I enjoy Wharton’s descriptive powers and the way that she creates menacing atmosphere. That said, she creates the situation for these ghost stories, some set in in New England, other in England or France, but doesn’t seem to know how to end them. They usually just peter out. In about half of them the appearance of the ghost seems connected to some sort of mental breakdown. The historical “Kerfol” is one of the more successful since it combines a contemporary person visiting an old house with the purpose of buying it, and meeting spectral dogs who represent the oppressive situation of an earlier inhabitant whose jealous husband kept killing the dogs that keep her company. “Miss Mary Pask” has a great conclusion, as a woman visits the sister of a friend of hers in a small French village, before realizing that she heard that the sister had died. Sometimes the ghosts are reminders of misfortunes from the past—a dead wife, a cheated partner—who have come to claim what’s rightfully theirs, whether that causes trauma or death. Okay for passing the time.

Beautiful elevated language composed to make up spine-chilling short stories that will definitely give you the creeps! Great book all around!

Edith Wharton did excel in everything. Horror was not her genre but those are some of the most atmospheric spooky stories I've read. The "gloomy country house" was fine-tuned to absolute perfection of course, but the stories that took place in other settings were quite chilling as well. "Bewitched" especially made my blood run cold. It reminded me of the movie Witch by Robert Eggers, which is just an amazing work of art - do google the trailer, if you have not seen it. There were perhaps three stories that didn't do the trick for me but ven those benefitted form Wharton's always elegant style.

Now I am a person who gets nightmares easily and I usually steer clear of the horror genre but Wharton hit the exact right spot for those. They were not as scary to bother me when I was not reading but I was completely under Wharton's writing when I was with the book. There is a lurking uneasy feeling in every story but I didn't feel that the ghosts or unnatural forces were evil. I loved the balance between this world and otherworldliness. Initially, I felt that the stories perhaps lacked tension and a releasing climax but when I got used to the rhythm of her writing I found it actually a strength. There is no finalization in almost any of the stories, no closure. They are left hovering in the dark. Like ghosts.

3,5*

Se trata de la recopilación, cómo su nombre indica, de tres relatos sobre fantasmas escritos por la autora: "Después", "Kerfol" y la "La campanilla de la doncella".
Me han parecido extraordinariamente escritos, y me han enganchado de principio a fin.
La escritora consigue crear una atmósfera totalmente inquietante, ubicando los tres cuentos en casas señoriales con antiguas historias familiares llenas de misterio. Consigue que te introduzcas en este ambiente, cómo si fueras el protagonista de la trama.
Me han parecido totalmente geniales, y me he quedado con ganas de leer más cuentos de misterio de Edith Wharton.

I haven’t read a book of short stories in a long time, but this one was perfect for long autumn nights. I picked it up at the Goodwill store after hearing it discussed on the ‘Backlisted’ podcast. These are gentle ghost stories: no threats or terror, just a feeling of dread or confusion about a letter with recognizable handwriting or an empty house that should be bustling with energy. These stories are set in country estates or city townhouses, peopled with quirky servants and upper middle class families. Well worth a read, at Halloween or any time.

Good stories. Well told. Wide variety.
I liked 9 of the 11 stories.

List of the 11 stories.
"The Eyes"
"Afterward"
"Kerfol"
"Triumphs of Night"
"Miss Mary Pask"
"Bewitched"
"Mr Jones"
"Pomegranate Seeds"
"The Looking Glass"
"All Souls"

I did not like "Triumphs of Night". Some in buddy read group liked it, and others did not. But it is always good to have a bad one in the bunch to show as contrast to the good.

What I would like to see as a movie:
"Miss Pask"
"Pomegranate Seeds"
"All Souls" (The story is named for the wrong holiday/holy day. Any moviemakers should consider changing the name of their movie.)

I have liked some of Edith Wharton' novels. Now I know that I will like some of her ghost stories too.

This is a short story collection of Horror stories written by Edith Wharton from the early 1900s to the 1930s.

These stories are so good. They tell horrific and ghost-y stories in a way that doesn't necessarily answer anything but the implication is the best part of the stories. This is written in the early 20th century so there are casual racist statements that readers should be aware of.

Highly recommend if you like spooks and open ended story endings.

Almost universally interesting and often very fun. A couple don't quite stick the landing but that's a danger with ghost stories and short stories alike, so who really cares? Fun to experience what feels like a very specific genre of supernatural tales--sturdy people briefly encountering the strange. I'm happy she wrote them and happy to have read them, I may buy a copy and poke back in whenever I need a monied New England story with an edge (more often than you might think!).

This collection from Wordsworth Editions collects fifteen stories by Edith Wharton. The themes were deeper than I expected and I thought that the prose in most of the stories was absolutely beautiful.

Edith Wharton is best known for her fiction about upper class society during the Gilded Age. While her work includes social satire and comedy she also wrote about the conflict between individual desires versus society’s expectations, conflict in marriage, stifled passion, greed, and loneliness. Those themes also show up in her ghost stories.

Some of these stories have ambiguous endings. I didn’t like this at first. After reading “The Maid’s Bell,” I was left wondering what had just happened. After reading an essay on the story I learned that some things had gone over my head and my appreciation of the story grew. I agree with what David Stuart Davies says in his introduction, which I read after finishing all the stories, “The challenging open-ended climax forces the reader to contemplate the story with more thought and decide for themselves.”

While it’s titled a collection of ghost stories, two of the stories, “A Journey” and “A Bottle of Perrier” are tales of suspense.

I enjoyed this collection quite a lot and I’ll be seeking out her other work.

My ratings:
The Lady Maid’s Bell (5/5)
The Eyes (4/5)
Afterward (5/5)
Kerful (5/5)
The Triumph of Night (2.5/5)
The Duchess at Prayer (5/5)
Miss Mary Pask (5/5)
Bewitched (5/5)
The Fullness of Life (4/5)
Mr. Jones (5/5)
Pomegranate Seed (3/5)
The Looking Glass (3/5)
A Journey (5/5)
All Souls’ (4/5)
A Bottle of Perrier (4/5)

Edith Wharton - the woman who famously did not sleep with horror books in the house until she was thirty years old. And then wrote some of her own. Smashing.

These stories are more about ambiance than horror, but there is something quite creepy about them as they seem rooted in reality more than in the supernatural (even though there are ghosts), and I was always a fan of Wharton's writing style - polished and strangely stylish - to such an extent that I found myself thinking much of Rebecca while reading Wharton's Pomegranate Seed story which first appeared in 1931, seven years before the publication of Rebecca.

Other notable favourites: Afterward, All Souls, Mr Jones, The Bolted Door.

I got off to a rough start with this one because I didn't like the first two stories. I persevered and I'm very glad I did because I enjoyed these stories tremendously. There was a remarkable range of types of stories and causes of the events. I really should read the deliciously creepy All Souls' every year on Halloween.