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A haunted room, a strange warning, a quiet moment when the familiar no longer feels safe.
Stories of Mystery gathers eight tales of ghosts, suspense and the unexplained, selected by Rossiter Johnson. Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Amelia B. Edwards and Catherine Crowe are among the writers here. Each brings a different way of stirring fear, letting puzzling events disturb a world that first seems ordinary.
The collection brings together voices from Britain and America, including William D. O’Connor, Allan Cunningham, Robert T. S. Lowell and Francis O’Connor. Haunted rooms, omens and strange warnings invite you to question what seems possible. The pace is unhurried: scenes take shape, unease gathers, and reason does not always offer a comfortable answer.
What you’ll discover
- Eight distinct voices Discover how different nineteenth-century storytellers shape dread, each within a single short tale.
- The familiar turns strange Enter everyday settings where a puzzling event unsettles the comfort of ordinary life.
- Warnings without easy answers Meet ghosts and omens that leave room for doubt about what reason can explain.
- Suspense that takes time Let carefully set scenes and gathering unease draw you into the mysteries.
- Questions beneath the chills Explore the fears surrounding death, guilt, fate and the limits of human knowledge.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy ghost stories by firelight, railway puzzles, sea legends and tales of conscience will love this collection of short fiction with vivid settings and many voices.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A ghost gives mercy a face
- An object supports an impossible encounter
- A warning leaves duty without direction
- A haunted place preserves its warning
- Pity accompanies a man left alone
- Granted wishes hide an unseen price
- Ambition silences a doubt about guilt
- Perfection obscures the beauty already present
- The unexplained asks something of people
Who’s who
- Dr. Charles RentonA rich, stern Boston physician and landlord who wants to keep his money and his mood, and who is followed home by a ghost.
- Netty RentonHis bright, teasing daughter, who wants her father to be as kind as she knows he can be.
- William LangfordA junior partner in a trading firm who shares a train compartment with a man he is sure he knows.
- The SignalmanA careful, educated railwayman in a lonely cutting who wants to understand a warning no one else can see.
- Mark MacmoranAn old Solway mariner who curses the two haunted wrecks that have drowned his family and tells their legend.
- Skipper Benjie WesthamA kind Newfoundland fisherman who tells how he was left alone on drifting ice among seals.
- Antoine de ChaulieuA poor, gifted young lawyer in Rouen who wants fame, fortune and Natalie de Bellefonds.
- AylmerA scientist who loves his wife and cannot rest until a small crimson mark on her cheek is gone.
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Stories of Mystery
A ghost walks beside a Boston doctor on Christmas Eve while a signalman fears a figure at a tunnel mouth.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What would you do if a ghost walked beside you through Boston on Christmas Eve, begging you to look at it? Or if a signalman at a railway tunnel told you of a figure only he can see, one that always comes before a death?
Stories of Mystery at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h3 h 10 min fast, 4 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 57,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A ghost follows a hard landlord home
In The Ghost by William D. O'Connor, a misty figure with long white hair waits outside the door of Dr. Charles Renton on a bitter Christmas Eve in Boston. The doctor strides home scowling. He hears only a faint voice calling his name and blames his nerves.
Inside, the ghost stands silent in the library. Renton is rich, proud and sour after money losses. His daughter Netty charms him and hands him an old yellow letter. It was written fifteen years ago by his boyhood friend George Feval, a poor poet who died on Christmas Eve. It begs Renton to love the poor and the outcast. Renton calls it the wild talk of a fevered mind.
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Details
- Language
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- Level
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Cite this edition
O'Connor, William D., et al. Stories of Mystery. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/stories-of-mystery.
O'Connor, W. D., Edwards, A. B., Dickens, C., Cunningham, A., Lowell, R. T. S., O'Connor, F., Crowe, C., & Hawthorne, N. (2026). Stories of mystery. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/stories-of-mystery
O'Connor, William D., Amelia B. Edwards, Charles Dickens, Allan Cunningham, Robert T. S. Lowell, Francis O'Connor, Catherine Crowe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Stories of Mystery. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/stories-of-mystery.
@book{oconnor2026stories,
author = {O'Connor, William D. and Edwards, Amelia B. and Dickens, Charles and Cunningham, Allan and Lowell, Robert T. S. and O'Connor, Francis and Crowe, Catherine and Hawthorne, Nathaniel},
title = {Stories of Mystery},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/stories-of-mystery}
}
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What is Stories of Mystery about?
It is a collection of eight Victorian tales of ghosts, suspense and the unexplained. They include a Christmas Eve haunting in Boston, a railway puzzle, a signalman's warning, a sea legend, an ice-floe survival story and a scientist's experiment.
Who wrote the stories in Stories of Mystery?
Rossiter Johnson edited the book. The tales are by William D. O'Connor, Amelia B. Edwards, Charles Dickens, Allan Cunningham, Robert T. S. Lowell, Francis O'Connor, Catherine Crowe and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Is The Signal-Man by Dickens in this collection?
Yes, it stands third. A traveler visits a lonely railway signalman who fears a figure by a danger light near a tunnel, and the two men try to understand what its warnings mean.
The author
William D. O'Connor, Amelia B. Edwards, Charles Dickens, Allan Cunningham, Robert T. S. Lowell, Francis O'Connor, Catherine Crowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne
1832–1889 · American writer
William Douglas O’Connor (1832–1889) was an American writer. He was born in Boston and died in Washington, D.C. He wrote the novel Harrington (1860) and the pamphlet The Good Gray Poet (1866), about Walt Whitman. He also wrote short stories and worked for the United States Lighthouse Board.
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