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rodneywilhite's review against another edition
3.0
I first read this when I was about 11 years old and absolutely loved it. I decided to dig it out and reread it. The quality is wildly variable, but as a general rule the late-19th/early-20th c. stories are pretty good, some of them quite good, and the contemporary ones range from kind of awful to outright embarrassingly awful.
There are also some "true" accounts, and...uh...yeah. I see why they're all anonymous.
Mixed bag, but that's what I expected. Worth spending a couple bucks on for the good stories, if you want some ghost stories.
There are also some "true" accounts, and...uh...yeah. I see why they're all anonymous.
Mixed bag, but that's what I expected. Worth spending a couple bucks on for the good stories, if you want some ghost stories.
angelikareadsavariciously's review against another edition
4.0
Nothing all that scary,but diverting nonetheless.
hotsake's review
3.0
This was my second time reading this, the first time was over twenty years ago. The book has a wide range of stories although most were write at least 50 years before the book‘s 1981 publication.
jossarian4's review
3.0
Some of these stories are scary, and some are boring, but this collection on a whole is necessary for a hardcore ghost story fan.
_michelle_'s review against another edition
2.0
I read about 3/4 of this book (I did skip over The Canterville Ghost; I want to read it, but I'm not in the right mindset for the attention it deserves at the moment [FYI: I stopped reading at a story or two after The Canterville Ghost, so you'll know where I stopped and what I missed if you pick this book up]) and I'm giving up so close to the finish.
This book calls itself A Treasury of Chilling Tales, but this is simply a collection of ghost stories, period. Very few of them are actually what you would call "chilling", and though even many of the non-scary selections are well written, I wanted what the cover promised, and I didn't get it. Below are a few if the stories I did think were creepy.
"Minuke" (Nigel Kneale) ~ A living haunted house that produces breathing sounds. Enjoyable. Sorry for the dog, though.
The Wind in the Rose-Bush (Mary Wilkins-Freeman) ~ A contemptuous women neglects her step-daughter, leading to her death and a haunted house. Not bad; though the wicked step-mother was really trying my, and her stepdaughter's aunt's, nerves.
Smee (A.M. Burrage) ~ A bit obvious, but a fun read.
A Quartet of Strange Things (Bernhardt J. Hurwood) ~ Finally, these 4 (very) short stories are much closer to the scary, supernatural tales I was looking for when I checked out this book. A relief after the past few stories I read.
The Phantom Hag (attributed to Guy de Maupassant) ~ Occupies less than 3 whole pages, but such fun! The best kind of short horror story: scary and to the point.
The Ghost of the Capuchins (Eugène Montfort) ~ Very spooky and engaging.
Jane (Barbara Gallow) ~ It's just OK. More than the story itself, I like the MCs job; he works in a well-preserved gothic-mansion-turned-radio-station, where he works alone on the weekends, and can read books undisturbed while listening to music, and only has to talk/do commercials once an hour. Plus, he gets to bring his dog inside (with me, it would be my cats!). The ghost is even of the "genteel" variety, and actually stopped making her presence known to recent occupants because she was worried what they thought of her. For a haunting, it's really not such a bad situation.
The Tale of the German Student (Washington Irving) ~ The resolution seems obvious in retrospect, but not in an "I feel stupid way," just that the clue is in the story if you look.
Doorslammer (Donald A. Wollheim) (founder of DAW Books publishing house) ~ More sad than scary, but well-written and engaging.
The Spectre Bride (Anonymous) ~ Not scary but sweet and beautifully written.
The Dead Woman's Photograph (Anonymous) ~ Strange things showing up in pictures is always creepy.
Blind Man's Bluff (H. R. Wakefield) ~ I've heard or read a quote somewhere saying that the only thing scarier than being alone in the dark is finding out you're not alone in the dark, and that applies here.
A Suffolk Miracle (Traditional) ~ A corpse comes back from the dead. It's a poem, but still good as a ghost story.
And I forgot to add, in the correct order, The Red Room (H. G. Wells) ~ A very atmospheric story that I've read before and is probably the gem of this collection (up to the point I read, anyway).
This book calls itself A Treasury of Chilling Tales, but this is simply a collection of ghost stories, period. Very few of them are actually what you would call "chilling", and though even many of the non-scary selections are well written, I wanted what the cover promised, and I didn't get it. Below are a few if the stories I did think were creepy.
Spoiler
"Minuke" (Nigel Kneale) ~ A living haunted house that produces breathing sounds. Enjoyable. Sorry for the dog, though.
The Wind in the Rose-Bush (Mary Wilkins-Freeman) ~ A contemptuous women neglects her step-daughter, leading to her death and a haunted house. Not bad; though the wicked step-mother was really trying my, and her stepdaughter's aunt's, nerves.
Smee (A.M. Burrage) ~ A bit obvious, but a fun read.
A Quartet of Strange Things (Bernhardt J. Hurwood) ~ Finally, these 4 (very) short stories are much closer to the scary, supernatural tales I was looking for when I checked out this book. A relief after the past few stories I read.
The Phantom Hag (attributed to Guy de Maupassant) ~ Occupies less than 3 whole pages, but such fun! The best kind of short horror story: scary and to the point.
The Ghost of the Capuchins (Eugène Montfort) ~ Very spooky and engaging.
Jane (Barbara Gallow) ~ It's just OK. More than the story itself, I like the MCs job; he works in a well-preserved gothic-mansion-turned-radio-station, where he works alone on the weekends, and can read books undisturbed while listening to music, and only has to talk/do commercials once an hour. Plus, he gets to bring his dog inside (with me, it would be my cats!). The ghost is even of the "genteel" variety, and actually stopped making her presence known to recent occupants because she was worried what they thought of her. For a haunting, it's really not such a bad situation.
The Tale of the German Student (Washington Irving) ~ The resolution seems obvious in retrospect, but not in an "I feel stupid way," just that the clue is in the story if you look.
Doorslammer (Donald A. Wollheim) (founder of DAW Books publishing house) ~ More sad than scary, but well-written and engaging.
The Spectre Bride (Anonymous) ~ Not scary but sweet and beautifully written.
The Dead Woman's Photograph (Anonymous) ~ Strange things showing up in pictures is always creepy.
Blind Man's Bluff (H. R. Wakefield) ~ I've heard or read a quote somewhere saying that the only thing scarier than being alone in the dark is finding out you're not alone in the dark, and that applies here.
A Suffolk Miracle (Traditional) ~ A corpse comes back from the dead. It's a poem, but still good as a ghost story.
And I forgot to add, in the correct order, The Red Room (H. G. Wells) ~ A very atmospheric story that I've read before and is probably the gem of this collection (up to the point I read, anyway).
socialpsysteph's review against another edition
3.0
A fun collection of ghost stories, some better than others. Overall though, I enjoyed it.
manwithanagenda's review
4.0
Marvin Kaye's anthologies never disappoint. They used to be ubiquitous at book sales, but have become harder to find in recent years. 'Ghosts' is a favorite of mine and has some of the finest ghost stories of all time. Where Kaye really succeeds is in selecting Victorian and early 20th century stories.
pussreboots's review
4.0
From it I read:
Minuke; Legal Rights; Smee; The Ghost, the Gallant Gael, and Goblin
Minuke; Legal Rights; Smee; The Ghost, the Gallant Gael, and Goblin
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