Complete Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens

[unholyturnip]

I figured this one deserves a mention on here as it's one of my absolute fav collections.

Dickens is never talked of in the same sentences as Le Fanu or James, and he probably has only a handful of genuinely creepy ghost stories, but I've always felt he was very under-rated. His sense of story is solid and his sense of prose is absolutely wonderful. There's so much personality in every story. I particularly enjoyed 'The Ghost Chamber'.

Peter Haining's intro to this volume is one of his best also I think. The fact that it's got all the original illustrations is a bonus. It's a true crime that this book hasn't been reprinted. An author of Dicken's stature you'd expect to have been kept in print really.

[dem]

Welcome, Mr. Turnip! I've not seen the hardcover, but take it the selection is the same as the pair Coronet issued over two paperbacks?

Peter Haining (ed.) - The Ghost Stories Of Charles Dickens: Vol. 1 (Coronet, 1984)

Introduction - Peter Haining

Captain Murderer And The Devil's Bargain
The Lawyer And The Ghost
The Queer Chair
The Ghosts Of The Mail
A Madman's Manuscript
The Story Of The Goblins Who Stole A Sexton
Baron Koeldwethout's Apartment
A Christmas Carol
The Haunted House

Peter Haining (ed.) - The Ghost Stories Of Charles Dickens: Vol. 2 (Coronet, 1985)

Introduction - Peter Haining

The Haunted Man And The Ghost's Bargain
A Child's Dream Of A Star
Christmas Ghosts
To Be Read At Dusk
The Ghost's Chamber
Mr. Testator's Visitor
The Trial For Murder
The Signal-Man
Four Ghost Stories
The Portrait-Painter's Story
Well-Authenticated Rappings

Never got off on the best foot with Dickens' ghost stories, most likely because the first pair I read were Captain Murderer and The Story Of The Goblins Who Stole A Sexton which struck the young me as irredeemably twee. Didn't have enough patience to cope with The Haunted Man either, and it's only in recent years I've come to appreciate him at all. My favourites to date are the usual The Signalman and A Christmas Carol along with a story I found in a children's book under the title of The Ghost In The Bride's Chamber (most likely the same as The Ghost Chamber in this book?). I seem to remember Hugh Lamb ran another good 'un under the title of The Black Veil in Victorian Tales Of Terror though it's a blank to me just now. Could be that one is a straight, non-supernatural horror story?

[lobolover]

Whats bad about "The Goblins " , Dem?

Also, I read the Veil story and truth be told, it's not that good .

[dem]

"bad"? Nothing that I can see. I don't particularly like it is all. That certainly doesn't make it "bad" any more than it makes stuff I happen to enjoy "good".

[lobolover]

Hmm. So, whats the story then? Im sure I could judge it then.

[unholyturnip]

The two paperbacks do indeed make up the content of the hardback, collated into one volume.

I think the issue with Dickens ghost stories is that he was very liberal in how he used them. Many of them strive for humour, sentimentalism, or redemption, rather than outright terror.

Although, that being said, The Signal-Man is one of the creepiest doppleganger tales I've had the pleasure to read. It's completely devoid of Dickens' usual devices. It's humourless, absent of any symbolic names or places, and doesn't tie up any of its loose ends. Whilst the most atypical of his ghost stories, it remains the most effective. I know the letters of Charles Dickens have been published in recent years. I'd love to see if their was any correspondence about that tale.

[dem]

Feb 18, 2009 23:54:13 GMT unholyturnip said:

It's completely devoid of Dickens' usual devices. It's humourless, absent of any symbolic names or places, and doesn't tie up any of its loose ends. Whilst the most atypical of his ghost stories, it remains the most effective.

The sheer gloominess of the thing is the main reason why I love Signal-man above the rest of his ghost stories (those I've read, anyhow) - he doesn't spoil it, if you get what I mean? Whereas, although there are some fine moments in The Goblins Who Stole A Sexton, he will insist on lapsing into this twee, enforced-joviality thing that really grates on me. Of course, it could be that I'm just a miserable bastard.

[lobolover]

I dont know why, but ven though it is good, Ive never been that much impressed by The Signal-Man .Maybe I should re-read it?

[dem]

Feb 18, 2009 17:47:31 GMT unholyturnip said:

Peter Haining's intro to this volume is one of his best also I think. The fact that it's got all the original illustrations is a bonus. It's a true crime that this book hasn't been reprinted. An author of Dicken's stature you'd expect to have been kept in print really.

Peter Haining (ed.) - The Complete Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens (Michael Joseph, 1982)

It took me a few years but finally landed a copy of the beautifully illustrated Michael Joseph hardback (1982) from the back-of-the-van man for 25p. Illo's aside, there's nothing in here that didn't make the Coronet paperbacks, but figured it was worth posting for the gorgeous cover.

[lemming13]

I do rate the Signalman myself, partly because it generates a good, doom-laden atmosphere; and mostly because it isn't a crude moral parable, unlike many of his other tales. The Haunted Man was just a much less polished version of A Christmas Carol in my book. And The Haunted House began well but went nowhere, if I'm thinking of the one with the framing narrative about friends having a house party in a haunted house who agree not to tell each other their experiences till their last night. It seemed to me that he just didn't finish it. And is one of (or perhaps the only) story of an experience the one with the boarding school children playing harems? Not very ghostly at all, as I recall. I haven't read a lot of the others, though, I'll give them a go now I've finally finished Oliver Onions (apologies to any fans, but dear sweet Cthulhu that was heavy going).

[Dr Strange]

I am in complete agreement Lem - The Signalman absolutely deserves it's position as one on the truly great ghost stories, but nothing else I've read by Dickens in the genre comes anywhere close. And I have been stuck about the half-way mark with the Onions collection for a few months now - I am determined to finish it (before I shuffle off...), but I think this is the longest it has ever taken me to finish any book. Now it's really just sheer bloody-mindedness that makes me want to get through it.

[Knygathin]

I have been reading a few of the stories in Complete Ghost Stories (Wordsworth Editions), which has all of the twenty stories mentioned above, and enjoyed them for what they are; sometimes spooky, sometimes not so much so, but always witty, and with interesting colorful details from a bygone period. Dickens did not appear as dedicated and focused, as Le Fanu and James, to write down consummately weird ghostly settings, but rather more, mentioned ghosts off-hand in his stories. He included them, very precisely, as natural mental details of the superstitions integrated in the culture.

The very creepy story of the English bride, in "To be Read at Dusk", surely must have inspired E. F. Benson's "The Face"?