luminaries such as Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Theodore Roosevelt—reflecting her status as a respected and connected cultural figure.
Her literary legacy also includes multiple Nobel Prize nominations, underscoring her international recognition. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.
In sum, Edith Wharton remains celebrated for her unflinching, elegant prose, her psychological acuity, and her capacity to illuminate the unspoken constraints of society—from the glittering ballrooms of New York to quieter, more remote settings. Her wide-ranging work—novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, travel writing, essays—offers cultural insight, enduring emotional depth, and a piercing critique of the customs she both inhabited and dissected.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 567 reviews
February 23, 2020
If you read about ghosts in order to be filled with dread, then Edith Wharton may not be your favorite supernatural author. On the other hand, if you are a fan of elegant realistic fiction but like a few chills from time to time, Wharton's ghost tales may belong at the top of your list.
Each of Wharton's stories is a subtle exercise rooted in everyday reality, and the ghostly presences--such as they are--emerge from the nourishing soil that constitutes her finely crafted realism. Many of her stories touch on the cruelty of domestic power relations, not only between husbands and wives, but also between mistresses and their servants. Specters haunt those who once had the power to change things for the better but did not do so, and visit the living not only as a reproach for past sins, but also as a silent exhortation for redress.
All the stories here are worth reading, but when Wharton's seriousness of purpose and subtlety of style combine with genuine ghostly thrills, the result is a handful of first-rate ghost stories ("The Eyes, "Afterward," "Bewitched," "Kerfol, "The Pomegranate Seed") that should be on everybody's reading list. "Afterward" is not only the finest tale in this volume: it is also a masterpiece of the form that not only rivals the achievement of Henry James but also deepens and enriches the Jamesian theme of how a richer knowledge of evil often derives from young America's encounter with old Europe. In "Afterward," Wharton shows us that the ghosts that haunt Americans in Europe may not be the ancestral specters inhabiting ancient houses, but rather the embodiments of crimes committed by American businessmen in their "wild cat" days back in the States, crimes that cry out for expiation.
November 2, 2024
“Have you ever questioned the long shuttered front of an old Italian house, that motionless mask, smooth, mute, equivocal as the face of a priest behind which buzz the secrets of the confessional? Other houses declare the activities they shelter; they are the clear expressive cuticle of a life flowing close to the surface; but the old palace in its narrow street, the villa on its cypress-hooded hill, are as impenetrable as death. The tall windows are like blind eyes, the great door is a shut mouth. Inside there may be sunshine, the scent of myrtles, and a pulse of life through all the arteries of the huge frame; or a moral solitude, where bats lodge in the disjointed stones and the keys rust in unused doors…”
- Edith Wharton, The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton.
There are so many different types of horror that it’s not possible to list them all. There are slashers stalking horny teenagers, aliens bursting from bodies, and endless hordes of zombies. There are also monsters, such as Dr. Frankenstein’s surprisingly talkative creation; vampires, sometimes sexy, sometimes not; a variety of werewolves, some in the woods, others in Paris, and one that plays high school basketball; and more than a few possessed individuals. With so many possibilities, there is a potential fright to fit every mood.
For me, my favorite is the old fashioned ghost. I like the idea of a once-living entity still haunting its old grounds, trying to resolve unfinished business left over from life. It really speaks to the shortness of the time we have, and the unsolvable mystery about what – if anything – lies beyond the final boundary.
With The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton, I got exactly what I wanted. These are ghostly tales of the classical variety, gore-free but brimming with undercurrents, written in the elegant prose of one of America’s greatest writers.
***
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton needs little introduction, as the title gives the game away. It is a collection of fifteen supernatural short stories collected by Wordsworth Editions, a publishing house dedicated to low-price books. I’m not really sure who picked these particular stories, or why, but like any collection, there is some variance in quality. Nothing here is bad – Edith Wharton was simply too talented – but some landed better than others.
Perhaps the chief selling point – other than those nice Wordsworth prices – is the spectacle of Wharton turning her Pulitzer Prize-winning skills to a genre that has historically had about it a hint of disrepute.
***
Having read this straight through, I’ll acknowledge that there is a bit of sameness to all of the short stories gathered here. Every time I started a new one, I would unconsciously start guessing which of the characters was actually a spectral presence. Tonally, too, these were subdued and subtle, carefully ambiguous in a way that required me to pay close attention. Oftentimes I’d get to the end and belatedly realize I’d missed something important.
With that said, Wharton manages variety in other way. Some of these stories are told in the first person, some in the third. Meanwhile, there are a couple nested narratives, and one purporting to be a reconstruction of old French court records. Many of the settings include old houses, but these houses are located all over: England, Italy, France, and the United States. There is also one yarn that takes place in the Wharton multiverse, mentioning the fictional town of Starkfield, where poor Ethan Frome is doomed to tend to his wife Zeena for literary eternity. If nothing else can be said of Wharton, she knew how to describe a place and create an atmosphere. Her writing lets you step right into a scene.
***
I’m not going to go through each of the fifteen stories. Doing so would tax me, bore you, and inevitably ruin the surprises. Instead, I’ll give a few general impressions and highlights.
Like I said up top, none of the horror in these pages is explicit. While The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton and The Shining exist on the same spectrum, they are on polar opposite ends. Beyond that, none seem intended to scare the pants off of you. This makes sense, because Wharton was writing in the early twentieth century, when people were meant to keep their pants on at all times.
At her best, though, Wharton can be chilling, even low-key ruthless.
The best story here is probably Afterward, about an American couple who purchase an English country house inhabited by – you guessed it – a ghost. The twist, however, is that you won’t know you’ve met this ghost until long afterward, and that realization comes with consequences.
Other winners include The Duchess at Prayer, which is a distant cousin of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado; Kerfol, about a medieval lord who really, really doesn’t like dogs; and The Journey, a dark-humored train ride that feels like an embryonic version of Weekend at Bernie’s.
On the other hand, The Fulness of Life, through which Wharton seemed to be channeling her own troubled marriage, falls on the preachy-treacly side of the divide. Nevertheless, it is still memorable for its opening scene of a dying woman’s final thoughts.
***
Unlike a lot of more-modern horror, Edith Wharton works at a very low volume. Her stories are quiet and still, concerned with creaking floorboards, flitting shadows, and housekeepers who are just a tad off. Films like Halloween, The Exorcist, and Poltergeist, and books like It and The Ruins, jump out at you from the closet shouting “boo!” The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton never lifts its voice. It is more like a soft, cold breath on the back of your neck, which you feel as you sit next to the guttering fire in your centuries-old gothic manor. Sure, it’s probably just a draft. But maybe – just maybe – it’s something else.
- Edith Wharton, The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton.
There are so many different types of horror that it’s not possible to list them all. There are slashers stalking horny teenagers, aliens bursting from bodies, and endless hordes of zombies. There are also monsters, such as Dr. Frankenstein’s surprisingly talkative creation; vampires, sometimes sexy, sometimes not; a variety of werewolves, some in the woods, others in Paris, and one that plays high school basketball; and more than a few possessed individuals. With so many possibilities, there is a potential fright to fit every mood.
For me, my favorite is the old fashioned ghost. I like the idea of a once-living entity still haunting its old grounds, trying to resolve unfinished business left over from life. It really speaks to the shortness of the time we have, and the unsolvable mystery about what – if anything – lies beyond the final boundary.
With The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton, I got exactly what I wanted. These are ghostly tales of the classical variety, gore-free but brimming with undercurrents, written in the elegant prose of one of America’s greatest writers.
***
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton needs little introduction, as the title gives the game away. It is a collection of fifteen supernatural short stories collected by Wordsworth Editions, a publishing house dedicated to low-price books. I’m not really sure who picked these particular stories, or why, but like any collection, there is some variance in quality. Nothing here is bad – Edith Wharton was simply too talented – but some landed better than others.
Perhaps the chief selling point – other than those nice Wordsworth prices – is the spectacle of Wharton turning her Pulitzer Prize-winning skills to a genre that has historically had about it a hint of disrepute.
***
Having read this straight through, I’ll acknowledge that there is a bit of sameness to all of the short stories gathered here. Every time I started a new one, I would unconsciously start guessing which of the characters was actually a spectral presence. Tonally, too, these were subdued and subtle, carefully ambiguous in a way that required me to pay close attention. Oftentimes I’d get to the end and belatedly realize I’d missed something important.
With that said, Wharton manages variety in other way. Some of these stories are told in the first person, some in the third. Meanwhile, there are a couple nested narratives, and one purporting to be a reconstruction of old French court records. Many of the settings include old houses, but these houses are located all over: England, Italy, France, and the United States. There is also one yarn that takes place in the Wharton multiverse, mentioning the fictional town of Starkfield, where poor Ethan Frome is doomed to tend to his wife Zeena for literary eternity. If nothing else can be said of Wharton, she knew how to describe a place and create an atmosphere. Her writing lets you step right into a scene.
***
I’m not going to go through each of the fifteen stories. Doing so would tax me, bore you, and inevitably ruin the surprises. Instead, I’ll give a few general impressions and highlights.
Like I said up top, none of the horror in these pages is explicit. While The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton and The Shining exist on the same spectrum, they are on polar opposite ends. Beyond that, none seem intended to scare the pants off of you. This makes sense, because Wharton was writing in the early twentieth century, when people were meant to keep their pants on at all times.
At her best, though, Wharton can be chilling, even low-key ruthless.
The best story here is probably Afterward, about an American couple who purchase an English country house inhabited by – you guessed it – a ghost. The twist, however, is that you won’t know you’ve met this ghost until long afterward, and that realization comes with consequences.
Other winners include The Duchess at Prayer, which is a distant cousin of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado; Kerfol, about a medieval lord who really, really doesn’t like dogs; and The Journey, a dark-humored train ride that feels like an embryonic version of Weekend at Bernie’s.
On the other hand, The Fulness of Life, through which Wharton seemed to be channeling her own troubled marriage, falls on the preachy-treacly side of the divide. Nevertheless, it is still memorable for its opening scene of a dying woman’s final thoughts.
***
Unlike a lot of more-modern horror, Edith Wharton works at a very low volume. Her stories are quiet and still, concerned with creaking floorboards, flitting shadows, and housekeepers who are just a tad off. Films like Halloween, The Exorcist, and Poltergeist, and books like It and The Ruins, jump out at you from the closet shouting “boo!” The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton never lifts its voice. It is more like a soft, cold breath on the back of your neck, which you feel as you sit next to the guttering fire in your centuries-old gothic manor. Sure, it’s probably just a draft. But maybe – just maybe – it’s something else.
August 12, 2020
Edith Wharton may be an unlikely ghost story writer, but she does it rather well. As you would expect they are well written and have subtlety and nuance and don’t have the gore and bludgeoning of some modern horror. There is a sprinkling of the gothic, a few rambling and creepy houses and a variety of settings: England, the eastern US states, France and the desert in an unspecified Middle Eastern country.
Some of the tales aren’t really ghost stories, but explore everyday moral dilemmas and human conflicts in an innovative way. Most of the stories take place in daylight (or even artificial light) amidst modern technology (modern for when they were written). Several of the stories do explore the relationship between servants and their employers and the tensions between the two. Locks and keys play a significant role.
All Souls is an interesting Halloween story that makes more sense when you know it was written at the end of Wharton’s life, the last story she wrote before her death. The sense of helplessness, collapsing competence and fear of the unknown are very telling. There are some interesting explorations of the nature of marriage (Pomegranate Seed in particular) and relations between the sexes, although Bewitched has an interesting take on the sexual motivations of men and their ability to control them.
Wharton herself said that she did not believe in ghosts, but she feared them; and what is needed here is imagination rather than belief. What makes Wharton’s stories interesting is the usual supernatural dread filtered through scepticism. These ghost stories often follow a familiar format but Wharton does manage to subvert the genre in unusual ways.
Some of the tales aren’t really ghost stories, but explore everyday moral dilemmas and human conflicts in an innovative way. Most of the stories take place in daylight (or even artificial light) amidst modern technology (modern for when they were written). Several of the stories do explore the relationship between servants and their employers and the tensions between the two. Locks and keys play a significant role.
All Souls is an interesting Halloween story that makes more sense when you know it was written at the end of Wharton’s life, the last story she wrote before her death. The sense of helplessness, collapsing competence and fear of the unknown are very telling. There are some interesting explorations of the nature of marriage (Pomegranate Seed in particular) and relations between the sexes, although Bewitched has an interesting take on the sexual motivations of men and their ability to control them.
Wharton herself said that she did not believe in ghosts, but she feared them; and what is needed here is imagination rather than belief. What makes Wharton’s stories interesting is the usual supernatural dread filtered through scepticism. These ghost stories often follow a familiar format but Wharton does manage to subvert the genre in unusual ways.
October 25, 2017
Edith Wharton, delicate yet cruel, casts a cold eye on the misdeeds and toxic egos of men, and an occasionally more empathetic one on women and their struggles, in this collection of beautifully written stories. Precise prose: each sentence has a crystalline clarity, a careful distillation of words and ideas. Gorgeously atmospheric imagery: Wharton knows her way around sprawling manors of course, but has equal talent at evoking lonely moorlands, quiet roads at dusk, even a nearly empty fortress in the Middle East. The sort of menacing ambiguity in which Robert Aickman would eventually specialize: there is no jarring, thudding obviousness in any of the horrors. A rather sour tang of misanthropy that makes the collection less than perfect - often coming out in some unnecessarily mean-spirited descriptions of various characters. And yet a clear genius in showing the depth and relatability of her characters: many times I saw myself in these disparate protagonists, be they men or women, young or old.
My favorite stories:
"All Souls'" was written the year of Wharton's death. An unnerving and surprisingly strange story about an inexplicable loss of time, of sorts. This portrait of an older woman recovering from an injury, waking up in a house where everyone else seems to have disappeared, was both prosaic and nightmarish.
"Kerfol" has a young man visiting a French manor, a tragic tale within a tale about a wife suffering appalling emotional abuse from her noble husband, the well-deserved, bloody end of said nobleman, and a winsome yet eerily silent band of diverse ghost dogs who haunt the manor grounds.
"Pomegranate Seed" has an unhealthy attachment between living husband and dead but still quite controlling wife. It also has the most resonant title in the collection - and the myth the title comes from isn't even mentioned in the story. Loved both the subtle irony of that title and how it enhances the mystery of the tale.
and especially "Mr. Jones", which includes many features of prior stories: an independent, not-so-young heiress and a sprawling, creepily underpopulated mansion, a menacingly passive-aggressive ghost, and another horrific tale within a tale of an emotionally abused wife... and yet for me this was the most striking of the stories. All of those elements coalesced into perfection, delivering a story ripe for contemplation. Plus an especially ghastly murder at the end, when the ghost - in a fit of temper - becomes rather less than passive.
⌛
I actually read the Appleton Century hardcover edition of this collection, published in 1937. I was unable to find this book on Goodreads, so had to go with the collected stories published in 1973, eye roll. Oh the petty things that frustrate me to no end! I think I would make a good ghost.
My favorite stories:
"All Souls'" was written the year of Wharton's death. An unnerving and surprisingly strange story about an inexplicable loss of time, of sorts. This portrait of an older woman recovering from an injury, waking up in a house where everyone else seems to have disappeared, was both prosaic and nightmarish.
"Kerfol" has a young man visiting a French manor, a tragic tale within a tale about a wife suffering appalling emotional abuse from her noble husband, the well-deserved, bloody end of said nobleman, and a winsome yet eerily silent band of diverse ghost dogs who haunt the manor grounds.
"Pomegranate Seed" has an unhealthy attachment between living husband and dead but still quite controlling wife. It also has the most resonant title in the collection - and the myth the title comes from isn't even mentioned in the story. Loved both the subtle irony of that title and how it enhances the mystery of the tale.
and especially "Mr. Jones", which includes many features of prior stories: an independent, not-so-young heiress and a sprawling, creepily underpopulated mansion, a menacingly passive-aggressive ghost, and another horrific tale within a tale of an emotionally abused wife... and yet for me this was the most striking of the stories. All of those elements coalesced into perfection, delivering a story ripe for contemplation. Plus an especially ghastly murder at the end, when the ghost - in a fit of temper - becomes rather less than passive.
⌛
I actually read the Appleton Century hardcover edition of this collection, published in 1937. I was unable to find this book on Goodreads, so had to go with the collected stories published in 1973, eye roll. Oh the petty things that frustrate me to no end! I think I would make a good ghost.
August 4, 2020
I seem to love all things Wharton, but I must say she outdoes herself with these strange and eerie tales of ghostly happenings. They are all quite well done, but there are a few that are beyond excellent. What makes most of them work is the lack of surety that they could not all be explained away with a little logical and clear thinking. Of course, here in the real world, that is how ghostly encounters always are, inexplicable phenomena or explained away--and those of us who have them are never truly sure what we have seen, and doubt our own senses.
The Lady’s Maid’s Bell gets one immediately into the gothic feel and atmosphere that carries over into all the other stories. Perhaps my least favorite, but still, very well done.
The Eyes This made me think of Poe’s Tell Tale Heart and the way the narrator there feels the old man staring at him, for this is a tale more about what is going on internally than externally.
Afterward Really loved this one, perhaps because the setting was so well pictured that I felt as if I were inside this story participating. There is a building sense of doom approaching that begins with a chance comment from a minor character and intensifies as soon as the main action of the story begins. This is a true ghost story, in that I never asked myself if the ghost was real.
Kerfol This is an very atypical ghost tale; the ghost is not human. Enough said, but another tale that is fraught with the gothic setting and mood.
The Triumph of Night What if you could see what no one else in the room saw and it spelled doom for someone else? What would you do? Wharton deals with that situation with a bit of mystery and a touch of terror.
Miss Mary Pask This one almost felt more lighthearted to me, as it was more about perceptions than realities.
Bewitched My hands down favorite of the bunch; five-plus stars. This story put me in mind of the Salem Witch Trials because, while it operates on two levels, it might well just be about ignorance and a willingness to ascribe to the occult what is done by man. Superstition can be a very dangerous thing.
Mr. Jones The most straightforward of the tales, but set in a masterfully spooky environment.
Pomegranate Seed More than one new wife has been haunted by her predecessor, but few quite like this.
The Looking Glass A bit about vanity and creating ghosts. Liked the ending and the ambiguity it provided.
All Souls’ This one felt like a classic horror film--don’t open the door!
The Lady’s Maid’s Bell gets one immediately into the gothic feel and atmosphere that carries over into all the other stories. Perhaps my least favorite, but still, very well done.
The Eyes This made me think of Poe’s Tell Tale Heart and the way the narrator there feels the old man staring at him, for this is a tale more about what is going on internally than externally.
Afterward Really loved this one, perhaps because the setting was so well pictured that I felt as if I were inside this story participating. There is a building sense of doom approaching that begins with a chance comment from a minor character and intensifies as soon as the main action of the story begins. This is a true ghost story, in that I never asked myself if the ghost was real.
Kerfol This is an very atypical ghost tale; the ghost is not human. Enough said, but another tale that is fraught with the gothic setting and mood.
The Triumph of Night What if you could see what no one else in the room saw and it spelled doom for someone else? What would you do? Wharton deals with that situation with a bit of mystery and a touch of terror.
Miss Mary Pask This one almost felt more lighthearted to me, as it was more about perceptions than realities.
Bewitched My hands down favorite of the bunch; five-plus stars. This story put me in mind of the Salem Witch Trials because, while it operates on two levels, it might well just be about ignorance and a willingness to ascribe to the occult what is done by man. Superstition can be a very dangerous thing.
Mr. Jones The most straightforward of the tales, but set in a masterfully spooky environment.
Pomegranate Seed More than one new wife has been haunted by her predecessor, but few quite like this.
The Looking Glass A bit about vanity and creating ghosts. Liked the ending and the ambiguity it provided.
All Souls’ This one felt like a classic horror film--don’t open the door!
December 5, 2019
I loved this collection of short stories. The writing is absolutely excellent - the perfect balance of intrigue, satire and subtlety, with a hint of humour. The tales are just macabre enough to hold your attention without being too obvious or sensational, and they're all the perfect length. My favourite thing about many of these stories was that they are very open-ended, open to all kinds of interpretation - the ghostly, the metaphorical, the satirical. 'The Eyes' was genuinely frightening, aside from being brilliantly original, and I thought 'Kerfol', with its (literally) haunting dogs, was fantastic. I took this out from the library but will probably buy it at some point as I know I will want to read these stories again.
October 6, 2019
Se trata de la recopilación, cómo su nombre indica, de tres relatos sobre fantasmas escritos por la autora: "Después", "Kerfol" y la "La campanilla de la doncella".
Me han parecido extraordinariamente escritos, y me han enganchado de principio a fin.
La escritora consigue crear una atmósfera totalmente inquietante, ubicando los tres cuentos en casas señoriales con antiguas historias familiares llenas de misterio. Consigue que te introduzcas en este ambiente, cómo si fueras el protagonista de la trama.
Me han parecido totalmente geniales, y me he quedado con ganas de leer más cuentos de misterio de Edith Wharton.
Me han parecido extraordinariamente escritos, y me han enganchado de principio a fin.
La escritora consigue crear una atmósfera totalmente inquietante, ubicando los tres cuentos en casas señoriales con antiguas historias familiares llenas de misterio. Consigue que te introduzcas en este ambiente, cómo si fueras el protagonista de la trama.
Me han parecido totalmente geniales, y me he quedado con ganas de leer más cuentos de misterio de Edith Wharton.
August 8, 2020
Most of Edith Wharton's ghost stories have a sense of ambiguity. Is the supernatural at work, or did people misinterpret real events? Wharton writes her works with a Gothic atmosphere--foggy nights, creepy old houses, strange servants, and unreliable narrators. The weight of a guilty conscience leads to supernatural events in some cases. Women are victims of controlling men in a few stories, but women manipulate the men in others. Wharton's writing is elegant, and she exhibits a deep understanding of people's emotions, strengths, and failings. This collection included 11 ghost stories. Great storytelling!
September 25, 2021
Cover of the 1976 Popular Library mass-market. You can tell it's post-Exorcist, as it definitely imitates the style, as did a lot of horror or occult-themed paperbacks of the day.
February 15, 2019
This is an interesting collection of 11 Ghost Stories which are short stories written by Edith Wharton spanning from 1909 through 1937. The following stories are listed & a brief review. All these stories are a different kind of ghost story which have outcomes with uncertainty & bewildering. Many stories have you wondering how it will end & your own imagination will have to suffice.
The Lady's Maid Bell- 1902 Hartley is in need of a job after recovering from a lingering illness. Due to this many not wanting her help but she finds employment as a Lady's maid where many maids don't last a fortnight.
Afterward - 1909 An American couple seek life in a castle in England occupied by ghosts unseen. Living there for many months without a ghost in sight, they are disappointed but should they have left well enough alone?
The Eyes- 1910 Ghost stories are being told by old Culwin's friends but it becomes clear that Culwin has seen some of his own!
The Triumph of Night- 1914 Faxon on his way to his new employer finds a friend in young Rainer who is quite sickly. Faxon starts seeing a dark sinister man not seen by others that makes him wonder about his friends safety.
Kerfol- 1916 What are Yves de Cornault's secrets regarding his wife & the little dogs who guard the castle?
Bewitched- 1925 Three men are summoned to help Saul Ruthedge & his wife right something that seems impossible.
Miss Mary Pask- 1925 Visiting a relative in England for a friend who is found dead but seems alive at night only & without a single visitor.
Mr. Jones- 1928 Lady Jane Lynke inherits the Bells estate but Mr. Jones is invasive caretaker which seems quite not what he seems.
Pomegranate Seed- 1928 Charlotte's husbands receives mysterious letters which her husband refuses to explain & leads to upset.
The Looking Glass- 1935 Mrs. Attlee helps out a wealthy friend to help lessen her pain.
All Souls- 1937 Sara Clauburn stays at Whitegate after her husband's death & has an experience which seems to be the spookiest of all the stories to me.
One excerpt from Wharton's preface-I found this interesting from her perspective on cinema/movies on the effect on the readers & books. Love this quote!
"But in a few years more perhaps there may be; for, deep within us as the ghost instinct lurks, I seem to see it being gradually atrophied by those two world-wide enemies of imagination, the wireless and the cinema. To a generation for whom everything which used to nourish the imagination because it had to be won by an effort, and slowly assimilated, is now served up cooked, seasoned and chopped into bits, the creative faculty (for reading should be a creative act as writing) is rapidly withering, together with the power of sustained attention; and the world which used to be so grand ala charte des lampes is diminishing in inverse ratio to the new means of spanning it; so that the more we add to its surface the smaller it becomes."
Excerpt from The Triumph of Night
"Oh, facts-what are facts? Just the way a thing happens to look at a given minute..."
The Lady's Maid Bell- 1902 Hartley is in need of a job after recovering from a lingering illness. Due to this many not wanting her help but she finds employment as a Lady's maid where many maids don't last a fortnight.
Afterward - 1909 An American couple seek life in a castle in England occupied by ghosts unseen. Living there for many months without a ghost in sight, they are disappointed but should they have left well enough alone?
The Eyes- 1910 Ghost stories are being told by old Culwin's friends but it becomes clear that Culwin has seen some of his own!
The Triumph of Night- 1914 Faxon on his way to his new employer finds a friend in young Rainer who is quite sickly. Faxon starts seeing a dark sinister man not seen by others that makes him wonder about his friends safety.
Kerfol- 1916 What are Yves de Cornault's secrets regarding his wife & the little dogs who guard the castle?
Bewitched- 1925 Three men are summoned to help Saul Ruthedge & his wife right something that seems impossible.
Miss Mary Pask- 1925 Visiting a relative in England for a friend who is found dead but seems alive at night only & without a single visitor.
Mr. Jones- 1928 Lady Jane Lynke inherits the Bells estate but Mr. Jones is invasive caretaker which seems quite not what he seems.
Pomegranate Seed- 1928 Charlotte's husbands receives mysterious letters which her husband refuses to explain & leads to upset.
The Looking Glass- 1935 Mrs. Attlee helps out a wealthy friend to help lessen her pain.
All Souls- 1937 Sara Clauburn stays at Whitegate after her husband's death & has an experience which seems to be the spookiest of all the stories to me.
One excerpt from Wharton's preface-I found this interesting from her perspective on cinema/movies on the effect on the readers & books. Love this quote!
"But in a few years more perhaps there may be; for, deep within us as the ghost instinct lurks, I seem to see it being gradually atrophied by those two world-wide enemies of imagination, the wireless and the cinema. To a generation for whom everything which used to nourish the imagination because it had to be won by an effort, and slowly assimilated, is now served up cooked, seasoned and chopped into bits, the creative faculty (for reading should be a creative act as writing) is rapidly withering, together with the power of sustained attention; and the world which used to be so grand ala charte des lampes is diminishing in inverse ratio to the new means of spanning it; so that the more we add to its surface the smaller it becomes."
Excerpt from The Triumph of Night
"Oh, facts-what are facts? Just the way a thing happens to look at a given minute..."
October 17, 2024
Their voices rose and fell, like the murmuring of two fountains answering each other across a garden full of flowers.
I have no regrets. I bought this for a group read and there wasn't any discussion, appropriate given how many people I have left hanging over the years when I decided midstream to not read in tandem. I like the idea of the supernatural especially as it is presented here, although I suspect the dead don't care about us.
Wharton parses the spectral terrain with aplomb. It is always subtle. The horror isn't Cosmic but an intersection of folk tradition and the emergence of the Modern. She is at her best in the drawing rooms of the Northeast. the gaslight, the whispers of stock markets, the winds. All these conspire to keep matters delightfully off balance. It is as if there's a herald in the Vermont winter for Gramscian monsters. The ancient rites are obsolete but who wants to be deposited at the next station with your newly deceased spouse?
Kerfol, Pomegranate Seed, and The Triumph of Night were my favorites.
I have no regrets. I bought this for a group read and there wasn't any discussion, appropriate given how many people I have left hanging over the years when I decided midstream to not read in tandem. I like the idea of the supernatural especially as it is presented here, although I suspect the dead don't care about us.
Wharton parses the spectral terrain with aplomb. It is always subtle. The horror isn't Cosmic but an intersection of folk tradition and the emergence of the Modern. She is at her best in the drawing rooms of the Northeast. the gaslight, the whispers of stock markets, the winds. All these conspire to keep matters delightfully off balance. It is as if there's a herald in the Vermont winter for Gramscian monsters. The ancient rites are obsolete but who wants to be deposited at the next station with your newly deceased spouse?
Kerfol, Pomegranate Seed, and The Triumph of Night were my favorites.
September 23, 2023
02/2018
I quite like Edith Wharton's writing, but not every story here penetrated with me. A couple of them did. Kerfol is very emotional, with the ghosts of the murdered dogs. I really loved The Pomegranate Seed, with its mysterious mythological title, vague creepiness and open ended.ness
I quite like Edith Wharton's writing, but not every story here penetrated with me. A couple of them did. Kerfol is very emotional, with the ghosts of the murdered dogs. I really loved The Pomegranate Seed, with its mysterious mythological title, vague creepiness and open ended.ness
April 17, 2023
Amazing, just like everything else she wrote!
October 24, 2025
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton is a collection of fifteen supernatural short stories, but not supernatural as we know it nowadays. Her stories are more old school and with subtlety, with cold breezes, shadows, floorboards that creak, feelings of being watched overall, things are just a tad different; almost non-discernible. It is Wharton's marvelous narrative that gives the imagery in which to find the creep factor.
October 25, 2024
I was nervous to start this collection with my lovely Gilded Age buddy readers because I'm not usually a ghost story person. I have a distinct memory of reading a ghost story as a child (sadly I can't remember which one!) and being scared to pieces. That must have turned me off somewhat, though I'm rather a scaredy cat in general. However, I thought this collection was great! As my friend Susan said, it's an intellectual collection of ghost stories. They made me think about justice and mercy and how our actions affect others. We had some great discussions over Voxer about the stories because they nearly all end on cliffhangers, so we had to discuss what was really real in the stories. Plus they're just fun to read. Think of Edith Wharton's beautiful prose and her knack for bringing a place and characters to life and you've got all that here. A lot of the stories did revolve around a house in some way, and I love a spooky old house trope. My favorite stories were definitely Afterward, Kerfol, Mr. Jones, and All Souls'. I would have been happy for any of these to be novel length, though especially Mr. Jones. Kerfol definitely had the most emotional impact on me. Now onto The Turn of the Screw by Henry James with Jen, Melissa, Susan, and Rebecca! I've heard it's really scary...
March 29, 2008
Some might feel that Wharton was out of her element here, but I found these perfectly jewel-like tales. They are, as is to be expected, stylistically elegant -- Wharton doesn't lower her standards just because she's writing in a sometimes-maligned genre. These are classic "literary" ghost tales, best appreciated for the subtle shadings of tone and rich evocation of atmosphere. There are (this being Wharton, after all) heavy infusions of social class and the weight this imposes on the central characters. In order to fully appreciate these stories, readers need to let them unfold gradually and not feel impatient with what may at times seem peripheral elements. It all comes together; the patient reader is rewarded.
Personal favorites in this collection include "Afterward" and "The Lady's Maid."
Personal favorites in this collection include "Afterward" and "The Lady's Maid."
November 6, 2017
My husband and I enjoy reading Edith Wharton stories to each other, and in fact have managed to get through all, or at least nearly all, of her shorter works in this manner. I love her writing and these stories are no exception but, as other GR members have mentioned, these stories are not horrifying and some are not even scary. They are simply great stories, some of them chilling and others sad.
November 4, 2019
Perhaps because she is one of the most esteemed writers of the 20th century, Edith Wharton may not be immediately associated with the genre of horror. Today, she is probably best remembered for her novels "The House of Mirth" (1905) and "The Age of Innocence" (1920), which latter book copped her the Pulitzer Prize, as well as for her classic novella from 1911, "Ethan Frome," a staple reading assignment for all English majors. In novel after novel, Wharton examined the members of the upper crust in turn-of-the-century NYC, a society and a town that she knew well by experience. But as she would reveal in her autobiography "A Backward Glance," the author was a big fan of the ghost story as well, a shivery pot in which she would ultimately dip her quill on any number of occasions. After all, her close personal friend, Henry James, had been hugely successful with his chilling novella of 1898, "The Turn of the Screw," so why not herself? Happily, Scribner's 1973 collection "The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton" brings together 11 of the author's efforts in the field of horror to winning effect. Prefaced by an introduction by the author herself, and featuring beautiful illustrations for each story by one Laszlo Kubinyi, the book may prove a real eye-opener for readers who'd thought they knew this author well.
The 11 stories in the collection were released over a 35-year period, from 1902 to 1937, and take place in a wide range of locales; indeed, very few of the stories transpire in the NYC most commonly associated with Wharton's writing. All, as might be expected from an author of Ms. Wharton's stature, are meticulously crafted and beautifully written. And while none of the stories is especially gruesome (especially when compared to the shock and gore tactics frequently employed by many horror practitioners today), all of the tales here are highly atmospheric, and many of the pieces do indeed manage to chill. In some of the stories, the reader is required to read between the lines so as to understand what has transpired; others are more explicitly spelled out. But every tale still manages to impress, in one way or another; this is a very pleasing collection, over all.
As to the stories themselves, the collection kicks off with the earliest piece, chronologically: 1902's "The Lady’s Maid's Bell." The tale is narrated to us by young Alice Hartley, a typhoid convalescent who begins a new job as a maid in a "big and gloomy" house on the Hudson, in upstate New York. But Alice's life is soon beset by the ghost of the former maid, Emma Saxon, who rings her bell in the middle of the night and seems to be endeavoring to communicate some message. In the story's most chilling scene, Emma leads Alice through a dreary field in the snow, on some mysterious mission. By the tale's end, the reader may feel that he or she has not been given enough information to solve this puzzle, although a residual chill surely remains.
In "The Eyes," which transpires mainly in England and Rome, an aged man of the world, author Andrew Culwin, tells his cronies of the one ghostly experience that he had witnessed; namely, a pair of eyes that would stare at him, at intervals, in the dark, over a period of some years. During this time, Culwin had treated his fiancée callously and taken up with a young and inexperienced writer whom he was nurturing. (The gay subtext in the story is quite pronounced.) But what is the cause of those damnable, staring orbs? Once again, the reader is required to look between the lines, especially regarding the tale's final two pages. No wonder one of Culwin’s auditors mentions being "disquieted by a sense of incompleteness"....
In "Afterward," an American couple, Mary and Ned Boyne, moves to Dorsetshire and takes over a Tudor home that is supposedly haunted by a most unusual ghost: one whose presence is never known till long after its appearance. And once settled into their rustic abode, named Lyng, Ned begins to act nervously, a mysterious and dead-voiced stranger comes calling, and Ned ultimately vanishes, leading to a rather shocking revelation concerning his business dealings, as well as a fulfillment of the ghostly legend. In all, a very satisfying story, expertly paced and handled.
"Kerfol" presents us with a most unique group of ghosts...of the canine variety! Here, a man visits an abandoned castle in Brittany and comes across the spectral mutts, who stand and stare at him dolefully. A little investigation reveals their tragic background, in a tale that stretches all the way back to the early 1600s, involving the cruel Baron de Cornault and his miserably neglected wife. This is a wonderful story, meticulously detailed and pleasingly ghoulish. Wharton makes but a single misstep here--when she refers to the Baron's "widowhood," rather than "widowerhood"--but this one boo-boo only seems to set off the perfection of the rest.
In "The Triumph of Night," a young man is marooned at a train station during the height of a New Hampshire blizzard and accepts an invitation from an even younger man to spend the night at his uncle's home, that uncle being the renowned writer John Lavington. But after being comfortably ensconced and meeting his famous host, our protagonist begins to see a doppelganger of Lavington, seemingly trying to communicate some message. A bleak, atmospheric and wintry tale, conflating a will and (again) shady business dealings, this story concludes with the forces of benevolence thwarted, and the evils that men do triumphant....
"Miss Mary Pask" finds Wharton at her most playful, offering up a chilling tale and then pulling the rug out from under the reader's expectations. This story also takes place in Brittany, and finds our narrator about to visit the sister of a close friend, the Mary Pask of the title, who was "like hundreds of other dowdy old maids, cheerful derelicts content with their innumerable little substitutes for living." But just after knocking on her door, our narrator recalls that Mary had died the previous year...a circumstance that does not change the fact that the deceased woman shortly descends the stairs and ushers him in, in this very cleverly put-together tale.
In "Bewitched," which takes place in the Anywheresville of Hemlock County, a snowbound rural area reminiscent of the one in "Ethan Frome," a small community is alarmed when one of its prominent citizens is seen trysting with Ora Brand...a young woman who had died over a year before! Wharton perfectly captures the speech patterns and thought processes of the characters in this isolated backwater, and her wintry locale is once again expertly rendered. And then matters grow quite grim indeed, when Ora's father, Sylvester, grabs his revolver and sets forth to hunt his ghostly daughter down....
Our next tale, "Mr. Jones," tells of the Lady Jane Lynke, who inherits a mansion in the English countryside, in Kent. She learns from the oddball servants there that the house is overseen and managed by one Mr. Jones, who is very old and frail and thus never ventures from his room. Before long, Lady Jane discerns the ghostly figure of an old man in the mansion's "blue room," after which the tragic story of another neglected wife, back in the 1820s, comes to light. As in "The Lady's Maid's Bell," here, even death is no barrier for the dedicated servant who wants to give eternal assistance to his or her master or mistress....
Next up is the story that turned out to be this reader's personal favorite of the collection, "Pomegranate Seed." Here, NYC newlywed Charlotte Ashby grows increasingly alarmed by a series of letters, which always arrive in the same grayish envelopes and addressed to her husband Kenneth. Kenneth had been showing signs of mounting strain after receiving these missives, a fact that becomes understandable when Charlotte finally recognizes the handwriting on the envelopes: that of Kenneth's first wife, Elsie, who had died some time before! Featuring beautifully written and realistic dialogue, great tension and a heartbreaker of an ending, this really is one very impressive piece of work.
"The Looking Glass" features no actual hauntings or ghosts per se; still, there is a made-up one to be had here. In this story, an old grandmother, living in a NJ suburb, tells her granddaughter of the time when she used to be a professional masseuse, and of a wealthy and vain woman who she used to treat. To make this dowager happy, our narrator had pretended to be able to communicate with the spirit world, and thus contact a romantic interest of the matron's youth; a young man who had gone down on the Titanic. Despite the lack of chills and overt frights, this remains a touching story, well told, in which Wharton seemingly admonishes those who are overly preoccupied with their fading beauty, while at the same time showing them some sympathy. As the grandmother says,
"For you and me, and thousands like us, beginning to grow old is like going from a bright warm room to one a little less warm and bright; but to a beauty like Mrs. Clingsland it's like being pushed out of an illuminated ballroom, all flowers and chandeliers, into the winter night and the snow...."
In the collection's final offering, "All Souls'," an elderly widow, Sara Clayburn, encounters a strange woman while taking her afternoon walk by the Connecticut River. Immediately after, she twists her ankle on a frozen puddle and is confined to her bed. But her ordeal grows even greater when she awakens in the middle of the night to find all her servants gone missing, and a preternatural silence covering the entire world. Sara's experiences during the next 36 hours are quite nerve racking, and could well have served as the basis for a perfectly respectable episode of TV's "The Twilight Zone." They bring this collection to a very satisfactory conclusion, indeed.
So there you have it...11 finely crafted and wonderfully atmospheric tales of ghosts, hauntings, the deceased, and ancient tragedies from the pen of a true American master. I read this marvelous bunch of stories over the course of a week during mid-October and found them to be a perfect accompaniment to the season. "The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton" is more than highly recommended....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ … a most ideal destination for all fans of the type of ghost story as written by Edith Wharton....)
The 11 stories in the collection were released over a 35-year period, from 1902 to 1937, and take place in a wide range of locales; indeed, very few of the stories transpire in the NYC most commonly associated with Wharton's writing. All, as might be expected from an author of Ms. Wharton's stature, are meticulously crafted and beautifully written. And while none of the stories is especially gruesome (especially when compared to the shock and gore tactics frequently employed by many horror practitioners today), all of the tales here are highly atmospheric, and many of the pieces do indeed manage to chill. In some of the stories, the reader is required to read between the lines so as to understand what has transpired; others are more explicitly spelled out. But every tale still manages to impress, in one way or another; this is a very pleasing collection, over all.
As to the stories themselves, the collection kicks off with the earliest piece, chronologically: 1902's "The Lady’s Maid's Bell." The tale is narrated to us by young Alice Hartley, a typhoid convalescent who begins a new job as a maid in a "big and gloomy" house on the Hudson, in upstate New York. But Alice's life is soon beset by the ghost of the former maid, Emma Saxon, who rings her bell in the middle of the night and seems to be endeavoring to communicate some message. In the story's most chilling scene, Emma leads Alice through a dreary field in the snow, on some mysterious mission. By the tale's end, the reader may feel that he or she has not been given enough information to solve this puzzle, although a residual chill surely remains.
In "The Eyes," which transpires mainly in England and Rome, an aged man of the world, author Andrew Culwin, tells his cronies of the one ghostly experience that he had witnessed; namely, a pair of eyes that would stare at him, at intervals, in the dark, over a period of some years. During this time, Culwin had treated his fiancée callously and taken up with a young and inexperienced writer whom he was nurturing. (The gay subtext in the story is quite pronounced.) But what is the cause of those damnable, staring orbs? Once again, the reader is required to look between the lines, especially regarding the tale's final two pages. No wonder one of Culwin’s auditors mentions being "disquieted by a sense of incompleteness"....
In "Afterward," an American couple, Mary and Ned Boyne, moves to Dorsetshire and takes over a Tudor home that is supposedly haunted by a most unusual ghost: one whose presence is never known till long after its appearance. And once settled into their rustic abode, named Lyng, Ned begins to act nervously, a mysterious and dead-voiced stranger comes calling, and Ned ultimately vanishes, leading to a rather shocking revelation concerning his business dealings, as well as a fulfillment of the ghostly legend. In all, a very satisfying story, expertly paced and handled.
"Kerfol" presents us with a most unique group of ghosts...of the canine variety! Here, a man visits an abandoned castle in Brittany and comes across the spectral mutts, who stand and stare at him dolefully. A little investigation reveals their tragic background, in a tale that stretches all the way back to the early 1600s, involving the cruel Baron de Cornault and his miserably neglected wife. This is a wonderful story, meticulously detailed and pleasingly ghoulish. Wharton makes but a single misstep here--when she refers to the Baron's "widowhood," rather than "widowerhood"--but this one boo-boo only seems to set off the perfection of the rest.
In "The Triumph of Night," a young man is marooned at a train station during the height of a New Hampshire blizzard and accepts an invitation from an even younger man to spend the night at his uncle's home, that uncle being the renowned writer John Lavington. But after being comfortably ensconced and meeting his famous host, our protagonist begins to see a doppelganger of Lavington, seemingly trying to communicate some message. A bleak, atmospheric and wintry tale, conflating a will and (again) shady business dealings, this story concludes with the forces of benevolence thwarted, and the evils that men do triumphant....
"Miss Mary Pask" finds Wharton at her most playful, offering up a chilling tale and then pulling the rug out from under the reader's expectations. This story also takes place in Brittany, and finds our narrator about to visit the sister of a close friend, the Mary Pask of the title, who was "like hundreds of other dowdy old maids, cheerful derelicts content with their innumerable little substitutes for living." But just after knocking on her door, our narrator recalls that Mary had died the previous year...a circumstance that does not change the fact that the deceased woman shortly descends the stairs and ushers him in, in this very cleverly put-together tale.
In "Bewitched," which takes place in the Anywheresville of Hemlock County, a snowbound rural area reminiscent of the one in "Ethan Frome," a small community is alarmed when one of its prominent citizens is seen trysting with Ora Brand...a young woman who had died over a year before! Wharton perfectly captures the speech patterns and thought processes of the characters in this isolated backwater, and her wintry locale is once again expertly rendered. And then matters grow quite grim indeed, when Ora's father, Sylvester, grabs his revolver and sets forth to hunt his ghostly daughter down....
Our next tale, "Mr. Jones," tells of the Lady Jane Lynke, who inherits a mansion in the English countryside, in Kent. She learns from the oddball servants there that the house is overseen and managed by one Mr. Jones, who is very old and frail and thus never ventures from his room. Before long, Lady Jane discerns the ghostly figure of an old man in the mansion's "blue room," after which the tragic story of another neglected wife, back in the 1820s, comes to light. As in "The Lady's Maid's Bell," here, even death is no barrier for the dedicated servant who wants to give eternal assistance to his or her master or mistress....
Next up is the story that turned out to be this reader's personal favorite of the collection, "Pomegranate Seed." Here, NYC newlywed Charlotte Ashby grows increasingly alarmed by a series of letters, which always arrive in the same grayish envelopes and addressed to her husband Kenneth. Kenneth had been showing signs of mounting strain after receiving these missives, a fact that becomes understandable when Charlotte finally recognizes the handwriting on the envelopes: that of Kenneth's first wife, Elsie, who had died some time before! Featuring beautifully written and realistic dialogue, great tension and a heartbreaker of an ending, this really is one very impressive piece of work.
"The Looking Glass" features no actual hauntings or ghosts per se; still, there is a made-up one to be had here. In this story, an old grandmother, living in a NJ suburb, tells her granddaughter of the time when she used to be a professional masseuse, and of a wealthy and vain woman who she used to treat. To make this dowager happy, our narrator had pretended to be able to communicate with the spirit world, and thus contact a romantic interest of the matron's youth; a young man who had gone down on the Titanic. Despite the lack of chills and overt frights, this remains a touching story, well told, in which Wharton seemingly admonishes those who are overly preoccupied with their fading beauty, while at the same time showing them some sympathy. As the grandmother says,
"For you and me, and thousands like us, beginning to grow old is like going from a bright warm room to one a little less warm and bright; but to a beauty like Mrs. Clingsland it's like being pushed out of an illuminated ballroom, all flowers and chandeliers, into the winter night and the snow...."
In the collection's final offering, "All Souls'," an elderly widow, Sara Clayburn, encounters a strange woman while taking her afternoon walk by the Connecticut River. Immediately after, she twists her ankle on a frozen puddle and is confined to her bed. But her ordeal grows even greater when she awakens in the middle of the night to find all her servants gone missing, and a preternatural silence covering the entire world. Sara's experiences during the next 36 hours are quite nerve racking, and could well have served as the basis for a perfectly respectable episode of TV's "The Twilight Zone." They bring this collection to a very satisfactory conclusion, indeed.
So there you have it...11 finely crafted and wonderfully atmospheric tales of ghosts, hauntings, the deceased, and ancient tragedies from the pen of a true American master. I read this marvelous bunch of stories over the course of a week during mid-October and found them to be a perfect accompaniment to the season. "The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton" is more than highly recommended....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ … a most ideal destination for all fans of the type of ghost story as written by Edith Wharton....)
January 4, 2021
Cuando te alejas del concepto contemporáneo de la literatura de terror actual y te dejas seducir por otro tipo de propuestas más clásicas puedes adentrarte en unos mundos deliciosos. Un tipo de narración en la que se prescinde de recursos impactantes para ir generando en el lector otro tipo de sensaciones, que en un principio parecen más inocuas, pero que poco a poco van calando por dentro.
Y es que estas historias tienen la particularidad de seguir resonando en tu cabeza una vez las has terminado. En algunos casos por la originalidad de la propuesta, la manera de presentarte el elemento sobrenatural o por la sensación de haber leído una de esas historias clásicas que siempre tienen hueco en el corazoncito de los que amamos al terror. Otras veces van incluso más allá, aportándote una narración en la que tan solo te presentan unos hechos concretos a los que tú, como lector, tendrás que encontrar su significado.
En este pequeño libro de cuentos se presentan tres obras de la afamada escritora Edith Wharton centradas en la presencia de fantasmas. Cada uno de ellos muy diferente al anterior en cuanto a temática y manera de enfocarlos, pero con la deliciosa sensación de que, cuando lo has terminado, te apetece leer otro más. En estas tres historias uno consigue disfrutar de la manera de narrar que tiene Wharton, con su particular ritmo y su manera de tomarse las cosas con calma para que el lector se vaya adentrando poco a poco en el misterio que te va a proponer.
Eso, claro, provocará el rechazo de los lectores que busquen entre sus páginas la presencia de entidades sobrenaturales y vengativas de la que tantas veces se ha abusado en el cine actual. Pero en estas historias hay que adentrarse con la idea de estar acompañados de la noche, bajo la luz de una vela y dejándose llevar por la atmósfera que consigue recrear la escritora.
Cuando decides apostar por estas historias de fantasmas, cuando te quieres adentrar en esos mundos en donde la frágil línea que separa la vida de la muerte puede que se encuentre quebrada, cuando el espanto acontece en una revelación que te lleva a plantearte el cómo es que no te había dado cuenta antes de esa sorpresa, es entonces cuando admites que una buena historia de fantasmas te puede estremecer y que, siempre, espera a que apagues la luz para regresar.
Y es que estas historias tienen la particularidad de seguir resonando en tu cabeza una vez las has terminado. En algunos casos por la originalidad de la propuesta, la manera de presentarte el elemento sobrenatural o por la sensación de haber leído una de esas historias clásicas que siempre tienen hueco en el corazoncito de los que amamos al terror. Otras veces van incluso más allá, aportándote una narración en la que tan solo te presentan unos hechos concretos a los que tú, como lector, tendrás que encontrar su significado.
En este pequeño libro de cuentos se presentan tres obras de la afamada escritora Edith Wharton centradas en la presencia de fantasmas. Cada uno de ellos muy diferente al anterior en cuanto a temática y manera de enfocarlos, pero con la deliciosa sensación de que, cuando lo has terminado, te apetece leer otro más. En estas tres historias uno consigue disfrutar de la manera de narrar que tiene Wharton, con su particular ritmo y su manera de tomarse las cosas con calma para que el lector se vaya adentrando poco a poco en el misterio que te va a proponer.
Eso, claro, provocará el rechazo de los lectores que busquen entre sus páginas la presencia de entidades sobrenaturales y vengativas de la que tantas veces se ha abusado en el cine actual. Pero en estas historias hay que adentrarse con la idea de estar acompañados de la noche, bajo la luz de una vela y dejándose llevar por la atmósfera que consigue recrear la escritora.
Cuando decides apostar por estas historias de fantasmas, cuando te quieres adentrar en esos mundos en donde la frágil línea que separa la vida de la muerte puede que se encuentre quebrada, cuando el espanto acontece en una revelación que te lleva a plantearte el cómo es que no te había dado cuenta antes de esa sorpresa, es entonces cuando admites que una buena historia de fantasmas te puede estremecer y que, siempre, espera a que apagues la luz para regresar.
August 15, 2023
Edith Wharton - the woman who famously did not sleep with horror books in the house until she was thirty years old. And then wrote some of her own. Smashing.
These stories are more about ambiance than horror, but there is something quite creepy about them as they seem rooted in reality more than in the supernatural (even though there are ghosts), and I was always a fan of Wharton's writing style - polished and strangely stylish - to such an extent that I found myself thinking much of Rebecca while reading Wharton's Pomegranate Seed story which first appeared in 1931, seven years before the publication of Rebecca.
Other notable favourites: Afterward, All Souls, Mr Jones, The Bolted Door.
These stories are more about ambiance than horror, but there is something quite creepy about them as they seem rooted in reality more than in the supernatural (even though there are ghosts), and I was always a fan of Wharton's writing style - polished and strangely stylish - to such an extent that I found myself thinking much of Rebecca while reading Wharton's Pomegranate Seed story which first appeared in 1931, seven years before the publication of Rebecca.
Other notable favourites: Afterward, All Souls, Mr Jones, The Bolted Door.
November 30, 2023
3.5 stars. A pretty great collection of atmospheric ghost stories! Can see why Edith Wharton is held in such high esteem.
November 9, 2025
September 2018
In a collection of effortless, outstanding storytelling, offhand I can name three very different but equally unforgettable tales: Afterward, for perfectly engaging my criteria for horror with its attention to atmosphere and scenery, plus a familiar narrative and plot (familiarity I gathered from later stories and films, which--who knows, may have been paying homage to Wharton's stories); The Duchess at Prayer for echoing the gothic stories of Isak Dinesen, whose Gothic Tales is on my to-reread list, and for the well-seasoned sentiment, "youth will have youth"; and the concise The Fulness of Life, where Wharton's artistry absolutely shines with a few deft strokes of her pen, it makes the heart sing and cry at once.
As anticipated, I enjoyed these stories like a series of appetizers, each morsel gratuitously slathered in truffle sauce! My new Wharton favorite, placing The Custom of the Country (take that, Undine Spragg!) at second.
November 2025
Because my book club asked for a story for Halloween, of course I turned yet again, for the second year in a row, The Fulness of Life having fuelled one of our liveliest discussions last year, to Edith Wharton's Ghost Stories. But while browsing I realized I only remembered two stories, and by this I mean recognizing and associating title to plot at a glance, without having to scan the pages. This was Afterward and The Fulness of Life. The rest were a blur. Thus this rereading.
There are fifteen stories in the collection; too few, and I wish she had written more. With each story Wharton's practiced eye for architecture comes to the fore, and that alone, before the supernatural elements make their case, is already a visual delight. The following are the reasons I'm bound to read this book again, one day:
1) Afterward - Each time I'm asked to recommend a ghost story, I start with Afterward. As with most of the stories here, its appeal, at least for me, lies in its setting and premise. It's set in Lyng, an old, Tudor house in the Dorsetshire countryside, surrounded by acres of untenanted land ideal for afternoon walks and gambols. Initially suspicious if the house were "really Tudor till they learned it had no heating system,"a young American couple has just purchased it, and Wharton, who was American but European by heart and design, presents them, at the onset, as a wee bit brash, self-centered, and shockingly modern, they could almost pass for the yuppies of the 1990s. "'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 bit of convenience would make me think it had been bought out of an exhibition, with the pieces numbered and set up again.'" And, of course, with a house of this particular vintage, they insist on a ghost. "I want one of my own on the premises. Is there a ghost at Lyng?"
2) The Fulness of Life - A story I can't share without revealing too much. Suffice to say that it's a powerful, insightful story that's bound to provoke revealing, varying responses from each reader.
3) A Bottle of Perrier - A plot that's impossible to forget, but alas, a title so forgettable I always credited this misadventure in the desert to a male novelist, Maugham maybe, and vaguely had in mind the title "Appointment in Samarra," which is a novel, and not a short story, by John O'Hara.
4) Kerfol - This felt like a story more to Isak Dinesen's tenor, specifically her collection of Seven Gothic Tales. And like most of the stories in this book, the ending provides no explanation for the unusual events that blighted Castle Kerfol in Brittany. But the storytelling is impeccably captivating , it blunted this reader's primal need to know the hows and whys.
5) The Duchess at Prayer - An elderly castle guide narrates the history of a castle to a guest, peppered with anecdotes of his forebears who served the lord and lady of the castle over a century ago. I have a fetish for this kind of storytelling, and while you foresee the train wreck long before it occurs, I thoroughly enjoyed the getting there.
6) All Souls' - If movies were to be mined from these stories, the eerie All Souls' would be a shoo-in for a hit.
7) Miss Mary Pask - At once creepy and hilarious (at least the ending was), this was a story with a conclusion that had not escaped me.
8) The Lady's Maid's Bell - Yet another unfortunate story of a wife under the abject whims of her husband. Again, like most of Wharton's stories in the collection, the conclusion is unclear, but clearly, something is very rotten in the Brympton household.
In a collection of effortless, outstanding storytelling, offhand I can name three very different but equally unforgettable tales: Afterward, for perfectly engaging my criteria for horror with its attention to atmosphere and scenery, plus a familiar narrative and plot (familiarity I gathered from later stories and films, which--who knows, may have been paying homage to Wharton's stories); The Duchess at Prayer for echoing the gothic stories of Isak Dinesen, whose Gothic Tales is on my to-reread list, and for the well-seasoned sentiment, "youth will have youth"; and the concise The Fulness of Life, where Wharton's artistry absolutely shines with a few deft strokes of her pen, it makes the heart sing and cry at once.
As anticipated, I enjoyed these stories like a series of appetizers, each morsel gratuitously slathered in truffle sauce! My new Wharton favorite, placing The Custom of the Country (take that, Undine Spragg!) at second.
November 2025
Because my book club asked for a story for Halloween, of course I turned yet again, for the second year in a row, The Fulness of Life having fuelled one of our liveliest discussions last year, to Edith Wharton's Ghost Stories. But while browsing I realized I only remembered two stories, and by this I mean recognizing and associating title to plot at a glance, without having to scan the pages. This was Afterward and The Fulness of Life. The rest were a blur. Thus this rereading.
There are fifteen stories in the collection; too few, and I wish she had written more. With each story Wharton's practiced eye for architecture comes to the fore, and that alone, before the supernatural elements make their case, is already a visual delight. The following are the reasons I'm bound to read this book again, one day:
1) Afterward - Each time I'm asked to recommend a ghost story, I start with Afterward. As with most of the stories here, its appeal, at least for me, lies in its setting and premise. It's set in Lyng, an old, Tudor house in the Dorsetshire countryside, surrounded by acres of untenanted land ideal for afternoon walks and gambols. Initially suspicious if the house were "really Tudor till they learned it had no heating system,"a young American couple has just purchased it, and Wharton, who was American but European by heart and design, presents them, at the onset, as a wee bit brash, self-centered, and shockingly modern, they could almost pass for the yuppies of the 1990s. "'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 bit of convenience would make me think it had been bought out of an exhibition, with the pieces numbered and set up again.'" And, of course, with a house of this particular vintage, they insist on a ghost. "I want one of my own on the premises. Is there a ghost at Lyng?"
2) The Fulness of Life - A story I can't share without revealing too much. Suffice to say that it's a powerful, insightful story that's bound to provoke revealing, varying responses from each reader.
3) A Bottle of Perrier - A plot that's impossible to forget, but alas, a title so forgettable I always credited this misadventure in the desert to a male novelist, Maugham maybe, and vaguely had in mind the title "Appointment in Samarra," which is a novel, and not a short story, by John O'Hara.
4) Kerfol - This felt like a story more to Isak Dinesen's tenor, specifically her collection of Seven Gothic Tales. And like most of the stories in this book, the ending provides no explanation for the unusual events that blighted Castle Kerfol in Brittany. But the storytelling is impeccably captivating , it blunted this reader's primal need to know the hows and whys.
5) The Duchess at Prayer - An elderly castle guide narrates the history of a castle to a guest, peppered with anecdotes of his forebears who served the lord and lady of the castle over a century ago. I have a fetish for this kind of storytelling, and while you foresee the train wreck long before it occurs, I thoroughly enjoyed the getting there.
6) All Souls' - If movies were to be mined from these stories, the eerie All Souls' would be a shoo-in for a hit.
7) Miss Mary Pask - At once creepy and hilarious (at least the ending was), this was a story with a conclusion that had not escaped me.
8) The Lady's Maid's Bell - Yet another unfortunate story of a wife under the abject whims of her husband. Again, like most of Wharton's stories in the collection, the conclusion is unclear, but clearly, something is very rotten in the Brympton household.
December 8, 2021
Good stories. Well told. Wide variety.
I liked 9 of the 11 stories.
List of the 11 stories.
"The Eyes"
"Afterward"
"Kerfol"
"Triumphs of Night"
"Miss Mary Pask"
"Bewitched"
"Mr Jones"
"Pomegranate Seeds"
"The Looking Glass"
"All Souls"
I did not like "Triumphs of Night". Some in buddy read group liked it, and others did not. But it is always good to have a bad one in the bunch to show as contrast to the good.
What I would like to see as a movie:
"Miss Pask"
"Pomegranate Seeds"
"All Souls" (The story is named for the wrong holiday/holy day. Any moviemakers should consider changing the name of their movie.)
I have liked some of Edith Wharton' novels. Now I know that I will like some of her ghost stories too.
I liked 9 of the 11 stories.
List of the 11 stories.
"The Eyes"
"Afterward"
"Kerfol"
"Triumphs of Night"
"Miss Mary Pask"
"Bewitched"
"Mr Jones"
"Pomegranate Seeds"
"The Looking Glass"
"All Souls"
I did not like "Triumphs of Night". Some in buddy read group liked it, and others did not. But it is always good to have a bad one in the bunch to show as contrast to the good.
What I would like to see as a movie:
"Miss Pask"
"Pomegranate Seeds"
"All Souls" (The story is named for the wrong holiday/holy day. Any moviemakers should consider changing the name of their movie.)
I have liked some of Edith Wharton' novels. Now I know that I will like some of her ghost stories too.
April 14, 2011
Edith Wharton has written what I term "genteel" ghost stories, with a variation in success if achieving a sense of mood and dread are the measure. There are several that I specifically enjoyed, "Afterward", "Kerfol", "The Triumph of Night", "Mr Jones". All are well written of course (it seems silly of me to judge Wharton). If I judge them as ghost stories then some don't seem as successful. "Eyes" in particular seems a let down (as discussed in the story section).
Overall though I find the stories a success in the "genteel" setting.
Overall though I find the stories a success in the "genteel" setting.
September 22, 2023
These are the best ghost stories I've ever read. Edith Wharton was, to put it simply, a genius. I can't really describe why they're so good except to say that unlike, say, M.R. James, who was great at creating a spooky atmosphere around strange unexplained phenomena, Edith Wharton gets inside of what is uncanny about human consciousness in the here and now, and how our own spookiness ties in with the world beyond and the paranormal. To me, that's the most interesting and chilling way to approach a ghost story. Eminently entertaining and readable.
April 20, 2021
Wharton’s Ghost Stories – collected together in this beautifully-produced book from Virago’s Designer Collection – are characterised by the tensions between restraint and passion, respectability and impropriety. Here we have narratives rooted in reality, with the ghostly chills mostly stemming from psychological factors – the fear of the unknown, the power of the imagination and the judicious use of supernatural imagery to unnerve the soul. As one might expect with Wharton, the writing is first class and the characters brilliantly drawn – with sufficient depth and subtlety to appear fully convincing.
The book opens with The Lady’s Maid’s Bell, one of the most unnerving tales in this excellent collection. Narrated by the maid herself, it is a classic ghost story in which the protagonist is haunted by the appearance of a spectre, the identity of which becomes clear as the story unfolds. There are several familiar elements here: a dark gloomy house; a feverish young lady of the manor; servants who refuse to speak of the maid’s predecessor; and a ghostly image that only the protagonist herself is able to detect. However, perhaps the most frightening element of the story is Wharton’s use of sound – the terrifying ring of the maid’s bell after hours, piercing the intense silence of the house as it rests at night.
Silence also plays a key role in All Souls, another highlight and possibly the most terrifying story in the collection. It tells the tale of a widow, Sara Clayborn, who believes she has spent a horrific weekend at her home, Whitegates, a lonely, remote house in the wilds of Connecticut. Having spotted an unknown woman heading towards her house, Sara breaks her ankle and is confined to bed for the night. On waking she discovers that the servants are nowhere to be found. The house appears to be deserted; an eerie silence having replaced the normal bustle of activity during the day. In this story, it is not the unexplained creaks and groans that strikes terror into the heart of the protagonist; rather, it is the ominous lack of any sound at all, especially as the house appears to be completely deserted.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2021...
The book opens with The Lady’s Maid’s Bell, one of the most unnerving tales in this excellent collection. Narrated by the maid herself, it is a classic ghost story in which the protagonist is haunted by the appearance of a spectre, the identity of which becomes clear as the story unfolds. There are several familiar elements here: a dark gloomy house; a feverish young lady of the manor; servants who refuse to speak of the maid’s predecessor; and a ghostly image that only the protagonist herself is able to detect. However, perhaps the most frightening element of the story is Wharton’s use of sound – the terrifying ring of the maid’s bell after hours, piercing the intense silence of the house as it rests at night.
Silence also plays a key role in All Souls, another highlight and possibly the most terrifying story in the collection. It tells the tale of a widow, Sara Clayborn, who believes she has spent a horrific weekend at her home, Whitegates, a lonely, remote house in the wilds of Connecticut. Having spotted an unknown woman heading towards her house, Sara breaks her ankle and is confined to bed for the night. On waking she discovers that the servants are nowhere to be found. The house appears to be deserted; an eerie silence having replaced the normal bustle of activity during the day. In this story, it is not the unexplained creaks and groans that strikes terror into the heart of the protagonist; rather, it is the ominous lack of any sound at all, especially as the house appears to be completely deserted.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2021...
March 22, 2016
I got off to a rough start with this one because I didn't like the first two stories. I persevered and I'm very glad I did because I enjoyed these stories tremendously. There was a remarkable range of types of stories and causes of the events. I really should read the deliciously creepy All Souls' every year on Halloween.
May 17, 2020
These stories were okay, if a bit dry, and unmemorable for the most part. The exception for me was "Afterward," which I had read before and seen dramatized. It involves a married couple that intentionally purchases a home with ghost included. The caveat: They won't know they have encountered the ghost until long afterward. Classic.
March 30, 2022
This is my first Edith Wharton and I was not disappointed. What a brilliant, first-class writer and engaging story-teller. She is superb at building atmosphere and tension. Indeed she uses the conventions and tropes of a gothic story in most of these. Her ghost stories are in the same vein as those of Henry James - with a psychological bent and rich in interpretation. Her main characters often exhibit the anxiety and pressure of social mores, which is underscored by the interplay between the haunted setting and the emotional instability of the characters.
In "Triumph of Night" Wharton describes the desperation of anxiety and terror as the protagonist strives to deny the ghost standing behind his dinner host:
As with this genre (as well as "Weird" horror fiction) the ending is rarely spelled out in detail, but leaves dangling ambiguity and readers to ponder the complexity of the characters and events, replaying the story in their minds. Some people may find this frustrating but, in this genre, I think she is excellent.
This book also gave me a nice change from my other book interests in post-modernism and science.
My favorites:
The lady's maid's bell (1904)
The eyes (1910)
The triumph of night (1914)
Miss Mary Pask (1925)
Mr Jones (1928)
All souls' (1937)
In "Triumph of Night" Wharton describes the desperation of anxiety and terror as the protagonist strives to deny the ghost standing behind his dinner host:
As with this genre (as well as "Weird" horror fiction) the ending is rarely spelled out in detail, but leaves dangling ambiguity and readers to ponder the complexity of the characters and events, replaying the story in their minds. Some people may find this frustrating but, in this genre, I think she is excellent.
This book also gave me a nice change from my other book interests in post-modernism and science.
My favorites:
The lady's maid's bell (1904)
The eyes (1910)
The triumph of night (1914)
Miss Mary Pask (1925)
Mr Jones (1928)
All souls' (1937)
December 25, 2022
Ghosts by Edith Wharton is a perfect read for this season. It also deepens my love for Edith Wharton. Is there anything she could not do?
These maybe horror stories but the aspects that are most unnerving about them are so human. Like Wharton's great novels, Ghosts carries forward the themes of class and corruption; women suffocating under patriarchy; and the evil that lies beneath the veneer of civilization. Often there is no clear ending and you are left wondering, or there is an ending that makes you question everything that you thought before. The ghosts in these pages are more often than not protagonists' own subconscious haunting them. After all, what can be creepier than all the dark places in one's own mind?
These maybe horror stories but the aspects that are most unnerving about them are so human. Like Wharton's great novels, Ghosts carries forward the themes of class and corruption; women suffocating under patriarchy; and the evil that lies beneath the veneer of civilization. Often there is no clear ending and you are left wondering, or there is an ending that makes you question everything that you thought before. The ghosts in these pages are more often than not protagonists' own subconscious haunting them. After all, what can be creepier than all the dark places in one's own mind?
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