The Haunted House: A Collection of Short Stories by Charles Dickens and Others

Eight rooms. Eight authors. Eight chilling encounters with the spectral side of Victorian life.

First published as the 1859 Christmas issue of Charles Dickens's popular periodical, All the Year Round, The Haunted House is a unique collaboration and a cornerstone of Victorian supernatural fiction.

The premise is simple: A group of skeptical friends takes over a dilapidated, supposedly haunted manor. They divide the massive, decaying house among them, determined to wait for Christmas and write down every spectral encounter--or lack thereof--that befalls them.

This celebrated anthology features the finest writers of the era, each contributing a distinct, atmospheric, and unforgettable story tied to a different room of the house:

• Charles Dickens anchors the volume with the opening and closing narratives, framing the experiment and penning the macabre tale of The Ghost in Master B's Room and the concluding The Ghost in the Corner Room.

• Wilkie Collins delivers a mystery from The Ghost in the Cupboard Room.

• Elizabeth Gaskell contributes the moving and unsettling account of The Ghost in the Garden Room.

• Stories by Hesba Stretton, George Augustus Sala, and Adelaide Anne Procter fill the remaining, shadowy corridors.

Blending skepticism and superstition, mystery and morality, The Haunted House is a fascinating glimpse into the Victorian obsession with ghosts. This edition is complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of Charles Dickens, giving insight into the life and legacy of the author widely regarded as the greatest novelist of his age.

Discover the secrets hidden within every shadowed corner of this classic Christmas ghost story.