Humorous Ghost Stories

The ghost story gets a makeover in this gleefully irreverent anthology. Here, the supernatural isn't terrifying, it's embarrassing. The spirits that haunt these pages are bungling, argumentative, and frequently outwitted by the very mortals they meant to terrorize. Oscar Wilde's legendary Canterville ghost spends decades trying to frighten a pragmatic American family who respond to his theatrical haunting with practical jokes and interior decorating. Washington Irving's specter bridegroom turns out to be the wrong ghost entirely. Across twenty stories, the grave is anything but still. These tales come from an era when writers delighted in subverting the Gothic tradition, finding humor in the spaces where horror was supposed to live. Some use the gentle wit of British comedy. Others lean into American cheek. A few, like Théophile Gautier's "The Mummy's Foot," add a dash of Continental mischief. The result is a collection that proves the afterlife might be eternal, but dignity is optional. For readers who've ever suspected that ghosts might be more pathetic than frightening, or for anyone who wants their frights served with a wink, this anthology is pure spectral silliness.