Simon Stern [ed.] - Valancourt Xmas ​Victorian Ghost Vol 3

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Simon Stern [ed.] - The Valancourt Book of ​Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories: Volume Three (Valancourt, 2018)

Simon Stern - Introduction

Frederick Manley - The Ghost of the Cross-Roads
Lillie Harris - 19, Great Hanover Street
G. B. Burgin - Sir Hugo’s Prayer
Mrs. J. H. Riddell - Walnut-Tree House
Anonymous - Haunted Ashchurch
Anonymous - The Haunted Tree
Hugh Conway - A Dead Man’s Face
L. F. Austin - The Ghost’s Double
E. H. Rebton - The Haunted Manor [verse]
J. E. Thomas - The Nameless Village
Anonymous - Old Simons’ Ghost!
J. W. Hollingsworth - Miriam’s Ghost
Lucy Farmer - The Vicar’s Ghost
Mrs. Henry Wood - The Ghost of the Hollow Field
Alice Mary Vince - The Wicked Editor’s Christmas Dream
Anonymous - The Barber’s Ghost
Andrew Haggard - A Spirit Bride
W. L. Blackley - The Haunted Oven
Lilian Quiller Couch - The Devil’s Own
​Anonymous - A Christmas Ghost Story

Blurb:

A new anthology of twenty ghostly tales of Yuletide terror, collected from rare Victorian periodicals.

Seeking to capitalize on the success of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843), Victorian newspapers and magazines frequently featured ghost stories at Christmas time, and reading them by candlelight or the fireside became an annual tradition, a tradition Valancourt Books is pleased to continue with our series of Victorian Christmas ghost stories. This third volume contains twenty tales, most of them never before reprinted. They represent a mix of the diverse styles and themes common to Victorian ghost fiction and include works by once-popular authors like Ellen Wood and Charlotte Riddell as well as contributions from anonymous or wholly forgotten writers. This volume also features a new introduction by Prof. Simon Stern.

"Before me, with the sickly light from the lantern shining right down upon it, was a cloven hoof! Then the awfulness of the compact I had made came to my mind with terrible force..." —Frederick Manley, "The Ghost of the Cross-Roads"

"By the fireplace there was a large hideous pool of blood soaking into the carpet, and leaving ghastly stains around. I am not ashamed to confess that my brain reeled; the mysterious horror overcame me..." — Lillie Harris, "19, Great Hanover Street"

"He opened his eyes, at first drowsily; then his orbits expanded to their fullest limit, and his blood seemed to grow cold. He could not utter a sound; his tongue became as rigid as his fixed gaze and motionless limbs. He was no longer alone." — J. W. Hollingsworth, "Miriam's Ghost"

Frederick Manley - The Ghost of the Cross-Roads: (South London Press, 23 Dec. 1893: Lucy Evans & Tanya Kirk [eds], Sunless Solstice, 2021). Derry Goland, Kings County. Lost in the wilds on a freezing winter's night, a young man is led to safety by a man in black who asks in return only that he play him at cards. With each hand, the stakes are raised.

L. F. Austin - The Ghost’s Double: (Windsor Magazine, Dec. 1898). A bachelors' apartment in St James Square is haunted by both the spectre of a suicide whose lover failed to honour their pact and a mischief-loving look-a-like with no regard for tradition.

Anonymous - The Barber’s Ghost: (Glossop Record, 25 Dec. 1869). The weary traveller beds down at the tavern in the room reputedly haunted by a murdered hairdresser. He exploits the situation to financial advantage.

E. H. Rebton - The Haunted Manor: (The Guardian, 26 Dec. 1885). The villagers band together to confront the "ghost". Told in verse.

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Alice Mary Vince - The Wicked Editor’s Christmas Dream: (Tamworth Herald, 23 Dec. 1893: Alastair Gunn [ed.], The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Vol 19, 2023). A solemn spectre leads a news chief through the Abode of Dejected Men and Rejected Copy, peopled by those whose lives have been ruined by his wretched publication. "I should be glad to go, if you have nothing pleasanter to show me." "I was not sent to be pleasant."

J. E. Thomas - The Nameless Village: (Hampshire Telegraph & Sussex Chronicle Christmas Supplement, 19 Dec. 1896. A hiker in the Mendip Hills arrives at a hamlet uncharted on his map. Resting up in the church, he's treated the spectral re-enactment of a wedding, a funeral and a craven murder.

Lillie Harris - 19, Great Hanover Street: (Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, 24 Dec. 1889). Personal favourite of those read to date. Dr. Alan Forsyth, 33, and a confirmed bachelor even before his terrifying experience in Slominster. The physician had secured a three-year lease on an attractive red brick corner house at budget price on account of its reputation; five previous tenants having died of fright or lost their wits on the night of December 21st. Forsyth was inclined to laugh until that dreadful winter night he found a golden haired girl in low-cut pink silk gown, freezing in his garden.

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G. B. Burgin - Sir Hugo’s Prayer: (Hampshire Telegraph, 25 Dec. 1897). Sir Hugo and Lady Follett, the spectres of Dulverton Castle, risk a further century in Purgatory to intervene on behalf of their descendent, Fair Clare who has foolishly agreed to a midnight bicycle race around the battlements with herself as prize. Whichever of her suitors Fairfax and Pennell can catch the young beauty wins her as his wife. The ghosts take against Fairfax. "Now by the bones of my patron, Sir Wencelaus, I'll split that churl through the midriff."

Mrs. J. H. Riddell - Walnut-Tree House: (Illustrated London News, 28 Dec. 1878: Weird Stories, 1882: Herbert van Thal [ed.], Tales to Make the Flesh Creep, 1977; Alastair Gunn [ed.], The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Vol 19, 2023, etc.). Mr Edgar Stainton, a prospector returned rich to England, inherits a grand house off Upper Kennington Lane from his uncle Alfred who died in the madness. The old place is locally notorious as haunted, and the spectral resident is not slow in appearing before the new owner. The pathetic ghost of a half-starved six-year-old seeking his twin sister. A decade earlier, Charlotte Riddell contributed an essay, The Miseries of Christmas, to On the Cards: Routledge's Christmas Annual for 1867, in which she bemoaned everything about the season to be oh so fucking jolly which does makes you wonder if her heart was really in this one. That said, I already prefer Vol 3 to the first book in the series.

Anonymous - Haunted Ashchurch: (Argosy, Dec. 1893). Mr Cortram investigates the haunted North-west tower overlooking the churchyard, where a glimpse of the woman in the long white dress portends a death in the family.