Classic Gothic Ghost Stories

On the Brighton Road

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Richard Middleton gave up the staid life of a banker for a bohemian lifestyle in his tragically short life. His suicide in 1911 robbed the world of a talented contributor to the canon of gothic ghost stories. This one from a Gothic Curiosity Cabinet.

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Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Gallow's Hill, Salem, Massachusetts

By Nathaniel Hawthorne The great-great-grandson of the only judge in Salem’s witch trials who never publicly regretted his role, Nathaniel Hawthorne spent much of his life dealing with his family’s past through his writing. Whilst The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables get all the notoriety, perhaps none of his works deal as [...]

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The Pursuit of Ichabod Crane, from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving

Into Sleepy Hollow, Irvington, Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is perhaps America’s best known and most loved ghost story, told by the first great American author, Washington Irving. The Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries traces the route of Ichabod Crane that fateful night, in modern-day Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow.

An excerpt from Return to Sleepy Hollow. Click here to read the full essay.

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The Tractate Middoth

The Salem Athenaeum in Salem Massachusetts

The Salem Athenaeum in Salem Massachusetts has a ghost story of it’s own. Click here to view more images of haunted houses The tales of M.R. James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) are rightfully considered classics of the genre. In the Tractate Middoth, we have a mysterious visitor in the library, setting off [...]

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Poe in Charleston and the Legend of Annabel Lee

http://www.historytrekkershoppe.com/GothicArt/Graveyards/18129399_3VT7Pk#903431273_wEqtW

Edgar Allan Poe spent a couple years in Charleston, South Carolina. It is said that he found his inspiration for his last poem, Annabel Lee here. Read more in this treasure from A Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries

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Gothic Short Story: The Lost Ghost by Mary Wilkins

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Ghosts of children are among the most terrifying of the horror genre. Mary Wilkins was born on Halloween in 1852, and her writings realistically depicted life in New England in the 19th Century. Enjoy this piece from the Gothic Curiosity Cabinet.

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The Shadow in the Corner

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A creepy tale from the pen of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, one of the most popular writers of sensational fiction of Victorian England, from the Gothic Curiosity Cabinet.

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The Roll Call of the Reef

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Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch was a British writer of the 19th and 20th centuries, who published under the curious pen-name of Q. An academic as well as a writer, he is best known for the anthology the Book of English Verse. His short story, The Roll Call of the Reef is another treasure from the Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries.

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The Judge’s House

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The Judge’s House by Bram Stoker is a chilling tale of a malicious spirit which carries on after death, as it did in life. A truly great, gothic ghost story, from the Cabinet of Gothic Curiosities

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