Story summary
Краткое содержание: Двадцать пять историй о призраках
- Чтение: 8 мин.
- 10 parts
- Аудио скоро
A severed hand hangs from a bell pull, a stranger names tonight's burglar, and a black cat follows its master.
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Двадцать пять историй о призраках — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 8 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 3 h 35 min2 h 50 min fast, 4 h 15 min slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 51 300
- 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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Двадцать пять историй о призраках in short
Twenty-Five Ghost Stories gathers short tales from many writers, set in saloons, trains, spas, castles, ships and mountain cabins. Most are told by someone who claims to have seen the thing, and each builds toward a single striking image. Ghosts often come because something is owed, whether a debt, a secret or a promise.
What Двадцать пять историй о призраках is about
What would you do if a stranger appeared in your room at dusk and told you which house a burglar will rob tonight? Or if a friend hung a dried hand from his bell pull as a joke? In this collection, moments like these open the door to fear, wonder and sometimes laughter.
Twenty-Five Ghost Stories, edited by W. Bob Holland, gathers tales from many writers, among them Edgar Allan Poe and Guy de Maupassant. Each story is short, and several narrators insist that their strange accounts are true. Most hold one clear image you will not forget. Some ghosts are fearful, some are comic, and some are sad. Our first stop is Poe's Black Cat.
Для кого. Readers who enjoy campfire tales, short stories finished in one sitting, and narrators who insist their accounts are true will love this anthology. It also suits those who relish stormy-night chills and a laugh.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Poe and Maupassant open with dread
The book opens with two tales of dread that begin in ordinary rooms. In The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, a condemned man writes down the household events that destroyed him. He once loved animals, and his black cat, Pluto, followed him everywhere. Drink changes his temper, and his kindness turns to cruelty.
Pluto eventually suffers his anger too, and the man blames a spirit of perverseness, the urge to do wrong simply because it is wrong. Later a second black cat arrives with a white patch on its chest that slowly changes shape.
The Flayed Hand by Guy de Maupassant starts at a lively student party. A friend named Pierre bursts in with a dried hand stripped of its skin, and he decides to use it as a bell pull. His friends joke and drink to its master's next visit. The jokes do not last, for a bell rings at midnight and by morning police stand in Pierre's bedroom.
A plain voice can turn a small act into a curse.
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Ghosts with unfinished business make their demands
Two tales treat the dead as people with business left undone.
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Skeptics sleep in haunted rooms and take notes
Several narrators say they do not believe in ghosts, and then they are tested.
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Apparitions accuse, haunt, and frighten the living
Mrs. Davenport's Ghost by Frederick P. Schrader follows a New York trial.
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Tales told by firelight carry old sorrows
Many tales here are told aloud to listeners, and the setting matters.
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Old houses keep secrets that must be found
How He Caught the Ghost opens with an agent offering a bargain house because people say it is haunted.
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Ships, hotels, and far places widen the book
The last stretch of the book moves widely.
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Guilt and conscience drive many hauntings
One theme runs through the book like a cold draft: the dead return because the living did wrong.
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Reason and belief argue in every tale
The second theme is the quarrel between common sense and the supernatural.
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Plain voices and short forms build fear
How are these stories told?
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- The narrator of The Black Cat A once gentle animal lover whose drinking turns him cruel, he writes his confession on the eve of his death.
- Pierre A cheerful student who brings home a dried hand as a joke and hangs it where his doorbell should be.
- Walter Stedman A young laborer from the city, hated by townsmen and accused of murdering his employer's daughter, whom he secretly loves.
- Sara Pyne A nearsighted woman who tells why her seaside cottage is draped in blue denim after meeting a salesman's ghost on a train.
- Gilbert Dent A lawyer who falls for a woman glimpsed at a window each sunset and cannot let the mystery go.
- Kit Robinson An old miner who keeps watch by a spruce tree, waiting for the right person to claim a dead partner's secret.
- David Craig A practical young man who rents a haunted house for its low price and sets out to find what drags the chain.
- John Reilly A cyclist touring Pennsylvania on Christmas morning who stops at a ruined house to ask directions.
How it ends (spoiler)
The endings vary. In The Black Cat, the police search the cellar, and the narrator's boast brings a cry from behind the wall that gives him away. In The Flayed Hand, Pierre dies mad, and the hand is found in a grave. Some tales end in laughter, with a trick or a rat or a hostess behind the haunting. Others end in rescue or peace for a restless spirit, and a few leave a lingering doubt.
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Вопросы о книге Двадцать пять историй о призраках
What is Twenty-Five Ghost Stories about?
It is a collection of short ghost tales by different writers. Each tells of a haunting, an apparition or a strange coincidence, in settings from Mexican offices and Yorkshire manors to ships at sea and a Pennsylvania road.
Who wrote the stories in Twenty-Five Ghost Stories?
W. Bob Holland edited the collection. The tales come from various authors, including Edgar Allan Poe and Guy de Maupassant, while others appear under initials or without any name at all.
Are the ghosts in these stories always real?
Not always. Some stories treat the ghost as real, and others look for ordinary causes such as nerves, tricks or mistaken senses. The mix keeps readers guessing which kind of tale they are in.
Is Twenty-Five Ghost Stories easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that each tale is short and stands alone. The narrators speak plainly, and the stories are built around one clear scene, so you can pick up the book anywhere.
What is the epigraph from Hamlet about?
It says there are more things in heaven and earth than our philosophy imagines. It sets the theme of the whole book, which weighs reason against belief in the unseen.
Как сослаться на это издание
Twenty-Five Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/twenty-five-ghost-stories.
Twenty-five ghost stories. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/twenty-five-ghost-stories
Twenty-Five Ghost Stories. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/twenty-five-ghost-stories.
@book{anonymous2026twentyfive,
title = {Twenty-Five Ghost Stories},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/twenty-five-ghost-stories}
}
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Получите полное краткое содержание Двадцать пять историй о призраках бесплатно
- 200 000+ классических книг в формате электронных книг, аудиокниг и кратких содержаний на 15 минут, а также печатные книги, в том числе крупным шрифтом, по себестоимости печати
- До 5 читателей в вашей семье на одном плане
