Humorous Ghost Stories

The dead have stories too, and in Dorothy Scarborough's gleeful collection, they're determined to make you laugh. Compiled in the early twentieth century, this anthology dismantles the somber tradition of spectral literature, replacing trembling candles with knowing winks. Scarborough's ghosts are not the shrouded figures of Victorian nightmares but fully realized personalities - self-aware specters who poke fun at the living, at themselves, and at the very conventions that once made them terrifying. The introduction alone is a treat, tracing how ghosts evolved from fearsome moral warnings into creatures capable of humor, irony, and genuine charm. These stories sit at the intersection of the supernatural tale and the comic short, proving that haunting and hilarity need not be mutually exclusive. For readers who have ever found traditional ghost stories more silly than scary, Scarborough offers a mischievous alternative where the spirit world's only terror is how thoroughly it exposes human absurdity.