'Ghostly Tales: Spine-Chilling Stories of the Victorian Age' by Chronicle books is a collection of stories to read on dark nights.

The seven stories here are from known and lesser known writers. They all have to do with people who find themselves having supernatural encounters. A man finds an old whistle that doesn't seem to be making any noise, but something can hear it. An ice-locked ship has a captain that sees the ghost of his wife. A skull found in a box insists on staying in a certain spot or it starts screaming.

I really had a good time reading these creepy stories. These are ghost stories that hold up well in prose and quality.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Chronicle Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review ebook.

Ghost stories is an anthology of select Victorian ghost stories by some of the most famous writers of the era, accompanied by frankly gorgeous illustrations that perfectly accompany the stories. The variation is good, between well-known and more obscure ones. Definitely recommended to fans of Victorian literature and the writing style of the era, otherwise it might prove to be a difficult reading time. But it's definitely worth it, especially for the illustrations

I'm normally a huge fan of gothic, spooky stories, but this collection just couldn't keep my attention. Maybe it was the formatting, maybe it was the selected stories, but I was bored to tears. I couldn't get past the first page of the first story, and I felt no interest in reading further to the others. I feel like better stories could have been selected as well. (I don't think I've heard of any of them before? I love ghost stories but none of these were remotely familiar.)

Nice selection of ghost stories with some simple-but-effective illustrations. The selection mostly avoided the more popular stories and had a nice selection of victorian authors, so I found it really enjoyable.

Some of the stories in this anthology are classics and others are long forgotten. Like any anthology some stories are better than others. I was familiar with most of these authors and stories. The stories are really creepy and well written. The illustrations included are very good and match the stories but there should be more than one per story. My two favorite stories were the Old Nurse's Story and the Phantom Coach. These stories are perfect to read in the fall and the book will make a wonderful gift. Enjoy

Well edited and presented, but I'd read all but one of the stories.

Another collection I loved, full of creepy and ethereal stories involving horror or mystery. It's a great little read for a single sitting or several nights right before bed. Some of them I had already read, but most of them I hadn't. Nothing terrified me (but I'm a horror veteran); however, I enjoyed almost all of the stories.

***This book was reviewed for Chronicle Books via Netgalley

This delightful collection of Victorian ghost tales features offerings by such notables as Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Robert Louis Stevenson, among others. I was a bit disappointed to find no tale from Edgar Allan Poe though. Ghost stories of this era are a far cry from the horror of today, relying more on subtleties and eerieness to carry the weight as opposed to the blood, gore, and in your face nature typical of horror today, excepting the truly exceptional authors like Stephen King who still do rely more on the subtle and the eerie.

There are seven stories total, from both the UK and the US. My two favourites were Dickens’ 'The Signalman’ and 'The Body-snatcher’ by Robert Louis Stevenson. Previous to reading this book, I had a great animosity towards Dickens. Given the fact that I enjoyed his story in this collection, I think I may give his longer works a chance again. Reading preferences, as with anything else, change over time. Who knows? Maybe I will actually enjoy Great Expectations now

📚📚📚📚 Recommended, especially if you enjoy Victorian-era works, or if you enjoy ghost stories

First of all I want to thank NetGalley and Chronicle Books for giving me this ARC.

Now, onto business. I probably read the description wrong before picking up this book. Because I thought these will be stories written by today’s writers in a Victorian tone or setting. Oh boi I was wrong hahaha. But it wasn’t disappointing, not at all. As Victorian era writing is not really the style I pick for leisure reading I had to make my brain work hard for me to understand these stories. While reading in English is not a challenge, reading a Victorian era English is. I’m not complaining (much) though, it was an unexpected turn from what I usually read. As I already mentioned I don’t usually read this type of writing, so all of the stories were new for me. I liked “The Old Nurse’s Story” the most and I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything about this tale before. Well, a person can’t know everything right?

PROS: A stunningly beautiful art by Bill Bragg. It gave whole book an atmosphere and without his illustrations this book would feel plain and dry.

CONS: I had difficult time reading because of writing styles and I know more than few ghostly tales that definitely deserved to be in this book but weren’t.

VERDICT: Since this book is not what I would usually pick I think I’m not really in the place to judge it. But if you like reading Victorian era horror - give it a go. Illustrations alone are worth your time.

The tales in this book remind me of campfires and s'mores. Each tale is spooky, fun and short enough to be a great campfire tale. The stories are from a different time, but they still maintain a spine tingling sense of wonder, horror and excitement of the things that can go bump in the night. While written for adults, I feel like this brings out a child-like sense fear through a good old fashion ghost story.

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this book, but it wasn't quite this. I didn't really care for the writing style. It's probably because of the time these stories were written, and maybe I should have realized that before requesting it. I liked some stories more than others. A few didn't even seem all that "spooky" to me, and some had me wondering what had just happened they ended so abruptly. Overall, it wasn't a bad read and the pictures were a very nice addition but I would never buy it.

I received a copy of this short story collection from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ghostly Tales is a collection of classic, and often analogized, stories. While it is true that occasionally one runs across a classic that, for whatever reason, escaped your attention, most fans of classic horror have read or at least heard of these stories. That doesn’t make them any less great, just familiar.

Oh Whistle, and I’ll Come for You, My Lad
M.R. James is one of the pillars of the modern tale of the supernatural. Most of our plot mechanics and story lines come from him. As influential, albeit perhaps not as literary, as Poe, the included story is one of his best and for my money one of the top 5 ghost stories ever. And it is actually still scary after all these years.

The Old Nurse’s Story
Creepy story about a malevolent spirit of a murdered child. Very good form of a tale that is still being retold today in modern stories and movies.

The Signalman
Dickens, like most Victorians, loved his stories of phantoms, ghosts, and communications from the other side of death. Classic and atmospheric if not particularly scary. I don’t know if he created the concept of the story of the dead warning the living, but this is certainly one of the true classics of its type.

The Body Snatcher
Stevenson’s story is dripping in atmosphere of fog and damp and one can’t help but think of the glorious Hammer Films that sprang from this story and others like them. More fun and gruesome than scary.

The Captain of the Pole-Star
I guess I will just say it---Doyle’s best work was the Sherlock Holmes canon. Everything else is interesting, especially for the time, but the concepts were done better by other writers. This story is no exception. A play on The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner this story was well written by not particularly riveting.
The Phantom Coach
I had not read this one but was very glad that I did. Absolutely fantastic with a chilling ending. This story was so well done and so chilling I could place myself in that coach with our narrator. One of my favorite classic horror stories.

The Screaming Skull
One of several famous stories about severed body parts that attack the living, this one has the added fun of a mad narrator. I found it a bit overdone, but still entertaining.

I do have one complaint about this book and it was a reason that I was quite disappointed in the book. The illustrations are wonderful. However, there is just one per story. If you are selling this as an illustrated book I would expect at least 2 or 3 illustrations per story.

4 stars. Needs more illustrations.

Despite enjoying writing from the Victorian era, only one of the stories in this book was one I have read before, the Robert Louis Stevenson one. I really liked his works as a youth, so read just about everything of his I could get my hands on. However, that was so long ago, despite The Body-Snatcher being a re-read, it was as if I was reading it for the first time. I wasn't that into horror/terror, which might be why the other stories were new to me.

Averaging out my ratings for each of these stories is about 3.14, so I had to go with 3 stars, to be honest, though this is a very good collection, typical of that time period. I just love the writing style, the tone, the verbiage, the characterization and setting of that time frame. People just don't write like that anymore. It's good to grow, but never forget the past!

Good, solid collection that I recommend to those who have an interest in the era and in horror. Though more suspenseful horror, as it's not the blood/guts/gore we are used to today. More psychological I would say. More atmospheric. Not a bad grouping, but there are only seven stories in this collection and two lower starred stories brought the rest of it down to 3 stars for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

This is a truly beautiful book. I adore Victorian tales of terror and the editors have selected some of the best for this volume. The artwork accompanying the tales is perfectly eerie.

The stories in this book are reprints of original Victorian era stories. They are pretty much written with the old english and can be a little hard to follow at times. I caught myself rereading a few lines to make sense of it to my brain. Don't get me wrong the stories are great, spooky, and eerie, you just have to pay a bit more attention while reading. The stories are short, there are 7 stories in the book. The stories are written by people like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and more. I personally think they left the best for last I liked The screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford the most out of the 7 stories. They were all great though.

I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.

A great collection of ghost stories. A little something for everyone here.