Help! It's the Annual Horde of Horrific Halloween Happenings!
This year's theme is one familiar to any Victorianist: the ghastly and ghostly experiences of the Victorian professional man. With the occasional bonus student.
- The Phantom Woman (?). A lawyer becomes obsessed with the woman he sees through a window. (You may need to scroll down to this story.)
- Algernon Blackwood, Keeping His Promise (1906): A student studying for his exams receives an unexpected visit from an old friend.
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Shadow in the Corner (1879): An academic is deeply skeptical about what the new servant claims to see in her room.
- Wilkie Collins, Miss Jeromette and the Clergyman (1875): A clergyman reveals to his sister that he knows more about an old murder case than she suspects.
- Charles Dickens, To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt (1865): The head of a banking department finds himself on the spot while sitting on a jury.
- Arthur Conan Doyle, The Captain of the 'Pole-Star' (1883): The ship's doctor becomes increasingly concerned about his captain.
- Amelia B. Edwards, The 4.15 Express (1867): The lawyer who shared my carriage is what?
- M. R. James, Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad (1904): An academic does some ill-advised archaeology while on vacation, with the usual unfortunate results.
- ---, The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral (1910): An archdeacon finds himself besieged by whispering, mysterious cats, and...some other entities.
- Rudyard Kipling, The Phantom 'Rickshaw (1888): A minor civil servant in India breaks off an adulterous affair, but finds that things do not go quite as planned.
- J. S. Le Fanu, An Account of Some Disturbances in Aungier Street (1853): Two doctors-in-training have a nasty encounter with the ghost of a hanging judge.
- ---, Green Tea (1872): A clergyman finds himself seeing...things.
- Louisa Murray, Mr. Gray's Strange Story (1892): A Presbyterian minister tells the story of a man unhappy in love who shows up when least expected...
- "Q. E. D.," A Fight with a Ghost (?): A doctor reminisces about the time he had to deal with something that looked like a haunting, in any event. (You may need to scroll down.)
- Bram Stoker, The Judge's House (1891): A student studying for his exams has a nasty encounter with...well, see "An Account of Some Disturbances" above.