Summary
Summary of Humorous Ghost Stories
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Some ghosts fail to frighten
Dorothy Scarborough gathers ghost tales in which the dead are not always good at frightening anyone. A writer and teacher who studied the supernatural in fiction, she turns her attention to spirits who are vain, clumsy, polite or outwitted by the living. Their failings give the collection its comic starting point.
English and American writers bring different voices to these hauntings. What holds them together is a question: why do people laugh at something that once made them shudder? Here, humor and fear share the same house.
Key idea 2
Familiar ghostly habits invite laughter
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Key idea 3
The living upset the haunting
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Key idea 4
Ghosts have human worries too
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Key idea 5
Familiar hauntings give jokes their shape
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Key idea 6
Ordinary life answers the supernatural
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love light, short fiction, Wilde or Stockton, and ghost stories without nightmares, with vain, clumsy spirits outwitted by the living.
What this book is
Humorous Ghost Stories is an anthology gathered by the American writer and teacher Dorothy Scarborough. She was a scholar of the supernatural in fiction, and here she turns to the ghost who fails to frighten. The book brings together tales from English and American writers in which spirits are vain, clumsy, polite, put upon or simply outwitted by the living.
She opens with a short introduction on why people laugh at what once made them shudder. What follows is a sampler of comic hauntings, including Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost and Frank R. Stockton's The Transferred Ghost. You get a quick tour of how humor and fear can share one house. Let us begin with the central idea that holds the collection together.
In this summary
- 1A ghost can be funny and still hauntFree
- 2Living people often outdo the dead
- 3Ghosts have worries, pride and bad luck
- 4Why such tales have lasted and how to read them
Key point 1 of 4
A ghost can be funny and still haunt
The first idea behind the collection is that fear and laughter sit closer together than we think. A ghost is a figure built on rules. It walks at night, it clanks chains, it wants something unfinished settled. Once a writer lets a reader see those rules clearly, they start to look like habits, and habits can be mocked.
Scarborough, who studied how the supernatural works in fiction, understood this well. In the comic tale the ghost is still there, and the house is still strange. But the story asks what happens when the dead meet people who are practical, bored or unimpressed.
For a reader this changes the pleasure. You are not waiting for a scream. You are waiting for the moment when the haunting meets ordinary life and ordinary life wins, or at least holds its ground. That small collision is the engine of nearly every tale in the book.
That’s 1 of 4 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
What happens when familiar ghostly rules begin to look like habits?
Right. “Once a writer lets a reader see those rules clearly, they start to look like habits, and habits can be mocked.”Not quite. “Once a writer lets a reader see those rules clearly, they start to look like habits, and habits can be mocked.”
How does the American family respond to the specter in The Canterville Ghost?
Right. “In Wilde's The Canterville Ghost, an English house is bought by an American family who treat its old specter as a nuisance to be handled with household remedies.”Not quite. “In Wilde's The Canterville Ghost, an English house is bought by an American family who treat its old specter as a nuisance to be handled with household remedies.”
What does giving a ghost feelings allow the reader to do?
Right. “When a ghost has feelings, the reader can sympathize while smiling.”Not quite. “When a ghost has feelings, the reader can sympathize while smiling.”
Questions about Humorous Ghost Stories
What is Humorous Ghost Stories about?
It is an anthology of short tales in which ghosts and hauntings are played for laughs. Spirits are proud, awkward or outwitted, and the living respond with practical good sense instead of terror.
Who edited Humorous Ghost Stories?
Dorothy Scarborough, an American author and Columbia University teacher, put the collection together. She studied supernatural fiction and wrote about it, which shaped her choice of comic tales.
Does it include Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost?
Yes. Wilde's tale of an American family and the old English ghost of their new house is among the best-known stories in the anthology, alongside Frank R. Stockton's The Transferred Ghost.
Are the stories scary?
Not much. The tales use the usual ghostly props, such as haunted rooms and night noises, but aim at amusement. They suit readers who want a light, spooky mood without real fear.
Is Humorous Ghost Stories hard to read?
No. The tales are short and self-contained, so you can read one at a time. The plots are simple and the jokes are easy to follow.
