Story summary
Samenvatting van Grote spookverhalen
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A father must aid a weeping ghost at a doorway to nowhere to save his ailing son.
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Grote spookverhalen in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 6 h 15 min5 h fast, 7 h 30 min slow
- Lengte
- 89.600 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Grote spookverhalen in short
Together, the twelve tales show the ghost story in many moods. A strong will faces something cold and vast in a London house. The dead return out of love or duty in Cornwall and in a Scottish park.
What Grote spookverhalen is about
What would you do if your watch slid off the table by itself and the candles began to fade? That is the night that opens this book. A man sleeps in a London house that everyone calls haunted, and something dark takes shape in the air before him.
Great Ghost Stories was put together by Joseph Lewis French, who chose twelve tales by writers from Britain, France, Germany and America. Each one stands alone, and each asks what lies behind a locked door, a mirror or a quiet stair. You get the heart of every story, told in order.
Voor wie is het?. This book is for readers who love a candlelit evening, a creaking stair and a tale told by the fire. It suits fans of haunted houses, vampires and werewolves.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A skeptic spends a night in a haunted house
In The House and the Brain by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a friend claims he has found a haunted house on Oxford Street. The friend and his wife left after three days, driven out by a terror they could not name. The narrator, proud of his nerves, decides to sleep there himself.
He takes his servant, a revolver, a dagger and a bold bull terrier. He expects to catch some trickster. The house answers at once. Small bare footprints form on the damp stones of the yard, and an unseen hand tugs at his wrist.
Near midnight the watch slides off the table, three knocks sound at the bedhead, and the servant runs shrieking into the street. A tall darkness takes shape in the air, and the candles seem to give up their light. Afterward the narrator suspects a distant, spiteful will at work. Reason can hold steady in a haunted room, but it still has to explain what it sees.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
Two soldiers keep a promise locked in brass
Arthur Quiller-Couch opens The Roll Call of the Reef in a Cornish cottage, where a quarryman takes an old drum and trumpet down from a hook.
- 3Begin gratis met lezen
A father hears a ghost beg to be let in
In Margaret Oliphant's The Open Door, Colonel Mortimer rents a house near Edinburgh after coming home from India.
- 4Begin gratis met lezen
A shuttered house and a face in the mirror
In E. T. A. Hoffmann's The Deserted House, Theodore tells of one summer in a city called X. On a grand avenue one building catches his eye.
- 5Begin gratis met lezen
A sketch drawn at night lands a painter in prison
The Mysterious Sketch by Erckmann-Chatrian is told by Christian Vénius, a poor painter in Nuremberg.
- 6Begin gratis met lezen
A feud on Skye and a vanished director
Fiona Macleod's Green Branches is set in the Hebrides.
- 7Begin gratis met lezen
A hunter shelters strangers and the children grow wary
In Captain Marryat's The Werewolf, Hermann tells how his father Krantz fled Transylvania with his three children to a rough cottage at the edge of a great forest.
- 8Begin gratis met lezen
A jealous dream leaves a mark on a young bride
Thomas Hardy's The Withered Arm opens in a Wessex dairy, where milkers gossip about Farmer Lodge's new bride.
- 9Begin gratis met lezen
A priest meets a woman who divides his life
Théophile Gautier's Clarimonde is a confession told by an old priest named Romuald.
- 10Begin gratis met lezen
A carved cat in a cathedral and an unseen captive
M. R. James builds The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral from an obituary and a clergyman's diaries.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Colonel Mortimer A father who rents a Scottish house and must find a way to help the weeping voice his sick son hears in the ruins.
- Christian Vénius A poor painter in Nuremberg whose strange nighttime sketch brings a sudden fortune and an even more sudden arrest.
- Rhoda Brook A worn milkmaid in Wessex who dreams of her rival, the farmer's new bride, and cannot forget the dream.
- Romuald A young priest ordained after one dazzling glimpse of a woman, and haunted by her for the rest of his days.
- William Langford A traveler on the four-fifteen express who talks with a missing railway director and insists on what he saw.
- Archdeacon Haynes A busy cathedral clergyman whose diaries record whispers, a carved cat and his growing fear on the stairs.
- Dr Hammond A doctor and friend of Harry in New York who helps him face the strangest captive either has ever held.
How it ends (spoiler)
The stories close in many ways. Mr J tears down the secret room and the London house falls quiet. The drummer's drum and trumpeter's trumpet are locked together again with Parson Kendall's secret holy word. The weeping spirit in Scotland is sent home, and Roland recovers. Raikes confesses to murder and hangs, and the painter's sketch names a killer. Gertrude Lodge dies after the touch of the hanged man. Clarimonde crumbles to dust, the archdeacon is found dead on his stair, and the invisible creature in New York starves.
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Vragen over Grote spookverhalen
What is Great Ghost Stories about?
It is a collection of twelve supernatural tales by different authors. They include haunted houses, a vampire, a werewolf, ghostly voices, cursed carvings and an invisible creature. Each story is complete on its own and set in a different place.
Which authors are in Great Ghost Stories?
The authors are Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Margaret Oliphant, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Erckmann-Chatrian, Fiona Macleod, Amelia Edwards, Captain Marryat, Thomas Hardy, Theophile Gautier, M. R. James and Fitz-James O'Brien.
Who is Clarimonde in the book?
Clarimonde is a beautiful woman in Gautier's tale, glimpsed by a young priest at his ordination. She is called a courtesan, and old stories about her say she is a ghoul or vampire, which the priest slowly learns to fear.
Are the stories in Great Ghost Stories true?
They are fiction by different authors, presented through remembered experiences, confessions, journals and other seemingly factual accounts. Some are told as true accounts, such as diaries, confessions or a narrator's own memory, and that style makes the fear feel close to life.
Is Great Ghost Stories easy to read?
Each tale is short enough to enjoy in one evening, with a clear narrator, vivid scenes and plenty of dialogue. You can read the stories in any order and stop wherever you like.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
French, Joseph Lewis. Great Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/great-ghost-stories.
French, J. L. (2026). Great ghost stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/great-ghost-stories
French, Joseph Lewis. Great Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/great-ghost-stories.
@book{french2026great,
author = {French, Joseph Lewis},
title = {Great Ghost Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/great-ghost-stories}
}
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