Ghosts

Being of a morbid temperament, I’ve taken special notice of stories of pale and sickly spirits, so here are a few tales of pallid phantoms. Obviously a ghost is traditionally pale, but these particular sickly-white spirits seem to be associated with a crisis apparition or a death-bed appearance.

Dreams revealing the location of dead bodies–was that the only way the dead could communicate and make sure their corpses were found?

The Utopian author Louis-Sebatien Mercier claimed that he saw and spoke with the ghost of Louis XVI.

A Spiritualist “infidel” tells of a photograph taken of his long-dead dog.

As a Victorian family gathered around the dinner table, the room was filled with colored balls of light, which turned into the likeness of dead relatives.

For Fathers Day weekend, a father’s ghost bears away two family members.

The family had seen their beloved husband and father dead and buried–but years later they began to get letters from beyond the grave.

A story from a tiny Pacific atoll of a giant ghost-dog believed to be the spirit of a dead man.

Preview of coming attraction: The Victorian Book of the Dead, by Chris Woodyard, will be available in September. Here’s a blurb and a table of contents.