Errrr chapters anyone??

This is a review in progress though I thought I would share my initial thoughts to prospective buyers.

This little beauty appeared a very interesting book, packed to the rafters with somewhere in the region of 83 ghost stories clocking in at around 53hrs made me want to know more. After listening to the preview, which is part of the editors introduction and doing a little online research, I took the plunge.

I like the initial introduction to each story by the reader, providing details on the author and the history of the story and I am getting on well with each of the narrators.

The stories are very much a product of their times and the language used is indicative of this.

Unfortunately apart from the intial written summary which provides an overview of the book, there isn't any information as to what the stories are other than when you start to listen to them and so you can't navigate back and forth unless you have already listened to them!

Unfortunately, there isn't any information where you would expect to find it i.e the.chapter headings! Its a genius move which I have encountered in other Audible books and what a marketing strategy! "Here's 83 books ladies and gents, however we aren't going to tell you what they are or where to find them"

However, one patient Amazon reviewer had decided to write out the contents of the book, in a written review
they had posted and it is to them I offer my thanks. I have copied and pasted below for others wanting to know more. I am not sure they correlate with the numerical chapters in this book but will revise as I go until Audible decide to include them which I very much hope they will:

BUT I'M NOT DEAD YET
Chapter 2 - Conrad Aiken: Mr. Arcularis
Chapter 3 - William Fryer Harvey: August Heat

I'LL LOVE YOU--FOREVER (OR MAYBE NOT)
Chapter 4 & 5 - Ellen Glasgow: The Shadowy Third
Chapter 6 & 7 - Ellen Glasgow: The Past
Chapter 8 - David Morrell: But At My Back I Always Hear
Chapter 9 - O. Henry: The Furnished Room
Chapter 10 - Paul Ernst: Death's Warm Fireside
Andrew Klavan: The Advent Reunion
R. Murray Gilchrist: The Return
Rudyard Kipling: The Phantom Rickshaw
Ambrose Bierce: The Moonlit Road
Lafcadio Hearn: The Story of Ming-Y
Lafcadio Hearn: Yuki-Onna

THIS OLD HOUSE
Amyas Northcote: Brickett Bottom
E. F. Benson: How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery
G. G. Pendarves: Thing of Darkness
Edward Lucas White: The House of the Nightmare
Hector Bolitho: The House on Half Moon Street
Dick Donovan: A Night of Horror
Vincent O'sullivan: The Burned House

KIDS WILL BE KIDS
Rosemary Timperley: Harry
Michael Reaves: Make-Believe
A. M. Burrage: Playmates
Ramsey Campbell: Just Behind You
A. E. Coppard: Adam And Eve and Pinch Me
Steve Friedman: The Lost Boy of the Ozarks

THERE'S SOMETHING FUNNY AROUND HERE
Mark Twain: A Ghost's Story
Donald E. Westlake: In At The Death
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Ghost of Dr. Harris
"Ingulphus": The Everlasting Club
Isaac Asimov and James Maccreigh: Legal Rites
Albert E. Cowdrey: Death Must Die
Frank Stockton: The Transferred Ghost
Oscar Wilde: The Canterville Ghost

A NEGATIVE TRAIN OF THOUGHT
August Derleth: Pacific 421
Robert Weinberg: The Midnight El

STOP--YOU'RE SCARING ME
Frederick Cowles: Punch and Judy
Henry S. Whitehead: The Fireplace
H. F. Arnold: The Night Wire 400
Fritz Leiber: Smoke Ghost 406
Wyatt Blassingame: Song of the Dead

I MUST BE DREAMING
Wilkie Collins: The Dream Woman 437
Washington Irving: The Adventure of the German Student

A SÉANCE, YOU SAY?
Joseph Shearing: They Found My Grave
Edgar Jepson: Mrs. Morrel's Last Séance
Joyce Carol Oates: Night-Side

CLASSICS
M. R. James: "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come To You My Lad"
W. W. Jacobs: The Monkey's Paw
W. W. Jacobs: The Toll-House
Edith Wharton: Afterward
Willa Cather: Consequences
Cynthia Asquith: The Follower
Cynthia Asquith: The Corner Shop
H. P. Lovecraft: The Terrible Old Man
Erckmann-Chatrian: The Murderer's Violin
Saki: The Open Window
Saki: Laura
Fitz-James O'Brien: What Was It?
Alexander Woollcott: Full Fathom Five
H. R. Wakefield: He Cometh and He Passeth By
Perceval Landon: Thurnley Abbey

THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
Algernon Blackwood: The Woman's Ghost Story
Victor Rousseau: The Angel of the Marne
Olivia Howard Dunbar: The Shell of Sense
Marjorie Bowen: The Avenging of Ann Leete

BEATEN TO A PULP
Greye La Spina: The Dead-Wagon
Urann Thayer: A Soul with Two Bodies
Arthur J. Burks: The Ghosts of Steamboat Coulee
Thorp Mcclusky: The Considerate Hosts
Cyril Mand: The Fifth Candle
August Derleth and Mark Schorer: The Return of Andrew Bentley
M. L. Humphreys: The Floor Above
Manly Wade Wellman: School for the Unspeakable
A. V. Milyer: Mordecai's Pipe
Julius Long: He Walked by Day
Dale Clark: Behind the Screen

MODERN MASTERS
M. Rickert: Journey into the Kingdom
H. R. F. Keating: Mr. Saul
Chet Williamson: Coventry Carol

50 people found this helpful

Delightfully spooky mixture of stories

I love this audio-book, there are a couple of stories that I skipped through but I've bookmarked them and will go back to listen to them at some point. On the whole this book is well worth the price, the two narrators are really good, one or two of the stories reminded me of Dean Koontz and Stephen King, and its about 50 hours of audio, which is amazing for one credit.

I have 81 books in my Audible collection, by many varied popular writers, and most are ghost stories, but this Big Book of Ghost Stories is my firm favourite.

8 people found this helpful

These stories will haunt you!

This huge collection of ghost stories by mainly American and British authors kept me entertained for weeks. There are classic tales by people such as M. R. James, Rosemary Timperley, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Alan Poe, Saki etc as well as up to date authors, writers best known for their movie work and a plethora of good American pulp fiction authors from the pages of Weird Tales etc. It's a nice blend of terror and comedy, the gothic and the psychological, mystery and romance. Some stories are like beautiful poems. The narrators are excellent and read clearly at a comfortable pace. The only slight distraction is when the female narrator does a male voice! Here you will find spectres, vampires, myths, fairy tales, poltergeists, a psychic detective, a monkey's paw and much more. I highly recommend this book.

5 people found this helpful

An excellent collection.

Really enjoyed all the stories, some classics and some I've never heard before.
Well worth a credit.

Good stories

The stories were very enjoyable and the readers had good voices. It is a shame that the American male reader couldn’t be bothered to learn the proper pronunciation of the English towns and cities. Also he seemed to think that a slight Irish accent was an acceptable accent for every country person in all parts of England. This spoilt an otherwise excellent book.