Story summary
Краткое содержание: Юмористические истории о привидениях
- Чтение: 8 мин.
- 10 parts
- Аудио скоро
An American family out-haunts Sir Simon, a lieutenant loses his trousers, and a ghost ship sits in a turnip field.
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Юмористические истории о привидениях — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 8 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 6 h 25 min5 h 5 min fast, 7 h 40 min slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 91 500
- Уровень в библиотеке
- Средний longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Сколько времени нужно на чтение классики · Обновлено
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Юмористические истории о привидениях in short
The book makes one steady argument in many costumes. Ghosts are best when they have personalities, and the living are best when they have a sense of humor. What you keep is a gallery of lively people.
What Юмористические истории о привидениях is about
What happens when a ghost meets a family that will not be scared? In the first story of this book, an American minister offers a rusty phantom a bottle of oil for his chains, and his twin sons answer the ghost's best groans with pillows and pea-shooters.
That is the spirit of Humorous Ghost Stories, gathered by Dorothy Scarborough in 1921. She brings together nearly twenty tales by writers such as Oscar Wilde, Washington Irving and Théophile Gautier.
Для кого. Readers who love witty stories for reading aloud, gentle ghost lore, or tales short enough for an evening will enjoy this collection. It suits lovers of quick jokes and sly observations.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
The laughing ghost is modern and American
Dorothy Scarborough begins with a case about the nature of ghosts. In early literature, she says, a wraith took himself very seriously and expected the living to show proper fear. Modern ghosts have learned to smile, and they enjoy a joke at a mortal's expense.
She lists the old equipment, a rattled skeleton, a moldy shroud and a clanking chain. Today's ghost oils his skeleton, trades his shroud to a secondhand dealer and wears the clothes he wore while alive. He has found that ridicule is a better weapon than horror.
Scarborough adds that the humorous ghost is mostly American. She credits dry humor and a readiness to laugh at oneself. The laughing ghost is a character with moods, flaws and wit.
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An American family refuses to fear its ghost
The opening tale, The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, begins with a sale.
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A girl listens to the ghost's sorrow
After weeks of pranks, the story changes mood.
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Ghosts become products and job seekers
Gelett Burgess writes The Ghost Extinguisher in the voice of a proud scientist.
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Courtship crosses the line between the living and the dead
Théophile Gautier's The Mummy's Foot begins in a Paris junk shop full of old armor, china and dust.
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Ghosts bring floods, scandals and rum
In John Kendrick Bangs's The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall, a dripping lady rises every Christmas Eve from the best bedroom floor and stays an hour, soaking everything she touches.
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Ghosts need believers, audiences and clever helpers
In Wallace Irwin's The Transplanted Ghost, a millionaire named Thaddeus Hobson buys the medieval Gauntmoor Castle and has it moved stone by stone to Perkinsville, Ohio.
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Love and memory keep the dead close
Ruth McEnery Stuart's The Haunted Photograph follows the Widow Morris, whose husband was head steward at a hotel that burned down.
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Belief and doubt drive the oldest tricks
Washington Irving's The Specter Bridegroom is set in Germany's Odenwald, where the proud Baron Von Landshort awaits the groom chosen for his daughter.
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Tellers, frames and refrains shape the humor
Many of these tales are told by a character, not by an author.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Sir Simon de Canterville The proud, tired ghost of Canterville Chase, who longs for sleep and for respect from a family that will not fear him.
- Virginia Otis The brave fifteen-year-old daughter of the American Minister, who is the first person to treat the ghost with kindness.
- Hiram B. Otis The practical American Minister who buys a haunted house and meets its ghost with oil, doubt and good humor.
- Princess Hermonthis A Pharaoh's daughter whose mummified foot is bought as a paperweight, and who wants it back.
- Eliphalet Duncan A New York lawyer who inherits a Scottish title and two quarreling ghosts, and must settle them before he can marry.
- Lieutenant Charles Seaforth A young army officer visiting his cousins, who finds his trousers gone every morning and blames a ghost.
- Robert J. Dinkle The last ghost in a town too sensible for spirits, who longs for someone to notice his haunting.
- Widow Morris A grieving widow who finds comfort and jealousy in a photograph of the hotel where her husband worked.
How it ends (spoiler)
In The Canterville Ghost, Virginia's prayer brings Sir Simon peace, and the dead almond tree blossoms. In The Rival Ghosts, the quarreling spirits marry and leave the house to the lawyer's honeymoon. The Transferred Ghost ends with the spirit moved to a murdered nobleman and Madeline accepting the narrator. Most tales close on a joke: a fraud is found out, the trousers turn up buried, or the ghosts simply go.
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Вопросы о книге Юмористические истории о привидениях
What is Humorous Ghost Stories about?
It is a collection of nearly twenty short tales in which ghosts are funny, lonely, vain or foolish. Mortals meet them with doubt, oil bottles and good manners, and the laughs come from how oddly the two sides behave.
Who wrote the stories in Humorous Ghost Stories?
Dorothy Scarborough edited the book, and the stories come from many authors, including Oscar Wilde, Washington Irving, Frank Stockton, John Kendrick Bangs, Théophile Gautier, Richard Middleton and Eden Phillpotts.
Is The Canterville Ghost in this collection?
It opens the volume. Oscar Wilde's tale follows an American family who buy a haunted English house and refuse to be frightened by its ghost, Sir Simon, who has haunted it since 1584.
Is Humorous Ghost Stories scary to read?
It is mostly playful. The tales are short, each with its own clear voice, so you can read them one at a time. Chills are brief and usually give way to a joke.
What does Scarborough mean by the humorous ghost?
In her introduction she argues that early ghosts were solemn, while modern ones joke, satirize and laugh at themselves. She says this comic ghost is largely American, though she praises French and English examples too.
Как сослаться на это издание
Scarborough, Dorothy. Humorous Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/humorous-ghost-stories.
Scarborough, D. (2026). Humorous ghost stories. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/humorous-ghost-stories
Scarborough, Dorothy. Humorous Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/humorous-ghost-stories.
@book{scarborough2026humorous,
author = {Scarborough, Dorothy},
title = {Humorous Ghost Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/humorous-ghost-stories}
}
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