Night Shivers: The Ghost Stories of J H Riddell

Selected and Introduced by David Stuart Davies. “Moving, his candle was instantly extinguished, and in the very moment of being left in the darkness he saw, standing in the doorway, a woman, resembling her who had haunted his dream overnight. He rushed with outstretched hands to seize her, but clutched only air.” ‘Night Shivers’ presents a treasure trove of the stories of Mrs J. H. Riddell, one of the greatest Victorian writers of ghost stories. These tales, many of which have been out of print for years, take the reader on fearful journeys into the gloomy haunts of old neglected houses, into a world of prophetic dreams, out onto the wild terrain of Ireland to encounter a frightful banshee and even down into Hell itself. In these fourteen short stories and one novella, ‘The Uninhabited House’, there is the distillation of the best and most effective of Riddell’s spine-tingling supernatural fiction. AUTHOR: Mrs J.H. Riddell was the pen name of Charlotte Eliza Lawson Riddell (nee Lawson) (1832 – 1906) an Irish-born writer who became one of the most popular and influential contributors to Victorian literature. She was particularly adept at ghost stories, and the Wordsworth collection of her stories, ‘Night Shivers, demonstrates her talents to the full.