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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What keeps a house empty: a ghost, a secret, or the weight of its own bad name?
In The Uninhabited House, Charlotte Riddell draws you toward a building nobody will live in. Its bad reputation fills the silence, and rumor does more work than any visitor. This Victorian ghost story makes an empty property a puzzle, with suspicion and secrets at its heart.
Riddell brings her knowledge of London and its business world to the haunted-house tale. Here, the uncanny sits beside money, property and reputation. Fear grows through small things: a closed door, a stranger’s hint, a feeling in a room. The steady pace gives each suggestion space to trouble you.
What you’ll discover
- A house under suspicion Explore the unsettling pull of an empty building whose bad name keeps people away.
- Fear fed by rumor Discover how suspicion can feel as powerful as the possibility of a ghost.
- The business of haunting See money, property and reputation share the stage with the strange and unexplained.
- Small signs of unease Let a closed door or a passing hint draw you deeper into uncertainty.
- A slower kind of dread Settle into measured Victorian prose that lets unease gather rather than rush toward shocks.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like Victorian ghost stories with a puzzle at the centre, comic characters, courtroom scenes, and a young hero who tests a haunted house.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An empty house keeps everyone bound
- Miss Blake mixes selfishness with devotion
- A death leaves the money missing
- The haunting reaches the courtroom
- Patterson enters for more than money
- Simple tests meet an uncanny figure
- A doubtful friend sees for himself
- Debts and kindnesses bind the mystery
Who’s who
- PattersonA young clerk in Mr. Craven's law office who tells the story and risks his nerves to live in the haunted house for love of Helena.
- Miss BlakeHelena's Irish aunt, a muddled and ungrateful but loyal client who borrows from the firm and defends her niece fiercely.
- Helena ElmsdaleA gentle, beautiful orphan who owns the house, fears it, and wishes to earn her own bread as a governess.
- Mr. CravenThe kind, slow-moving lawyer who lends money he never gets back and cannot believe in ghosts, though he suspects someone keeps the house empty.
- Ned MunroPatterson's cheerful friend, a young doctor who doubts the ghost but stays at the house to help him and follows up a clue.
- Colonel MorrisA stiff officer who rents the house, flees from what he and his wife have seen, and fights the firm in court.
- Mr. HarringfordA rich builder who spoke kindly of Elmsdale at the inquest and shows an odd interest in buying River Hall.
- Mrs. StottA poor widow who comes to clean the house, then moves in with her children and is not afraid.
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The Uninhabited House
by Charlotte Riddell · 1875
A clerk agrees to live alone in a riverside house no tenant can bear, for fifty pounds and a girl's sake.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“I do think someone wants to keep the place vacant, and is succeeding admirably.”
In short
What would you do if one empty house kept a whole law firm awake at night? The Uninhabited House is a Victorian ghost story by Mrs.
The Uninhabited House at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 25 min2 h 40 min fast, 4 h slow
- Length
- 48,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1875by Charlotte Riddell
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 Riverside House Haunts a Law Office
The story begins with a headache, not a ghost.
Patterson, one of Mr. Craven's clerks, says every lawyer has a client whose business brings little profit. For Mr. Craven it is Miss Blake, who manages River Hall for her young niece, Helena Elmsdale. When the house is let, the two women live well. When it stands empty, they have almost nothing.
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Details
- First published
- 1875
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Riddell, Charlotte. The Uninhabited House. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-uninhabited-house.
Riddell, C. (2026). The uninhabited house. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-uninhabited-house (Original work published 1875)
Riddell, Charlotte. The Uninhabited House. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-uninhabited-house.
@book{riddell2026uninhabited,
author = {Riddell, Charlotte},
title = {The Uninhabited House},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-uninhabited-house},
note = {First published 1875}
}
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What is The Uninhabited House about?
It is a ghost story. A young law clerk named Patterson agrees to live alone in River Hall, a riverside house that no tenant can bear, to find out why it is haunted and who benefits.
Who is Miss Blake in The Uninhabited House?
Miss Blake is the Irish aunt of Helena Elmsdale, who owns the house. She is a comic, muddled and ungrateful client of the law firm, always borrowing money, yet she is devoted to her niece.
Is The Uninhabited House a true story?
It was written in the nineteenth century and uses real places such as Buckingham Street and the Thames.
The author
Charlotte Riddell
1832–1906 · Irish novelist
Mrs. J. H. Riddell was the pen name of Charlotte Riddell, an Irish novelist and editor. She was born in Carrickfergus in 1832 and moved to London in 1855. She wrote novels and ghost stories, including The Uninhabited House, published in 1875. She died in England in 1906.
“I do think someone wants to keep the place vacant, and is succeeding admirably.”
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