11 h 17 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 17 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the ghost has more to worry about than the people it haunts?
In Humorous Ghost Stories, Dorothy Scarborough gathers English and American tales in which spirits struggle to frighten the living. Some are vain, clumsy or painfully polite. Others find themselves outwitted by people who refuse to shudder. These separate comic hauntings turn a familiar question around: what happens when a ghost cannot get the reaction it expects?
Scarborough opens with a short introduction exploring why people laugh at what once makes them afraid. The collection includes Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost and Frank R. Stockton's The Transferred Ghost. Haunted houses, midnight noises and wronged spirits provide familiar ground, but wit changes the mood. Fear and laughter share the house, and the living can be as troublesome as the dead.
What you’ll discover
- Ghosts with human worries Meet spirits whose pride, shyness and bad luck make haunting less simple than it seems.
- The living turn the tables Watch curious, cheerful or businesslike people unsettle the ghosts who should unsettle them.
- Wilde and Stockton Explore The Canterville Ghost and The Transferred Ghost among this gathering of comic tales.
- Familiar chills, unexpected laughter Enjoy gothic trappings that invite a shudder, then bend toward a joke.
- A scholar's playful subject Follow Scarborough's interest in the supernatural toward the ghost who fails to frighten.
Who will love it
Readers who love witty stories for reading aloud, gentle ghost lore, or tales short enough for an evening will enjoy this collection. It suits lovers of quick jokes and sly observations.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The laughing ghost is modern and American
- An American family refuses to fear its ghost
- A girl listens to the ghost's sorrow
- Ghosts become products and job seekers
- Courtship crosses the line between the living and the dead
- Ghosts bring floods, scandals and rum
- Ghosts need believers, audiences and clever helpers
- Love and memory keep the dead close
- Belief and doubt drive the oldest tricks
- Tellers, frames and refrains shape the humor
Who’s who
- Sir Simon de CantervilleThe proud, tired ghost of Canterville Chase, who longs for sleep and for respect from a family that will not fear him.
- Virginia OtisThe brave fifteen-year-old daughter of the American Minister, who is the first person to treat the ghost with kindness.
- Hiram B. OtisThe practical American Minister who buys a haunted house and meets its ghost with oil, doubt and good humor.
- Princess HermonthisA Pharaoh's daughter whose mummified foot is bought as a paperweight, and who wants it back.
- Eliphalet DuncanA New York lawyer who inherits a Scottish title and two quarreling ghosts, and must settle them before he can marry.
- Lieutenant Charles SeaforthA young army officer visiting his cousins, who finds his trousers gone every morning and blames a ghost.
- Robert J. DinkleThe last ghost in a town too sensible for spirits, who longs for someone to notice his haunting.
- Widow MorrisA grieving widow who finds comfort and jealousy in a photograph of the hotel where her husband worked.
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Racconti umoristici di fantasmi
An American family out-haunts Sir Simon, a lieutenant loses his trousers, and a ghost ship sits in a turnip field.
Medium level10–20 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
What happens when a ghost meets a family that will not be scared? In the first story of this book, an American minister offers a rusty phantom a bottle of oil for his chains, and his twin sons answer the ghost's best groans with pillows and pea-shooters.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The laughing ghost is modern and American
Dorothy Scarborough begins with a case about the nature of ghosts. In early literature, she says, a wraith took himself very seriously and expected the living to show proper fear. Modern ghosts have learned to smile, and they enjoy a joke at a mortal's expense.
She lists the old equipment, a rattled skeleton, a moldy shroud and a clanking chain. Today's ghost oils his skeleton, trades his shroud to a secondhand dealer and wears the clothes he wore while alive. He has found that ridicule is a better weapon than horror.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- Italiano
- Reading time
- 7 h 20 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Scarborough, Dorothy. Humorous Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/humorous-ghost-stories.
Scarborough, D. (2026). Humorous ghost stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/humorous-ghost-stories
Scarborough, Dorothy. Humorous Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/humorous-ghost-stories.
@book{scarborough2026humorous,
author = {Scarborough, Dorothy},
title = {Humorous Ghost Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/humorous-ghost-stories}
}
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What is Humorous Ghost Stories about?
It is a collection of nearly twenty short tales in which ghosts are funny, lonely, vain or foolish. Mortals meet them with doubt, oil bottles and good manners, and the laughs come from how oddly the two sides behave.
Who wrote the stories in Humorous Ghost Stories?
Dorothy Scarborough edited the book, and the stories come from many authors, including Oscar Wilde, Washington Irving, Frank Stockton, John Kendrick Bangs, Théophile Gautier, Richard Middleton and Eden Phillpotts.
Is The Canterville Ghost in this collection?
It opens the volume. Oscar Wilde's tale follows an American family who buy a haunted English house and refuse to be frightened by its ghost, Sir Simon, who has haunted it since 1584.
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