Interest in supernatural phenomena was high during Charles Dickens' lifetime. He had always loved a good ghost story himself, particularly at Christmas time, and was open-minded, willing to accept, and indeed put to the test, the existence of spirits. His natural inclinations toward drama and the macabre made him a brilliant teller of ghost tales, and in the twenty stories presented here, which include his celebrated A Christmas Carol, the full range of his gothic talents can be seen. Chilling as some of these stories are, Dickens has managed to inject characteristically grotesque comedy as he writes of revenge, insanity, pre-cognition and dream visions, he indulges also in some debunking of contemporary credulity. Stories include: The Queer Chair / A Madman's Manuscript / The Goblins who Stole a Sexton The Ghosts of the Mail / The Baron of Grogzwig / A Christmas Carol The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain / To be Read at Dusk / Four Ghost Stories The Haunted House / The Trial for Murder (to be taken with a grain of salt) / The Signalman Christmas Ghosts / The Lawyer and the Ghost / The Ghost in the Bride's Chamber A Child's Dream of a Star / Well-Authenticated Rappings / Mr Testator's Visitation The Portrait-Painter's Story / Captain Murderer and the Devil's Bargain AUTHOR Charles John Huffam Dickens FRSA (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870), pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print. A concern with what he saw as the pressing need for social reform is a theme that runs throughout his work. Much of his work first appeared in periodicals and magazines in serialised form, a favoured way of publishing fiction at the time. Dickens, unlike others who would complete entire novels before serial publication commenced, often wrote his in parts, in the order in which they were meant to appear. The practice lent his stories a particular rhythm, punctuated by one cliffhanger after another to keep the public eager for the next installment.