The Haunted Library: Classic Ghost Stories

Only one small book, yet it is evil itself. That one book seizes a man by the throat and strangles him to death. ‘Dire warnings transmitted through the pages of an old Bible; a schoolboy imprisoned by a mysterious bookseller; libraries that hide unspeakable secrets; books that control or even possess their readers. The Haunted Library is a new collection of classic ghost stories from the golden age of the genre in the early twentieth century. Each of these stories reveals the arcane secrets and dark psychic traces to be found in occult books, shadowy libraries and other treasure troves of hidden knowledge. Includes work by major figures such as M.R. James alongside writers – such as Elizabeth Bowen – who are better known as literary novelists.

Tanya Kirk

Tanya Kirk is Lead Curator of Printed Heritage Collections 1601–1900 at the British Library and was the co-curator of the major exhibition Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination (2014–15).