The Oxford book of twentieth-century ghost stories
By: edited by Michael Cox.
Contributors: Cox, Michael, 1948-
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 425
Subjects: Ghost stories, English; Ghost stories, American
Description: Ghosts are resilient creatures. They thrive in an atmosphere of candlelight and decay, in antique manors, graveyards and cloisters and yet, as this anthology triumphantly demonstrates, they are equally at home under the harsh light of the electric bulb. The advent of the motor car and the invention of the telephone have merely tested their ingenuity, and exercised the talents of a host of writers.

The fractures and schisms of the twentieth-century are reflected in the current proliferation of literary genres, and in the marvellous variety that a single genre can embrace. Leading exponents of ghost fiction such as M. R. James and Algernon Blackwood are joined by authors such as Scott Fitzgerald, A. S. Byatt, William Trevor, and Alison Lurie; women, in particular, have embraced the form with skill and versatility.

As well as the returning dead there are haunted typewriters, malevolent furniture, and urban ghosts, phantoms of smoke an soot. Occasionally with humour, but more often with obliquity and restraint, these stories both entrance and terrify.

. This collection shows how ghost stories have successfully utilized the landscapes, technologies, and consciousness of contemporary life to adapt to the modern age with imagination and flair. Distinctive and gripping, these stories will linger long in the memory.
Table of contents: title: Introduction
pagenum: xi; label: In the Dark
title: E. Nesbit
pagenum: 1; label: Room
title: Oliver Onions
pagenum: 12; label: The Shadowy Third
title: Ellen Glasgow
pagenum: 25; label: The Diary of Mr Poynter
title: M. R. James
pagenum: 46; label: Mrs Porter and Miss Allen
title: Hugh Walpole
pagenum: 56; label: The Nature of the Evidence
title: May Sinclair
pagenum: 67; label: Night-Fears
title: L. P. Hartley
pagenum: 77; label: Bewitched
title: Edith Wharton
pagenum: 82; label: A Short Trip Home
title: F. Scott Fitzgerald
pagenum: 101; label: Blind Man's Buff
title: H. Russell Wakefield
pagenum: 120; label: The Blackmailers
title: Algernon Blackwood
pagenum: 124; label: Yesterday Street
title: Thomas Burke
pagenum: 132; label: Smoke Ghost
title: Fritz Leiber Jun.
pagenum: 144; label: The Cheery Soul
title: Elizabeth Bowen
pagenum: 158; label: All But Empty
title: Graham Greene
pagenum: 167; label: Three Miles Up
title: Elizabeth Jane Howard
pagenum: 171; label: Close Behind Him
title: John Wyndham
pagenum: 188; label: The Quincunx
title: Walter de la Mare
pagenum: 200; label: The Tower
title: Marghanita Laski
pagenum: 210; label: Poor Girl
title: Elizabeth Taylor
pagenum: 217; label: I Kiss Your Shadow
title: Robert Bloch
pagenum: 234; label: A Woman Seldom Found
title: William Sansom
pagenum: 250; label: The Portobello Road
title: Muriel Spark
pagenum: 254; label: Ringing the Changes
title: Robert Aickman
pagenum: 273; label: On Terms
title: Christine Brooke-Rose
pagenum: 299; label: The Only Story
title: William Trevor
pagenum: 309; label: The Loves of Lady Purple
title: Angela Carter
pagenum: 320; label: Revenant as Typewriter
title: Penelope Lively
pagenum: 331; label: The Little Dirty Girl
title: Joanna Russ
pagenum: 344; label: Watching Me, Watching You
title: Fay Weldon
pagenum: 362; label: The July Ghost
title: A. S. Byatt
pagenum: 376; label: The Highboy
title: Alison Lurie
pagenum: 390; label: The Meeting House
title: Jane Gardam
pagenum: 403; title: Notes and Sources
pagenum: 411; title: Acknowledgements
pagenum: 423