SOLVED. Old horror story about a guy who thought he was getting stalked by a ghost/demonic entity. Or maybe he was going insane [s]

[Ricardo]

I'm looking for an old horror story from the 17th or 18th century. It might a short story from an author that died before Edgar Allan Poe or was born after Poe died. The cover art of the story was a white silhouette figure holding a flower. The story was about a guy who thought he was getting stalked by a ghost/demonic entity. Or maybe he was going insane. There is five parts I remember happened in the story, though it's not in order of the storyline.
One part is when the character is walking down a dirt trail surrounded by trees and for some reason he started spinning around and when he stopped, he didn't know which way he was going and which way he came from.
Second part is when he was walking around the gardens in front of his apartment or hotel and saw a flower being ripped off from a garden and floating in the air, possibly by the ghost that is following him.
Third part is when he was wakes up in his hotel room or apartment and saw a glass cup of milk on the table seem it was drank by someone. Wasn't sure if it was the ghost or just him sleep walking, he puts powder on the cup and on his blanket before he fell asleep.
Four part is when he was sleeping, he felt the ghost on top of him, trying to the suck the life out of him. That part of the story happens exactly the same in a music video from Three Days Grace - Animal I Have Become.
Last part is when he thought he trapped the ghost in his hotel room and decided to set the room on fire. When he was outside in the gardens (I think) watching the fire burning the hotel and people panicking from the fire, I think he saw the window of his room breaking and seeing the bush below shake as if the ghost jumped out of the window and landed on the bushes.
That's all I know from this story. I hope this helps anything that might know this story and the author.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Maybe something by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu?
He was a 19th century author.

Poe died in 1849 so that could make your author 19th or even 20th century.

Another 19th century writer of ghost stories was Wilkie Collins.

[Michele]

The 17th or 18th century would be 1600s or 1700s. What made you think if was from this time period? Was it in an anthology of stories from that era? Do you remember if the story was told from the main character's perspective (I did this, I did that) or from a different narrator (he did this, he did that)?

Do you remember any details of the hotel? Hotels as we think of them today didn't really exist until the mid-1700s; before that they were smaller inns.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Ricardo, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[GracieKat]

If he's still looking out sounds a lot like a story by Guy de Maupassant. I think it's called The Milk Ghost but I'm not positive. I'll double check but I'm almost positive it's something by Guy de Maupassant

[Laina]

I have been following this thread because I read this book, too, I believe it was a short story, but I just can't remember which one it was.

If Gracie is correct, I think it may be Guy de Maupassant's The Horla - I read this as part of Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (which I highly recommend to anyone who likes the genre.)

[GracieKat]

Laina wrote: "I have been following this thread because I read this book, too, I believe it was a short story, but I just can't remember which one it was.

If Gracie is correct, I think it may be Guy de Maupass..."

Thank you, that's the story I was thinking of, I couldn't remember the exact name of it.

[Laina]

Teamwork! :)

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Ricardo never responded but this is definitely The Horla. Moving to Solved.