Classic Ghost Stories

Boxing Night by E F Benson

26 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On Christmas Day, two sisters in a remote farmhouse in the middle of the Romney Marshes, have a dream. The snow begins to fall heavily and they are is...

Lucky's Grove by H Russell Wakefield

19 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Teaser Script Christmas at Abingdale Hall. The great house decked in festive greenery, servants bustling, family gathering from across the country. A...

The Man Who Came Back by Margery Lawrence

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Christmas at Colonel and Lady Garrison’s house is all warmth, laughter, and parlour games, until the evening’s “entertainment” arrives: a smal...

The Four-Fifteen Express by Amelia B. Edwards

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Four-Fifteen Express, a Christmas Ghost Story by Amelia B. Edwards A fantastic story by the very competent Victorian writer, Amelia B. Edwards. T...

The Doll's Ghost by F. Marion Crawford

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A dollmaker works late into the evening to repair a broken doll. Outside, London's fog presses against the windows. Inside, in the dim workshop light...

The Whistling Room by William Hope Hodgson

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Ireland, a newly purchased castle unsettles its American owner. He is wealthy, engaged to a local woman, and certain that jealous countrymen mean h...

A Haunted House by Charles Dickens

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A neglected Georgian house, shutters still, poplars trees surround it, whispering. Downstairs is a row of servant bells to call servants. One has a my...

Hawley Bank Foundry by L T C Rolt

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Beneath the soot and iron of England’s industrial heart, a foundry lies silent. Its furnaces once roared for empire, but the men are gone, the machi...

The Dunwich Horror by H P Lovecraft

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A remote New England village. Dark rumours swirl among its lonely hills. Whispers of strange rites, of a family line touched by shadows, haunt the woo...

Twilight by Marjorie Bowen

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Twilight opens in a garden where beauty wears a mask to protect it from the years, and twilight brings regrets and confessions. A young courtier stumb...

Halloween Dark Ale by Tony Walker

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A northern lad takes a cheap room above a Wapping pub in ’87, where the Thames presses at the windows like weather. He wants to be a journalist not ...

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A man stands on a railway bridge. Orders pass along the line; the river says nothing. A watch ticks, a breath stalls, and time begins to misbehave. Me...

Phantom Silhouette by Joy Burnett

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A lonely farmhouse stands in a hollow of the hills—its windows dark, its doors long locked, and a story clinging to it that no one in the valley wil...

Bad Company be Walter de la Mare

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a dim Underground carriage, a weary traveller meets a stranger whose silent presence unsettles more deeply than words can tell. Walter de la Mare’...

Cushi by Christopher Woodforde

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

# Cushi - Teaser Script In the chalk hills of Hertfordshire lies Rooksgate Green, where tradition runs deeper than any rector's authority. Here, th...

Hand in Glove by Elizabeth Bowen

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a fading Irish house, two sisters live with their reclusive aunt. Outwardly clever, even charming, they are burdened by secrecy, shabby finery, and...

Et Sempiternum Pereant by Charles Williams

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Et in Sempiternum Pereant by Charles Williams Lord Arglay, retired Chief Justice and seeker of forgotten knowledge, sets out for a quiet scholarly ...

The Hollow Man by Thomas Burke

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A man walks the London streets, thin as a shadow, his eyes open but unseeing. He has no destination, yet something leads him — as if by an unseen ha...

A Visitor from Down Under by L. P. Hartley

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On a wet and foggy evening in post-war London, a man arrives at a modest hotel carrying the calm assurance of wealth and distance. But something else ...

Old Man's Beard by H. Russell Wakefield

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At Brinton-on-Sea, the summer passed in gentle rhythms. Mariella and her young fiancé read side by side on the beach, swam together in the quiet sea,...

The Little Ghost by Hugh Walpole

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In an old house by the Glebeshire coast, silence lingers more heavily than the sound of the sea. Its walls hold an atmosphere of watchfulness, as thou...

The Victim by May Sinclair

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Acroyd is a jealous man—jealous, and prone to sudden, violent anger. He works in a remote country house under the quiet rule of an elderly ma...

The Monolith by Tony Walker

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A narrowboat moors in Eastwick, a village cut off by time and road. Among its postcards and memories stands an ancient stone — and in every image, a...

The True Story of Anthony Ffryar by Arthur Gray

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A scholar remains behind as pestilence silences the college. The gates are locked, the chapel dim, and a single window glows with the light of somethi...

How Pan Came to Little Ingleton by Margery Lawrence

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One summer Sunday in a quiet English village, something is missing—though no one can quite say what. The air hangs thick with heat, the hedgerows wh...

Rose Rose by Barry Pain

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

She was flawless. A model of grace and stillness, prized by every artist who worked with her. But beneath the surface of the painter’s studio—amid...

The Clock by W F Harvey

23 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A letter arrives—calm in tone, almost conversational. But beneath its surface, something unsettles. A favour once done, a house long locked, a memor...

The Lost Ghost (1903) by Mary E Wilkins

18 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A quiet conversation between two women over tea. A rented house. A memory long buried. In *The Lost Ghost*, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman offers no gothic c...

Squire Toby's Will by J S Le Fanu

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Seen from a passing stagecoach, you might think that Gylingden Hall is not the sort of place where the dead rest easily. The chimneys are cold, the ga...

The Confession of Charles Linkworth by E F Benson

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A man waits in silence. The law has spoken, the doctors have done their work. But something does not rest. In the quiet rooms and corridors of the pri...

Members Only Episode July 2025

09 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the Members Only podcast episode of the Classic Ghost Stories podcast for July 2025, I spent a lot of time apologising for being late in delivering...

The Friends of the Friends by Henry James

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What do we see in others that we cannot admit in ourselves? In Henry James's haunting tale, a woman recounts her fascination with two people who have ...

The Tapestried Chamber by Sir Walter Scott

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

General Browne, a soldier hardened by war and governed by reason, accepts an invitation to the castle of his old school-friend, Lord Woodville. The pl...

The Squire's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the year 1795, in the secluded Derbyshire town of Barford, a stranger settles into the old White House. He renovates it handsomely, pays every bill...

The Roll-Call of the Reef by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A gale howls in from the sea as a traveller takes shelter with a smallholder on the Cornish coast. Above the hearth hang two relics: an old cavalry tr...

The Symposium of the Gorgon by Clark Ashton Smith

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Clark Ashton Smith's "Symposium of the Gorgon," a masterful blend of satire and fantasy, made its debut in _Fantastic Universe Science Fiction_ in Oct...

The Red Room by H G Wells

01 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In H.G. Wells's "The Red Room," a young man, confident in his rationality, seeks to debunk the supernatural in a reputedly haunted chamber. He is cert...

The Book by Margaret Irwin

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Late one fog-bound night, a man goes in search of a book to help him sleep. He finds a book he doesn’t remember. Did he inherit it? It has no title...

The Withered Heart by G G Pendarves

21 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Beneath the brooding skies of Braun Fell, the Dewle family grapples with a dark inheritance, and John, a boyhood friend, is urgently summoned to help ...

Huguenin's Wife by P M Shiel

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What lives after love dies? A man once full of charm and wit writes from a forgotten island—Delos, sacred to Apollo, now silent and desolate. He is ...

Clairvoyance by D K Broster

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What lives inside beautiful, silent things? In a quiet English manor, a collector of rare objects welcomes guests, family, and a child with an unusual...

In The Woods by Amyas Northcote

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What watches us from the trees? A solitary girl begins to wander, again and again, into the woods above her home. At first, they offer calm—shade, s...

The Open Door by Margaret Oliphant

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What price, a parent's love? A Scottish family, seeking a quiet life, rents Brentwood House – a grand, Georgian mansion standing in wooded grounds b...

Young Billy-Me-Lad by Annie Smith

06 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What happened down in the cellar? In Andrea Smith's disquieting tale, Peg grapples with her brother Milo's delicate state after a shocking incident. ...

Celui-là by Eleanor Scott

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Who digs in dead ground? A chance encounter on a desolate beach leads Maddox to a discovery that chills the very air. A parchment, a prayer, or perhap...

The Haunted Spinney by Elliott O'Donnell

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Elliott O'Donnell, a prolific author who often blurred the lines between ghost story and alleged fact, invites us into "The Haunted Spinney." First pu...

The Child by L A Lewis

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An English traveller, delayed in an unfamiliar village, hears a troubling local legend—one the villagers are reluctant to discuss. Drawn by curiosit...

The Wishing Well by E F Benson

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

E.F. Benson's "The Wishing-Well" was first published in the United Kingdom in the collection Visible and Invisible by Hutchinson & Co. in 1923. This c...

The Parlour of Futures Lost by Tony Walker

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a dim parlour by the sea, where the waves sigh like old regrets, Madame Lily Floss lays her tarot cards on green silk and dreams of escape. She lon...

Through the Gates of the Silver Key by H P Lovecraft and E Hoffman Price

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Is time an endless ocean? Randolph Carter, armed with a silver key, sets sail across its fathomless depths. His quest: the ultimate truth. But the wat...

The House of Horror by Seabury Quinn

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"The House of Horror," despite its pulp sensibilities, clearly resonates with the Poe-esque tradition of detective fiction intertwined with the macabr...

The Beast With Five Fingers by W F Harvey

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In W.F. Harvey’s The Beast with Five Fingers, we enter the world of Eustace Borlsover, an eccentric gentleman immersed in the study of the natural w...

The Lady and Death by Vernon Lee

22 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Can Death be bargained with? In the town of Erlach, whispers of an old legend linger. They speak of Agnes Weberin, a woman known for her piety, her d...

The Bishop of Hell by Marjorie Bowen

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nothing scares an atheist… so they'd have you believe. For Hector Greatorix, intellect, charisma, and a complete lack of faith mean a life lived to ...

The Daughters of the Late Colonel by Katherine Mansfield

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Katherine Mansfield's "The Daughters of the Late Colonel" draws you into the subdued world of two sisters, adrift in the aftermath of their overbearin...

The Lodger in Room 16 by David Dixon

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Lodger in Room 16 by David Dixon In a faded guesthouse perched on the edge of an unnamed northern town, Room 16 has always had its secrets. When a...

The Face in the Mirror by Denys Val Baker

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Denys Val Baker (1917-1984), a prolific author and editor, made significant contributions to British literature, particularly in short fiction and reg...

An Adventure by Charlotte Moberley and Eleanor Jourdain

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

My voice has given up so I can't record a story without it sounding like a rubber tyre riding on polystyrene. So, I dug into the archives and found an...

The Open Window by Saki and The Return by R. Murray Gilchrist

07 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Open Window by Saki In this masterful tale by Saki, a nervous man arrives for a formal call, bearing a letter of introduction. Greeted by the niec...

Kerfol by Edith Wharton

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Edith Wharton’s story Kerfol, published in 1911, a solitary traveller visits an ancient house in Brittany—a place shrouded in silence and myste...

The Jolly Corner (1908) by Henry James

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Can be haunted by your unlived life? Henry James, master of psychological fiction, invites us into the labyrinth of the human mind with his haunting t...

The House Behind The Wood (1928) by Richmal Crompton

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Can a house possess your soul? In Richmal Crompton's "The House Behind The Wood," a stranded trio seeks refuge in a seemingly abandoned house. As moon...

The Horror from the Mound by Robert E. Howard

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On the sun-baked plains of Texas, cowpuncher Steve Brill, driven by crop failure and looming poverty, stumbles upon an ancient burial site shrouded in...

The Chippendale Mirror by E F Benson

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In E.F. Benson's "The Chippendale Mirror," an antique looking glass becomes the focal point of a chilling supernatural mystery. As night falls, the mi...

Transition by Algernon Blackwood

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On a bustling Christmas Eve, John Mudbury, an ordinary man with an ordinary family, has been Christmas shopping. Under his arms, he carries presents f...

The Vicar's Ghost by Lucy Farmer

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A Humorous Victorian Ghost Story for Christmas Set against the charming backdrop of Cornwall's picturesque villages and folklore-filled hedges, "The V...

The Ghost of the Cross-Roads by Frederick Manley

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On a stormy Christmas night in Ireland in 1843, a warm peat fire blazes inside Andy Sweeny's simple home while a fiddler plays jigs and reels for thos...

Horror — a True Tale

29 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What lurks in forgotten rooms? In an ancient Tudor mansion in the remotest English countryside, a young heiress's pride becomes her downfall. Rosa ent...

Gibbet Hill by Bram Stoker

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An innocent autumn walk turns into a nightmare of supernatural terror. A lone traveler seeks solace in the misty hills of Surrey, expecting nothing mo...

Someone in the Lift by L P Hartley

13 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

And so it begins... my run up to Christmas. This isn't a massively Christmassy story though it takes place at Christmas. Who's really in the lift?  ...

Mrs Zant and the Ghost by Wilkie Collins

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Do The Dead Appear At Noon? In the leafy paths of Kensington Gardens, where Victorian ladies take their morning walks, one woman feels an impossible t...

The Old House on Vauxhall Walk by Charlotte Riddell

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Charlotte Riddell's "The Old House in Vauxhall Walk," a young man's desperate search for shelter leads him into a world where past and present coll...

The Dreams In The Witch House by H P Lovecraft

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the shadowy corners of Arkham, where ancient gables loom and whispers of eldritch horrors echo through time-worn streets, lies the infamous Witch H...

The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In *The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar*, Edgar Allan Poe presents a gripping tale where the boundaries of life and death are pushed in ways both fas...

The Underground by R. Chetwynd Hayes

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the shadowy tunnels of the London Underground, Laura Munro encounters a ghostly figure from the past that will unravel the very fabric of her famil...

A Haunted House by Tony Walker

12 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a dimly lit room on Curwen Street, an old wooden table bears the stains of countless encounters. A mysterious woman offers a strange drink, and mem...

The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksei Tolstoy

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the remote Serbian countryside of 1759, a young French diplomat finds himself entangled in a chilling tale of familial love twisted by ancient supe...

Never Visit Venice by Robert Aickman

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Henry Fern, an elitist who nevertheless lives a most un-elite life, finds himself drawn to Venice by a recurring dream of romance and connection. His ...

19 Great Hanover Street by Lillie Harris

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

19 Great Hanover Street by Lillie Harris In the shadows of Victorian England, 19 Great Hanover Street stands as a silent witness to unspeakable horror...

Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance by M R James

21 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the quiet, rural expanse of Eastern England, a young man unexpectedly inherits an old, isolated estate filled with mysteries long buried by time. A...

The Walnut-Tree House by Charlotte Riddell

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks to Ed W. for sponsoring this classic Victorian tale. In Victorian London, a once-grand mansion holds secrets that span generations. When Edgar ...

The Work of Evil by William Croft Dickinson

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Deep within the Special Books Collection of a time-honored Scottish university, a darkly potent grimoire is secured under lock and iron in an ominousl...

The Shadow In The Corner by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Prepare to be captivated by M.E. Braddon's "The Shadow in the Corner," a masterpiece of Victorian Gothic fiction that will send shivers down your spin...

The Quest of Iranon by H. P. Lovecraft

16 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In "The Quest of Iranon," follow the mysterious traveler Iranon as he embarks on a relentless search for a mythical city shrouded in beauty and enigma...

The Quincunx by Walter De La Mare

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a moonlit Victorian mansion, a man delves into his family's mysterious past. As night falls, the line between reality and the supernatural begins t...

The Garside Fell Disaster by L T C Rolt

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Prepare to be transported to the desolate moorlands of Garside Fell, where the haunting whistle of a train echoes through the mist-shrouded night. In ...

The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Prepare yourself for a chilling journey into the dark underbelly of 19th-century Edinburgh, where the pursuit of medical knowledge leads down a treach...

The Triumph of Night by Edith Wharton

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On a bitterly cold winter's night in New Hampshire, a delicate young man alights from a train to find his expected transport, a sleigh, is not there. ...

No. 11 Welham Square by Sir Herbert Stephen

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dive into the shadowy corners of Victorian London with Herbert Stephen’s “No. 11 Welham Square,” a chilling tale that intertwines family secrets...

The Stranger of the Night by Edgar Wallace

05 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Prepare to be enthralled by Tony Walker's gripping narration of Edgar Wallace's "The Stranger of the Night," a well-crafted supernatural thriller firs...

Where Angels Fear by Manly Wade Wells

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On a mist-shrouded night in March, two brave souls, Muriel Fisher and Scotty McCormack, dare to confront the malevolent secrets of a forsaken house wi...

The Ghost of A Hand by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine settling into a new home, only to find yourself tormented by a ghostly presence that manifests as a single, sinister hand. In "The Ghost of a ...

The Telephone by Mary Treadgold

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine receiving a phone call from someone you thought was gone forever. In Mary Treadgold's chilling tale "The Telephone," a young actress finds her...

Playmates by A. M. Burrage

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Step into the quietly unsettling world of A.M. Burrage's "Playmates," where the veil between the seen and unseen is delicately lifted. In a remote Eng...

In The Tube by E. F. Benson

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Delve into the enigmatic realm of E.F. Benson's "In the Tube," a haunting tale where the boundaries of time, reality, and the supernatural blur. Antho...

A Dead Finger by Sabine Baring Gould

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Sabine Baring-Gould's haunting tale, "A Dead Finger," an ordinary visit to the National Gallery in London spirals into a chilling encounter with th...

Thurnley Abbey by Perceval Landon

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the darkness of a Mediterranean night, the _Osiris_ slices through the waves, carrying with it a passenger burdened by a haunting tale. Alastair Co...

Who Knows? by Guy du Maupassant

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Prepare to delve into the haunting world of Guy de Maupassant's "Who Knows?", a chilling tale that blurs the lines between reality and the supernatura...

The Daemon Lover by Shirley Jackson

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this haunting and enigmatic short story by Shirley Jackson, an unnamed woman eagerly awaits her wedding day, only to find herself plunged into a ni...

A Warning To The Curious by M. R. James

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

M.R. James's "A Warning to the Curious" (1925) is a seminal ghost story that explores the consequences of disturbing ancient artifacts and the endurin...