19 Humorous Ghost Stories

The stories by Eden Phillpotts and Richard Middleton in this collection show the diversity of the English humor as associated with apparitions, and are entertaining in themselves. The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde, is one of his best short stories and is in his happiest vein of laughing satire. This travesty on the conventional traditions of the wraith is preposterously delightful, one of the cleverest ghost stories in our language. Zangwill has written engagingly of spooks, with a laughable story about Samuel Johnson. And there are others. But the fact remains that in spite of conceded and admirable examples, the humorous ghost story is for the most part American in creation and spirit. Washington Irving might be said to have started that fashion in skeletons and shades, for he has given us various comic haunters, some real and some make-believe. Frank R. Stockton gave his to funny spooks with a riotous and laughing pen. The spirit in his Transferred Ghost is impudently deathless, and has called up a train of subsequent haunters. John Kendrick Bangs has made the darker regions seem comfortable and homelike for us, and has created ghosts so human and so funny that we look forward to being one—or more. We feel downright neighborly toward such specters as the futile “last ghost” Nelson Lloyd evokes for us, as we appreciate the satire of Rose O'Neill's sophisticated wraith. The daring concept of Gelett Burgess's Ghost Extinguisher is altogether American. The field is still comparatively limited, but a number of Americans have done distinctive work in it. The specter now wears motley instead of a shroud, and shakes his jester's bells the while he rattles his bones. I dare any, however grouchy, reader to finish the stories in this volume without having a kindlier feeling toward ghosts!


Contents

The Canterville Ghost, By Oscar Wilde

The Ghost-extinguisher, By Gelett Burgess

“dey Ain't No Ghosts”, By Ellis Parker Butler

The Transferred Ghost, By Frank R. Stockton

The Mummy's Foot, By Théophile Gautier

The Rival Ghosts, By Brander Matthews

The Water Ghost Of Harrowby Hall, By John Kendrick Bangs

Back From That Bourne, Anonymous

The Ghost-ship, By Richard Middleton

The Transplanted Ghost, By Wallace Irwin

The Last Ghost In Harmony, By Nelson Lloyd

The Ghost Of Miser Brimpson, By Eden Phillpotts

The Haunted Photograph, By Ruth Mcenery Stuart

The Ghost That Got The Button, By Will Adams

The Specter Bridegroom, By Washington Irving

The Specter Of Tappington, Compiled By Richard Barham

In The Barn, By Burges Johnson

A Shady Plot, By Elsie Brown

The Lady and the Ghost, By Rose Cecil O'neill