Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast
Ghosts stories provide some of the richest reading experiences, because there’s seldom a time I’m not in the mood for one.
I ramp up my ghost story reading in October, and then again at Christmas, when so many of the classic English ghost stories were either written or published. Halloween, naturally, is Ghost Story Central, and there’s a placidity in nestling down with a fine ghost story as the rest of the world forks over cash for Halloween costumes. I am sure there is fun to be had there, but it would take one passel of highly persuasive monsters to persuade me that it’s more fun than ghost story fun.
In that pleasantly frightening spirit, let’s look at 10 scary stories that are well worth your time, which you can read online. Some are by authors you almost certainly know, though I bet you don’t know these particular stories—said the Crypt Keeper—and some are by authors that, like a lamenting lost spirit, I bemoan that hardly anyone knows. But now we can all know them together. To the charnel house!