5 h 54 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the best company in a lonely churchyard is already dead?
In Olive Harper’s The Sociable Ghost, a newspaper reporter finds himself among the old graves of Trinity Churchyard after dark. His midnight journey leads into company that is not quite alive. Yet this is a ghost story where curiosity and wit matter more than terror.
The reporter brings a questioning eye to a place filled with traces of other lives. The ghost brings something less expected: a sociable spirit. Harper turns the lonely churchyard into a setting for gentle gothic humour, where the dead can seem less frightening than the living.
What you’ll discover
- A ghost with company manners Meet a sociable presence that gives the familiar ghost story a lighter, more welcoming turn.
- A reporter among graves Follow a curious witness whose habit of looking and questioning suits this strange midnight adventure.
- Gothic shadows, gentle laughter Enjoy a tale that draws on churchyard gloom but aims for a smile rather than dread.
- Lives beneath the stones Consider the names and memories that make an old city churchyard more than a lonely place.
- A brisk supernatural escape Step into a short comic tale where lively storytelling keeps the darkness from growing too heavy.
Who will love it
Readers who like witty ghost stories, old New York, gentle satire of society manners, and quirky characters telling their own tales. If you enjoy a bedtime tale with jokes and a kind heart, this fits.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A sad reporter meets a skeleton
- Epitaphs lie and cherubs fail
- The underground hall of flowers
- A professional gambler teaches poker
- The dead who were moved too often
- What the dead say about dying
- Widows, undertakers and a stolen mummy
- Misfit bones and a hose gone wild
- Satire, sorrow and the voice behind them
Who’s who
- The young reporterA society reporter nursing a broken heart, who sits in Trinity churchyard and learns, through one strange night, how the dead see the living.
- The Sociable GhostA dead sea captain and former slave trader who craves tobacco and rum, talks without pause, and guides the reporter through the underworld.
- EdwardsA huge, tough ghost of a professional gambler, who tries to teach six lady ghosts how to play poker and nearly breaks.
- Princess ShepA mummified Egyptian princess of the first dynasty, proud and sharp-tongued, who longs to go home and offers the reporter a bargain.
- The bishopA ghost who was a bishop in life, who admits his pride and explains the dead's view of heaven and hell.
- Van Der DamA tall, gloomy tramp ghost moved from graveyard to graveyard, who lost a leg in a removal and speaks for the neglected dead.
- The leader of the smart setA pompous, fussy ghost who organized the great banquet hall and still cares about rank, manners and what society will think.
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- Audiobook
- 5 h 54 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Sociable Ghost
by Olive Harper · 1903
A heartbroken reporter shares his pipe with a ghost and follows the dead down into a banquet under Trinity Church.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Sociable Ghost is a comic ghost story by Olive Harper, who wrote for newspapers and died in 1915. It takes place in one night in May, in the old churchyard of Trinity Church in lower Manhattan, and it gives you a tour of the dead as the author imagines them, with all their pride, grudges and good humor.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A sad reporter meets a skeleton
The story opens at the northwest end of Trinity Church, under a tree and a clump of bushes. A large flat stone there marks the door of an old family vault, and on it sits a young newspaper reporter. He has come to the churchyard because he cannot face anyone. His editor sent him that day to describe the wedding presents of a millionaire's daughter, and he is secretly in love with the bride.
He is in such a black mood that he kicks a little dog and throws a stone at a starving kitten. The cruelty shocks him, since he has never hurt an animal before. He is also too upset to go home to his gentle mother, who would see his trouble without a word. So he sits in the dark with a pipe, a packet of tobacco and a flask of whiskey he has forgotten he carries.
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What is The Sociable Ghost about?
It follows a young New York reporter who spends one May night in Trinity churchyard, where he meets a talkative ghost and watches the dead hold a banquet, dance and convention beneath the church.
Who is the Sociable Ghost?
He is a dead sea captain who traded in rum and slaves, and now longs for tobacco and whiskey. He guides the reporter and talks without pause.
What does getting a passport mean in the book?
A passport is release from the bones. When a ghost has been purified, the bones crumble and the spirit moves on to a better state, as the dead explain.
The author
Olive Harper
1842–1915 · American novelist and translator
Olive Harper was an American novelist and translator. She was born in 1842 and died in 1915. Her books include The Sociable Ghost. She lived during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, writing fiction as well as working as a translator.
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