Ghost Stories

Classic Tales of Horror and Suspense

By: Lisa Morton, Leslie S. Klinger

Narrated by: Michael Hacker

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A masterful collection of ghost stories that have been overlooked by contemporary listeners—including tales by celebrated authors such as Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, and Edith Wharton—presented with insightful annotations by acclaimed horror anthologists Leslie S. Klinger and Lisa Morton.

The ghost story has long been a staple of world literature, but many of the genre's greatest tales have been forgotten, overshadowed in many cases by their authors' best-selling work in other genres. In this spine-tingling anthology, little known stories from literary titans like Charles Dickens and Edith Wharton are collected alongside overlooked works from masters of horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe and M. R. James.

Acclaimed anthologists Leslie S. Klinger (The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes) and Lisa Morton (Ghosts: A Haunted History) set these stories in historical context and trace the literary significance of ghosts in fiction over almost 200 years—from a traditional English ballad first printed in 1724 up to the science fiction–tinged tales of the early 20th century.

In bringing these masterful tales back from the dead, Ghost Stories will enlighten and frighten both longtime fans as well as new listeners of the genre.

Including stories by:

Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, M. R. James, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, and more.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Pegasus Books (P)2022 Leslie Klinger and Lisa Morton

See Note

Who was the knobhead that thought it would be a great idea for the narrator to say 'See Note' everytime there's a footnote in the text. It's very distracting and interupts the pace of the story. They even do it for the lyrics of a ballad, in mid sentence, interupting the flow and melody of the song.

Little Known for a Reason

This is a collection of little known stories by famous writers of the late XIXth and early XXth centuries. Many struck me as wordy —a fashion of the period— but most were predictable and few were of much interest. There is a good reason for them having fallen into obscurity despite the eminence of their authors. These texts are clearly not the basis of their fame.

The actor reading them tries to salvage the tales by sometimes exaggerated dramatic intonations, but not always as the text would suggest (at least to me) that the characters would actually speak, contributing an artificiality that weakens them further. (Frequently inserting the words “See note” when the note is not part of the audio file also seems an unnecessary distraction.)

This strikes me as one of the weaker Audible offerings I have listened to.

Wanted to like this

Narrator wasn’t that great. The best stories in the collection have been anthologized before and the rarer ones were indifferent.