10 h 46 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 46 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the past refuses to stay quiet—and a ghost carries the message no one wants to hear?
In Famous Modern Ghost Stories, Dorothy Scarborough gathers tales of haunting from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. An American novelist, teacher and student of the supernatural in fiction, she chooses with a critic’s eye. The result moves between quiet dread and open terror, offering more than one way to feel afraid.
These stories belong to a period when ghost fiction flourishes on both sides of the Atlantic. Drawing rooms and country houses can unsettle readers as much as castles. Restless spirits may have wrongs to avenge, while grief, guilt and unfinished business give the haunting a force beyond the fright itself.
What you’ll discover
- Quiet dread, open terror Explore a range of fearful moods, from subtle unease to the force of outright terror.
- The past presses close Meet ghosts that suggest grief, guilt and matters the living would rather leave alone.
- Haunting beyond the castle Discover how drawing rooms and country houses become settings for stories that unsettle.
- Spirits with unfinished business Encounter the restless spirit with a wrong to avenge, a haunting driven by unresolved hurt.
- A critic’s discerning eye Follow Scarborough’s choices through a period when the ghost story becomes serious short fiction.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy ghost tales, from creeping dread to quiet tenderness, will love this anthology. It suits lovers of eerie places, haunted houses and old curses.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Modern ghosts are bolder and more varied
- Wild places can feel alive and hostile
- Guilt casts a shadow nobody can move
- A cursed skull will not stay buried
- A man returned from death carries terror
- A blind man's hand outlives him
- Silent crowds and invisible creatures chill differently
- Revenge and jealousy reach beyond the grave
- Longing draws the living toward ruin
- Kind ghosts and rumored angels close the book
Who’s who
- Eustace BorlsoverA scientist at Borlsover Conyers who inherits his blind uncle's books and receives a strange parcel he never asked for.
- Dick DarrelAn American living on the Breton coast who laughs at local curses and wants only a quiet life with his wife Lys.
- LazarusA man who comes back from three days in the grave, with a silent gaze that no one can bear.
- Henry GlynnA doctor whose sisters fear him after their brother Edward dies suddenly, and who cannot explain the shadow on the wall.
- LigeiaA tall, learned woman with great dark eyes who clings to life with a fierce will.
- Tam o'ShanterAn Airedale who reaches heaven's gate and waits outside for the family he left behind.
- FrancesA newly dead woman who watches her husband Allan and her sister Theresa and cannot let go of her jealousy.
- Catherine FontaineAn old lacemaker who wears a ring of clasped hands and goes to early Mass every morning.
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- Large print hardcover
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Berühmte moderne Geistergeschichten
by Dorothy Scarborough (Herausgeberin)
Willow bushes creep toward a tent on a Danube island, and a skull rolls uphill on a Breton moor.
Medium level10–20 hours to readDeutsch
Excellent
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In short
Two friends in a canoe drift into a marsh where the willows seem to lean closer each hour. A Breton mayor flees a skull that will not stay where it is put.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Modern ghosts are bolder and more varied
Dorothy Scarborough opens with a bold claim. The dead, she says, grow more lively all the time. Ghosts now appear in novels, plays, lectures and films, and she jokes that the haunting world has seen a great rise in population.
Why so many? Perhaps the recent war made everyone hungry for sensation. Perhaps we enjoy a safe thrill from the printed page. And the more people learn about natural law, the more they wonder about the supernatural.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 7 h 0 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Famous Modern Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/famous-modern-ghost-stories.
Famous modern ghost stories. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/famous-modern-ghost-stories
Famous Modern Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/famous-modern-ghost-stories.
@book{anonymous2026famous,
title = {Famous Modern Ghost Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/famous-modern-ghost-stories}
}
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What is Famous Modern Ghost Stories about?
It is a collection of fifteen ghost stories by different authors, gathered by Dorothy Scarborough in 1921. Each tale shows a different kind of ghost, from invisible creatures and cursed skulls to grieving spirits and a dog waiting at heaven's gate.
Which stories are in the collection?
The tales include The Willows, The Shadows on the Wall, The Messenger, Lazarus, The Beast with Five Fingers, The Mass of Shadows, What Was It, The Middle Toe of the Right Foot, Ligeia, The Bowmen and A Ghost, among others.
Who wrote the stories in this book?
The authors include Algernon Blackwood, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Robert W. Chambers, Leonid Andreyev, W. F. Harvey, Anatole France, Fitz-James O'Brien, Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen and Guy de Maupassant, among others.
More by Dorothy Scarborough (Herausgeberin)
Alle Bücher des Autors ansehenMore like this
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