Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories

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Information

First editions:
- Farrar Straus Giroux, 1983, USA.
- Jonathan Cape, 1983, Great Britain.
Selected and compiled by: Roald Dahl
Introduction written by: Roald Dahl

Contains:
- “Introduction” by Roald Dahl
- “W.S.” by L. P. Hartley
- “Harry” by Rosemary Timperley
- “The Corner Shop” by Cynthia Asquith
- “In the Tube” by E. F. Benson
- “Christmas Meeting” by Rosemary Timperley
- “Elias and the Draug” by Jonas Lie
- “Playmates” by A. M. Burrage
- “Ringing the Changes” by Robert Aickman
- “The Telephone” by Mary Treadgold
- “The Ghost of a Hand” by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
- “The Sweeper” by A. M. Burrage (Ex–Private X)
- “Afterward” by Edith Wharton
- “On the Brighton Road” by Richard Middleton
- The Upper Berth” by F. Marion Crawford.

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Description

As Dahl relates in the introduction, he started the research for this book by making a call to the celebrated ghost-story anthologist/writer, Lady Cynthia Asquith. He then went to the British Museum Library, and read a total of 749 tales before selecting 14 for this anthology. His criterion: “Spookiness is, after all, the real purpose of the ghost story. It should give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts.” Included here are not only acknowledged classics by Robert Aickman, Edith Wharton, J. S. Le Fanu, and F. Marion Crawford, but also tales by lesser–known writers such as L. P. Hartley, Rosemary Timperley, Jonas Lie, Mary Treadgold, and A. M. Burrage. The Washington Post writes, “Dahl’s taste, it will surprise no one, is impeccable.”