Shelf Control #205: Three Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens

Wednesday, the 16th of November, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what it’s about, why you want to read it, when you got it, and such. If you participate, don’t forget to link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!

For today’s pick I’m back to my shelf of public domain ebooks which I am keen to read but haven’t gotten to because of the already-toppling-over pile. Given that we’re still in November, I also thought another of the various volumes of spooky stories which are waiting for me to get to them would be a fitting pick. And that is what I’ve chosen–Three Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens.

While I’ve reviewed only a couple of Dickens books on this blog so far (The Old Curiosity Shop and Nicholas Nickleby), Dickens became a great favourite with me when I read his Nicholas Nickleby (this was around the time I’d first started reading classics in the original), a book that completely drew me in to both story and characters (yes it has a simpering and angelic heroine as his stories do most times, but it also has a feisty one to counter, as well as an array of colourful characters including a theatrical troupe that Nicholas joins at one point). Not to get to carried away, I have since read quite a few of his novels, but am yet to explore his other works, including his travel writings, and what I’ve picked today, his ghost stories.

Three Ghost Stories as the name reveals, is a short volume which has three such stories, ‘The Haunted House’ which is set around a house which is avoided since it is said to be haunted, ‘The Trial for Murder’ where the ghost of the murder victim visits the head juror, and ‘The Signal Man’, where a railway signalman tells of his being haunted by an apparition. The edition I downloaded has only a couple of illustrations and doesn’t mention the illustrator. I’ know that ‘ve enjoyed the elements of mystery he includes in some of his novels, and think that this would probably translate well into his ghost stories too, especially since one at least appears to feature a mystery angle.

Have you read any of Dickens’ ghost stories? Which ones and how did you like them?

Cover image as always from Goodreads.

Advertisement