A Book of Ghosts

by Sabine Baring-Gould, David Murray Smith

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Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Ghosts, Ghost Stories, Paranormal, Classics

406 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1904

About the author

Sabine Baring-Gould was born in the parish of St Sidwell, Exeter. The eldest son of Edward Baring-Gould and his first wife, Sophia Charlotte (née Bond), he was named after a great-uncle, the Arctic explorer Sir Edward Sabine. Because the family spent much of his childhood travelling round Europe, most of his education was by private tutors. He only spent about two years in formal schooling, first at King's College School in London (then located in Somerset House) and then, for a few months, at Warwick Grammar School (now Warwick School). Here his time was ended by a bronchial disease of the kind that was to plague him throughout his long life. His father considered his ill-health as a good reason for another European tour.

In 1852 he was admitted to Cambridge University, earning the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in 1857, then Master of Arts in 1860 from Clare College, Cambridge. During 1864, he became the curate at Horbury Bridge, West Riding of Yorkshire. It was while acting as a curate that he met Grace Taylor, the daughter of a mill hand, then aged fourteen. In the next few years they fell in love. His vicar, John Sharp, arranged for Grace to live for two years with relatives in York to learn middle class manners. Baring-Gould, meanwhile, relocated to become perpetual curate at Dalton, near Thirsk. He and Grace were married in 1868 at Wakefield. Their marriage lasted until her death 48 years later, and the couple had 15 children, all but one of whom lived to adulthood. When he buried his wife in 1916 he had carved on her tombstone the Latin motto Dimidium Animae Meae ("Half my Soul").

Baring-Gould became the rector of East Mersea in Essex in 1871 and spent ten years there. In 1872 his father died and he inherited the 3,000 acre (12 km²) family estates of Lew Trenchard in Devon, which included the gift of the living of Lew Trenchard parish. When the living became vacant in 1881, he was able to appoint himself to it, becoming parson as well as squire. He did a great deal of work restoring St Peter's Church, Lew Trenchard, and (from 1883 – 1914) thoroughly remodelled his home, Lew Trenchard Manor.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes, when I have finished a mediocre book, I try not to judge it too harshly, but instead savor the pleasure of encountering the intelligent and amiable person who wrote it. Just as you might if you were remembering a conversation with an interesting old man on a train.

It is 1904. You are taking the train from London to Devon, and sharing the compartment with a clergyman in his late sixties, liberal in his beliefs, tolerant in his attitudes, and open in his manner. The two of you enjoy a long afternoon's conversation.

He tells you he is the rector of a parish in Devon, and that he has written a few Christian hymns. One of them, he says, has been "rather well received." He is well educated, has great knowledge of ancient customs, is a collector of folk songs, and has even participated in a few archeological digs. His principal avocation, though, is writing: he has written, he tells you, more than 200 books on various subjects. As you talk, you can see he does not understand the modern educated woman, and that his little jokes about the sexes tend to fall flat. Still, you can tell he is a man who loves his wife and is proud of his many children.

Then he tells you a few ghost stories. They always begin well, these stories, and are interesting enough in their settings and their ideas, but they go on much, oh much too long, and never quite get around to scaring you in the end. Still, he is a nice old man, and you wouldn't mind conversing with him again.

Next time, though, if you ever do run into him, you are determined to guide the conversation away from ghost stories to something else...anything else, in fact. Archeology perhaps. Or ancient customs. Or folk songs. Or perhaps how to go about writing the words to a good old inspiring hymn.

Now what was that hymn he said he wrote the words to? The one Arthur Sullivan set to music? Yes, that's it! You remember. It is “Onward Christian Soldiers!”

[Steven Walle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not very impressed with this read. It left me bored. It was a book of some length with very boring uneventful ghost stories.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond

[Juliet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can picture a parlour room on a cold, dark night, the occupants gathered round a roaring fire, ladies clutching lace handkerchiefs to trembling smiles as Baring-Gould nurses a generous brandy and tells another of his ghost stories.

By 21st Century standards, the tales are far from chilling, unless you find tales with a moral chilling in themselves. I found them charming, occasionally amusing, McAlister especially made me laugh, and on the whole an interesting sojourn into a bygone, more innocent era.

Baring-Gould writes eloquently and gently. The reading is somewhat slowed by the gentleness of pace and some may find this frustrating. However it must be remembered that the intended audience was not accustomed to the instant everything that we are today. They would find us impatient if not rude if we told a story at our superfast broadband everything now speed.

I had hoped when I downloaded the Kindle edition, for there is no blurb on these free editions, that this might be a collection of stories purporting to be true. The tales are no less enjoyable for being fiction although less gripping. Baring-Gould’s tenure as a Parson does show through and in places the hint of a sermon appears. Mother of Pansies in particular began to feel like something told from the pulpit.

It seems almost a shame in many ways that it takes such a great deal more to shock now than in 1904 when this was written. At the same time, nearly 110 years later, we still love a ghost story so we can’t be all that different. Perhaps we lack so many morally edifying tales to frame our conscience.

A Book of Ghost Stories is an enjoyable read. If you want thrills and chills, it is probably not for you. If you approach it as Victorian literature from an interesting author, there is no reason you will not get something from it.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sabine Baring-Gould was a man of numerous talents. He was an Anglican priest, a respected archaeologist, a folklorist, and one of the most prolific writers of both fiction and non-fiction of the Victorian era. There are more than twelve hundred publications listed in his bibliography, and his works enjoyed a substantial readership during the second half of the nineteenth century; he was considered one of the top ten novelists of his day. A contemporary provincial newspaper said of him, 'There can hardly have been a moment of Baring-Gould's life which was not in one way or another turning itself into 'copy' of some kind, and occasionally into copy that is destined to a long popularity' (quoted in the Western Gazette, 8th of June 1906, in a premature obituary ~ but that's another story, and one which I'll come back to in a future post). Sadly, the newspaper was wrong. Nowadays most people have never heard of Baring-Gould or his books and articles, and if he is remembered at all it is usually for the hymns that he wrote, especially 'Onward, Christian Soldiers'.

A Book of Ghosts was published by Methuen in October 1904, one month before M. R. James' Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. It sold out almost straight away, and a second edition was put out in the December of the same year, just in time for the usual Christmas rush. The illustrations for the book were produced by the Scottish artist David Murray Smith. Extremely popular when it first appeared, A Book of Ghosts has been somewhat neglected ever since; before the appearance of the Ash-Tree Press limited edition in 1996, it had been republished in its entirety only once (in a limited run by Books for Libraries Press, in 1969).

The Spectator reviewed A Book of Ghosts in its issue of the 3rd of December 1904, but it was less than complimentary. It accused Baring-Gould of creating ghosts that were 'easy, familiar, and therefore disgusting'. According to the reviewer, 'Mr. Baring-Gould apparently takes an exceedingly low view of the human soul, and he shows it as concerned after death with the most trivial affairs, and as a slave to its place of burial.' The reviewer did not find the ghosts alarming, and reassured readers that A Book of Ghosts 'may be read even late at night without any unpleasant consequences'. It is true that the ghosts themselves aren't likely to frighten the life out of any modern reader, but some of the tales are quite creepy, and I find it hard to believe that the reverend intended to frighten anyone when writing several of his stories. His spooks are often very human, full of character, and very entertaining. His apparitions are not the malevolent spectres of M. R. James.

Click here to read the rest of the review...

[Timothy Ferguson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Baring-Gould takes a lot of time to build up his stories, and so they require a little patience. Good, in the sense that each story has a single image that’s vivid and memorable, but a retelling would edit the book heavily. The comedic stories work better than the horrific, although some of his jokes are cobwebbed. For example the central joke of one story is that the Scots are a race of drunken misers, which can’t have been fresh as a joke even in his day, and is just kind of depressing in ours.

I’ve left it unread simply because I have so much else I’d love to finish. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great enough I may come back to it, but even in this list, the Count of Monte Cristo would attract my time first.

This review was first posted on book coasters

[Stig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a maddening book to review. As ghost stories go, most of these tales are not scary at all, nor are they particularly well written. There are, however, a handful of humourous stories here which are very fine, such as the tale of the ghost of a French waiter who is exorcised in typical Gallic fashion, or the story of a courting couple who are both haunted by the ghosts of their puritanical former partners - lovely resolution to that one!

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just what it says in the title, a book of ghosts. Ghost stories of many varieties written by one person and published in this compilation in the year 1904. So the language and style are definitely dated and sometimes hard reading. The stories themselves also vary in their quality and spookiness. Some are so dated that they are virtually meaningless to today's reader (at least this one); however, some are so good that you wonder why no one's made a film of them yet. So this is a mixed bag. Worth looking at.

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of ghost stories told by Sabine Baring-Gould, so there is no typical commentary that is usually in his books. Many of these ghost stories have a lesson or moral attached to them and are more spooky than scary. Though some of these stories are a bit dated in their morals, for example in "The Mother of Pansies" the moral is not wanting to have kids is bad and you should have as many kids as possible. My favorite stories were "The Leaden Ring", "On the Leads" and "Aunt Joanna".

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful entertaining listening 🎶🔰

Another will written fantasy novel of short ghost 👻 hauntings and horror stories by S. Baring-Gould each with its own characters and story line with lots of misdirection, action, and endings. I would highly recommend this novel to readers of fantasy novels 👍🔰.Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶 to Alexa as I do because of health issues. 2022 👒🏰😉⏰

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

Jean Bouchon
Pomps and vanities
McAlister
*The leaden ring
The mother of pansies
The red-haired girl--3
A professional secret
*H.P
*Glámr
*Colonel Halifax's ghost story
The merewigs
The bold venture
Mustapha--3
Little Joe Gander
*A dead finger
Black ram
*A happy release
The 9.30 up-train
*On the leads
*Aunt Joanna
The white flag

[Glafira Osypets · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are not specifically impressive, nor are they collected from folklore; additionally, a reader must pay attention to the year when the book was written and by whom, as many of the morals will seem simply outdated or too pious.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful Book

Sometimes poetic and sometimes prophetic rarely tedious as the Bible can be! A rare find at he right time it will touch you with ancients magic.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent collection of turn-of-the-century ghost stories. Some of these stories are creepy, some are preachy, and some are downright funny (I'm thinking particularly of 'A Happy Release'). Very late Victorian. Worth the read for those of us who enjoy an old-fashioned story every once in a while.

[Ishkhara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tough going. More a book of morality tales than a book of ghosts.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not very scary, but many charming stories of the Victorian Era. Some tales unfortunately displayed Victorian prejudices.

[Indranil Banerjie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy reading. The stories are more moralistic than scary but kept me absorbed. The author was an Anglican priest who wrote reams of fiction.

[Kerry Poultney · Rating 1 out of 5]

A tough read