The Phantom Coach: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Ghost Stories edited by Michael Sims (Bloomsbury, 2014)
Blurb:
Ghost stories date back centuries, but those written in the Victorian era have a unique atmosphere and dark beauty. Michael Sims, whose previous Victorian collections Dracula's Guest (vampires) and The Dead Witness (detectives) have been widely praised, has gathered twelve of the best stories about humanity's oldest supernatural obsession. The Phantom Coach includes tales by a surprising, often legendary cast, from Charles Dickens and Margaret Oliphant to Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as lost gems by forgotten masters such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and W.F. Harvey. Amelia Edwards' chilling story gives the collection its title, while Ambrose Bierce ("The Moonlit Road"), Elizabeth Gaskell, ("The Old Nurse's Story") and W. W. Jacobs ("The Monkey's Paw") will turn you white as a sheet. With a skillful introduction to the genre and notes on each story by Michael Sims, The Phantom Coach is a spectacular collection of ghostly Victorian thrills.
Contents:
Introduction: The View from a Grave by Michael Sims
The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Phantom Coach by Amelia B. Edwards
The Trial for Murder by Charles Dickens
The Captain of the Pole-Star by Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Edmund Orme by Henry James
The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers
The Library Window by Margaret Oliphant
The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
The Southwest Chamber by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
They by Rudyard Kipling
The Moonlit Road by Ambrose Bierce
August Heat by W.F. Harvey
Acknowledgments
Bibliography and Further Reading
I ordered this one from our library catalogue and had no idea of its contents. Just glancing through it, my first impressions are that it is a solid and safe collection, with well-known stories, particularly to those whose interests include vintage supernatural fiction. Not a bad anthology to give to someone unfamiliar with the genre.