Book Review: The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories

 I have been hearing rave reviews of Valancourt's collections for a long time, but only now got around to picking one up. I am well pleased with my experience and plan to dive into the other collections soon. The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, edited by Tara Moore, is the perfect book to get you into that spooky Christmas spirit.

The collection starts off with Sir Walter Scott's "The Tapestried Chamber." I love Scott's work - Ivanhoe is one of my very favorite novels. His story here about an army general visiting his old friend's haunted estate turned out to be one of my favorites in the book. It also had one of the collection's few legitimately creepy (by modern standards) scenes.

Another favorite was the second tale, Elizabeth Gaskell's "The Old Nurse's Story." Gaskell is an incredible writer who I've always meant to read more of, and this story of a vengeful ghostly child was both tragic and haunting.

John Berwick Harwood's "Horror: A True Tale" was another legitimately creepy entry, featuring a young lady's life changing encounter with something angry and demented. This one was another favorite.

"Bring Me a Light!" was another tragic tale. A young man ventures to the country to view an estate he has inherited, only to witness a replay of the manor's tragic past.

"Old Hooker's Ghost" tells of an amusing "haunting" at a lively Christmas gathering. I immensely enjoyed this, one of the collection's lighter tales.

"The Ghost's Summons" by Ada Buisson is the brief account of a doctor's encounter with a man who believes he is fated to die that night. There's a twist here that may be predictable to modern audiences, but it doesn't spoil the enjoyment of the tale.

"Jack Layford's Friend" is a well written story. However enjoyment of it is somewhat marred by dated class politics and a brief (though no less ugly for its brevity) racist bit.

"How Peter Parley Laid a Ghost" is an instructive tale for children about a haunting with a rational explanation. It was one of the less interesting of the collection's inclusions but is still entertaining.

Ellen Wood's "A Mysterious Visitor" is a particularly sad story of a man's last, ghostly visit to his wife. This story features the very real horrors of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which are far more tragic and disturbing than any ghost visit. The main problem with this story is the thoroughly unlikable main character, who is incredibly spoiled and temperamental. I could not be through with her fast enough.

W.W. Fenn's "The Haunted Rock" finds its roots the spiritualism movement popularized in post Civil War America. The protagonist is somewhat of a believer in the movement and uses his knowledge from time spent in the States to set to right a haunting in a small Cornish town.

Margaret Oliphant's "The Lady's Walk" is the longest story in the collection. The benign spirit that haunts this tale is the ghostly guardian of an old Scottish family who seeks out the narrator, a family friend, for help protecting her charges.

"The Captain of the Pole-Star" is by one of my all time favorite writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This story, told in diary entries of a doctor on an Arctic whaling ship, is not my favorite of his story's, but is absolutely still worth a read.

"The Doll's Ghost" by F. Marion Crawford closes the collection on an unfortunately weak note. Crawford was an incredibly talented writer of ghost stories, but this is not his best work, although it is unique and appropriately heart warming for the Christmas season.

I definitely recommend checking this collection out. I'm only sorry I waited so long to dive into Valancourt's offerings. I plan to soon make up for lost time, as I have the second entry in the Victorian Christmas Ghost stories series sitting next to me as I type this and plan on starting it immediately.