I read this book for the first time nearly twenty years ago. My book club is reading it now for our late October meeting. I gave this book five stars based on my first reading. I'm eager to see what I think of it nearly twenty years later.

I have now completed my second reading and was delighted by this collection of ghost stories. I will grant that many of the endings are enigmatic and elliptical, but the progress of each story is so beautifully written that I will keep my five-star rating for this book.

Da leggere di sera e, possibilmente, durante una tempesta.

È necessaria la giusta atmosfera per gustare pienamente questi racconti.

"Un brivido improvviso nell'aria notturna, una sottile, insinuante oppressione, un senso indefinibile di disagio". Questi gli elementi che accompagnano le storie contenute nel libro.
E sono storie, queste, dove non dovete aspettarvi la classica apparizione del fantasma nel modo spaventoso e terribile che anche il cinema riprende, ma piuttosto "una crepa che si apre silenziosamente nel muro della realtà."

Lettura leggera e perfetta per questo periodo dell'anno.
Splendido lo stile della Wharton.

"Quante persone che conosceva avevano idea di cosa fosse il silenzio... e d come suonasse cupo quando lo si ascoltava sul serio?"

"Storie di fantasmi", Edith Wharton, 1994.

I’m not in love with short story collections but I did like each of these stories and the variety. But I didn’t love them, and it was a bit of a chore to finish the book. The stories are old fashioned, creepy and have deep characters. But I felt many of the stories were left unfinished and in some cases I was even a bit confused about what happened. Was that intentional? Idk. But I didn’t love it. Maybe I was being lazy.
But- these were fun to read in this spooky season! One more ghost book to go!!!

Terminato! Racconti scritti divinamente,ma appunto RACCONTI,motivo per cui non ho dato 4 stelle ma solo 3. Purtroppo non riesco a entrare bene in una storia quando questa si sviluppa in poche pagine. Ad ogni modo è stato un piacere conoscere la Wharton, e la approfondirò presto,perché la sua penna,i suoi personaggi,le ambientazioni, sono particolarmente affascinanti!
Non so se si può considerare spoiler,ma i racconti non hanno dei veri e propri finali; molto spesso (quasi sempre) viene lasciato tutto in sospeso. Motivo per cui la bellezza dei singoli racconti sta esclusivamente nel loro farti stare sul filo del rasoio. Intrattenimento,punto; arricchito dall'eleganza della scrittura di Edith.

Збірка прекрасних едвардіанських жахливчиків, і деякі з них швидше психологічні трилери без впливу потойбічного. Розхвалений "Дзвінок покоївки" мені не сподобався, зате класна ренесансна історія вийшла в "Герцогині за молитвою". Але зірки збірки - "Зачарований" та "Пляшка Пер'є". В першому можна покрутити і так, і так, але я за справу дуже вдатних людських рук, а другий - крутий трилер в пустельних декораціях, жодних привидів там не пробігало, але з ними було б навпаки не так моторошно. Аж дивно, що досі не екранізували.

I'm sorry, Edith Wharton. It's not you, it's me. I wasn't expecting this to be a gory, spine-chilling read but I was hoping that there would be some chills. Also, because I am waiting to collect a book from my local book shop, and it's one I'm quite excited about reading, I think that put me into a bit of a book-slump meaning that I possibly wouldn't have settled on pretty much anything that I had picked up.
This is possibly more, wrong book, wrong time than it being a poor collection of ghost stories, so maybe one day I will go back to it.

Zbiór opowiadań "Duchy i ludzie" to kolejna odsłona historii niesamowitych, z którymi miałam przyjemność się zapoznać dzięki serii Biblioteka Grozy. Edith Wharton nie potrzebowała wyskakujących z szafy trupów i wyjących do księżyca upiorów, żeby wzbudzić w czytelniku pewien niepokój. Bardzo odpowiadało mi również tło większości z tych opowieści.

Kilka z tych historii zapadło mi w pamięć bardziej niż inne. Pierwszą z nich jest "Dzwonek garderobianej", niby wiadomo od początku jak potoczy się cała sprawa, ale i tak przeczytałam z przyjemnością do końca. "Kerfol" należy raczej do przygnębiających opowieści, życie Anny de Cornault nie było materiałem na wesołą opowiastkę. Opowiadanie pt. "Urzeczony" miało w sobie coś... urzekającego. Moim zdaniem największą zaletą tych historii jest ich subtelny klimat, który jednak nie każdemu się musi podobać, więc polecam raczej czytelnikom gustującym w tego typu literaturze. Jak ktoś bardzo chce się przestraszyć to raczej mu się nie z tym zbiorem nie uda.
7/10

Finished the last of these today. What a delightful discovery this collection has been. Really enjoyed revisiting Wharton’s style of writing. A few of my favorite stories were “Mr. Jones”, “The Looking Glass” and - maybe my most favorite - “Miss Mary Pask”

This is a collection of 11 ghost stories by Edith Wharton. Most of these I found channelled vibes similar to Poe, Dickens & Collins. I only really liked 4 of them but what a strong 4! The ones I liked where The Lady maids Bell, Kerfol, The Triumph of Night & Miss Mary Pesk. My overall rating is 3/5 ⭐️

Before I give my thoughts on those the others I didn’t really like for the same reasons… unnecessarily slow (some never went anywhere) lacked atmosphere, no tension or creeping sense of dread & I just wasn’t a fan of the approach.. Overall a tad stale….

The Lady Maids Bell 3/5 ⭐️
I LOVED the start of this one however .. it just never really went anywhere … Things happened but it just never made any sense to me.. it just felt random. It was very atmospheric but it just left too many unanswered questions.

Kerfol 4/5 ⭐️
The sense of creeping dread is perfectly executed in this! I would describe it as the spine tingling sensation or when you just go cold as if someone’s walked over your grave. This felt VERY gothic! This is up there in my favourite short stories (a small bonus my favourite dog breed is in it)
/ little warning unpleasant things happen to dogs but it has the best ending! I promise you!

The Triumph of the Night 4/5 ⭐️
This was very much like something out of Poe’s imagination! I also found it similar to Dickens ghost stories. It’s very dark, mysterious & atmospheric! It’s quite ambiguous but I won’t give my interpretation because it will spoil the story. But also this is a favourite!

Miss Mary Pask 4/5 ⭐️
This was quite original .. I will say & well written. This was also very gothic & mysterious! This too had a very nice sense of foreboding.

This is an interesting collection of 11 Ghost Stories which are short stories written by Edith Wharton spanning from 1909 through 1937. The following stories are listed & a brief review. All these stories are a different kind of ghost story which have outcomes with uncertainty & bewildering. Many stories have you wondering how it will end & your own imagination will have to suffice.

The Lady's Maid Bell- 1902 Hartley is in need of a job after recovering from a lingering illness. Due to this many not wanting her help but she finds employment as a Lady's maid where many maids don't last a fortnight.

Afterward - 1909 An American couple seek life in a castle in England occupied by ghosts unseen. Living there for many months without a ghost in sight, they are disappointed but should they have left well enough alone?

The Eyes- 1910 Ghost stories are being told by old Culwin's friends but it becomes clear that Culwin has seen some of his own!

The Triumph of Night- 1914 Faxon on his way to his new employer finds a friend in young Rainer who is quite sickly. Faxon starts seeing a dark sinister man not seen by others that makes him wonder about his friends safety.

Kerfol- 1916 What are Yves de Cornault's secrets regarding his wife & the little dogs who guard the castle?

Bewitched- 1925 Three men are summoned to help Saul Ruthedge & his wife right something that seems impossible.

Miss Mary Pask- 1925 Visiting a relative in England for a friend who is found dead but seems alive at night only & without a single visitor.

Mr. Jones- 1928 Lady Jane Lynke inherits the Bells estate but Mr. Jones is invasive caretaker which seems quite not what he seems.

Pomegranate Seed- 1928 Charlotte's husbands receives mysterious letters which her husband refuses to explain & leads to upset.

The Looking Glass- 1935 Mrs. Attlee helps out a wealthy friend to help lessen her pain.

All Souls- 1937 Sara Clauburn stays at Whitegate after her husband's death & has an experience which seems to be the spookiest of all the stories to me.

One excerpt from Wharton's preface-I found this interesting from her perspective on cinema/movies on the effect on the readers & books. Love this quote!
"But in a few years more perhaps there may be; for, deep within us as the ghost instinct lurks, I seem to see it being gradually atrophied by those two world-wide enemies of imagination, the wireless and the cinema. To a generation for whom everything which used to nourish the imagination because it had to be won by an effort, and slowly assimilated, is now served up cooked, seasoned and chopped into bits, the creative faculty (for reading should be a creative act as writing) is rapidly withering, together with the power of sustained attention; and the world which used to be so grand ala charte des lampes is diminishing in inverse ratio to the new means of spanning it; so that the more we add to its surface the smaller it becomes."

Excerpt from The Triumph of Night
"Oh, facts-what are facts? Just the way a thing happens to look at a given minute..."

Non ero a conoscenza che Edith Wharton avesse scritto una raccolta di racconti di fantasmi, devo ringraziare un’amica per questa scoperta! La scrittrice rifiuta gli stereotipi dei castelli, dei manieri infestati da spiriti: crede di più al fatto che essi appaiano nei posti meno probabili e agli occhi di persone scettiche e razionali, invece che alla vista di chi crede. Non posso dire nulla sullo stile narrativo, semplice, ma elegante, ti tiene incollato alle pagine. Tuttavia, nonostante la voglia di scoprire il finale di ogni racconto, alcuni li ho trovati un po’ deboli e con un cliffhanger troppo grande per far sì che scatti l’elemento di stupore per una conclusione lasciata “in bilico”. Ma è la stessa Wharton a comunicarci nell’introduzione che considera questa raccolta semplicemente un esperimento in cui si è dilettata, un timido tentativo di uscire fuori dai propri schemi e inoltrarsi in un territorio per lei inesplorato. Non posso che essere d’accordo, ma apprezzo molto il suo tentativo: ci ha comunque regalato una serie di storie originali e diciamocelo, le storie di fantasmi non sono mai troppe per gli appassionati del genere.

If you held me at gunpoint to finish this book, I’d tell you to pull the trigger.