Brennan - The Best Ghost Stories Ever Told

THE BEST

GHOST
STORIES

EVER TOLD

THE BEST

GHOST

STORIES

EVER TOLD

EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY

STEPHEN BRENNAN

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 2011 by Stephen Vincent Brennan

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The best ghost stories ever told / edited and introduced by Stephen Brennan.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-61608-364-9 (alk. paper)

1. Ghost stories. I. Brennan, Stephen Vincent.

PN6071.G45B47 2011

808.838733--dc23

2011016980

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

And so, it is said, you are haunted!

My friend, we are haunted all;

Isabella banks

Boo! Did i scare you? Did you jump? Well, surprise is only part of it. There is also memory, regret, fear, romance, humoryes, humor too, else how would you deal with the horrorand a dozen other elemental human constructs and emotions.

Do you believe in ghosts? Im sure I do. Samuel Johnson said somewhere or other that while reason is against it, everyone believes in ghosts. That is, when asked, you deny your belief in any such thing, and yet deep in your secret heart, you do believe. And so, I think, it is with most of us. Nevertheless, the very fact that this question continues to be among the most asked, by all peoples, in all places, of all time (do you know of any person who has not asked it, either of themselves or of another?) attests to the fearsome grip this idea of an encounter with the spirit world has nowhas darn near always hadupon us. It would seem that spooks have always been with us. They comesome bidden, some unbidden. Frequently they are the ghosts of our past, prompted by anything from guilty memory to dyspeptic digestion. Remember too, it is not required that a ghost be seen to be believed. a specter may just as well be heard, or smelled, or otherwise sensed. And though it is true that the extent of our sensitivity has much to do with our vulnerability and attraction to this same spirit world, even the most levelheaded rationalist cannot deny the sudden start that makes the heart go thump, the tingle of fear down the spine, the hair on end at the nape of the neck, the barest scent on a breath of air that instantly transports you to another place and time, or the lost lovers name youre sure you can hear in the center of a howling wind.

I best like to hear a ghost story told by camp or bonfire light. Theres something about an outdoor blaze, late at night, with the darkness all around, that suits a tale of visitation from beyond. I like the incense of wood-smoke, the pop and crack of burning log, the thousand sparks riding skyward on the rising heat sacerdotal token of a million propitiations to fearful gods, the blaze in Platos cave, the burning bush that is not consumedall the long history of mans (or womans) grappling with her mysterious present, his half-remembered past, their unknown future. (Scrooge was visited by these very three ghosts.) and I like the huddled camaraderie of the auditors of the story, snuggled together against, and in appreciation of, the terror out there.

Because within the fire-lit circle there is safety, whereas in the darkness beyond ? This is primal stuff. The teller, standing in for all of us, conjures an impossible, fearful story, and by his very uttering or outing of the tale makes us all safe from it, by rendering the spooky story into something, if not common- place, then at least manageable, and perhaps laughed at as well. and if the teller is any good at all, we are entertained, beguiled, and chilled, when at last we go from the fire, without fear, to our beds.

The ghost story has a long and honorable provenance in the lore and literature of our tribe. aboriginal and First Peoples regarded it much as Ive described above. The holy men and women mediated between the living and their dead ancestors, and then worked it all out around the flicker and glow of the communal campfire. This is the ghost story as sacred rite also, and some of this mingling persists in the writings that were to become the Bible.

It may be heresy, but it can be no sacrilege to merely note that Jesus several appearances after dying on the cross are in effect ghost storiesto say nothing of the raising of Lazarus, or of the living christs confabs in the desert with the devil. The ancient Greek and Romans organized their understanding of visitations from the spirit world by giving the shades an actual place to dwell Hades, and if you would visit with them, you must go to hell to do it. (The exceptions of course were the unburied dead who roamed the earth frightening the dogs and making a general nuisance of themselves.) With the renaissance and Enlightenment we see a definite split between the telling of ghost stories and the literatures and practices of faith. Much as when the actors are kicked out of the churches, the ghost stories are no longer regarded as sacred, but now secular. Shakespeares ghosts: old King Hamlet, Banquo and Caesars ghost, are cultural figures rather than religious. With the nineteenth century, the ghost story comes into its own as a discrete and separate genre of short story. With the advent of mechanized printing, there was a great demand for ghostly tales, and all the best writers turned their hands to writing them. It is of some interest to note the comparatively large number of women writers who succeeded in getting their ghost stories into print. One can almost imagine their publishers and their editors, as they bought into the stereotypical cant about the female author with words something like: Ah yes, we need an author who is good with character and with romance, with fear and with hysteria. Lets have a woman write it. Hmmm...

Be pleased to find here, between these covers, forty-odd examples of the very best ghost stories ever written. Just take a peek at the table of contents Impressive, what? Even the briefest glimpse at this dream team of authors leaves no doubt as to the significance and popularity of ghost stories in our literature and in our lives. Personally, Im with Bertie Wooster in holding that there are few pleasures equal to curling up with a good goose-flesher.

Now, you may regard yourself as a wholly rational being, or in twentieth century parlance, a clear-eyed realist. or materialism may be your thing, nineteenth century or otherwise. or you may reckon you have boxed the psycho-metaphysical compass with your understanding of the social and anthropomorphic origins of spooky tales. You may even figure that with your learning, your sophistication, and your sangfroid you are proof against the pleasurable terror of the best ghost stories. If that be the case, then I adjure you, attend this book.