Interest in supernatural phenomena was high during Charles Dickens’ lifetime.  He had always loved a good ghost story himself, particularly at Christmas time, and was open-minded, willing to accept, and indeed put to the test, the existence of spirits.
His natural inclinations toward drama and the macabre made him a brilliant teller of ghost tales, and in the twenty stories presented here, which include his celebrated A Christmas Carol, the full range of his gothic talents can be seen.
Chilling as some of these stories are, Dickens has managed to inject characteristically grotesque comedy as he writes  of revenge, insanity, pre-cognition and dream visions, he indulges also in some debunking of contemporary credulity.
Stories include:
The Queer Chair
A Madman’s Manuscript
The Goblins who Stole a Sexton
The Ghosts of the Mail
The Baron of Grogzwig
A Christmas Carol
The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain
To be Read at Dusk
The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber
The Haunted House
The Trial for Murder (to be taken with a grain of salt)
The Signalman
Christmas Ghosts
The Lawyer and the Ghost
Four Ghost Stories
The Portrait-Painter’s Story
Captain Murderer and the Devil’s Bargain
Mr Testator’s Visitation
A Child’s Dream of a Star
Well-Authenticated Rappings