Western Mass. Library Advocates One-Blog

Favorite Ghost Stories

My favorite ghost stories are those by Henry James and Edith Wharton. I haven’t read any in quite awhile, but I remember James’ Turn of the Screw.

In it a new governess is hired for the two innocent, little orphans who live in an isolated, spooky country estate in England. There is definitely evil about, but is it the ghosts of the dead previous governess and the handyman? Or perhaps the children are only pretending to see ghosts to unsettle the new governess. Or maybe it is the governess herself who is insane?

It is all very creepy and by the end of the story, the reader still doesn’t know what happened except that the little boy, Miles, is dead. Who was responsible? The ghosts, if they exist; the governess, if she is deranged; or Miles himself, if he was really evil? The reader gets to decide.

~ Janet Moulding, Director, Forbes Library, Northampton