Author Description

A new anthology of Victorian Christmas ghost stories to haunt your holidays. Not all Christmas visitors are jolly…or alive. While the holidays evoke warm memories of carols, decorations, and gift-giving, horror lurks beneath the holly. The Victorians sought a pleasing terror each December 24th, relishing tales of spirits, goblins, and demons. Shadow House Publishing is proud to continue this tradition with YULETIDE FRIGHTS 2: MORE VICTORIAN GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS. Bestselling author and anthologist William P. Simmons exhumes fifteen supernatural tales that capture the fright and macabre merriment of the season. Winter Solstice. Yuletide. Christmas. The holidays are filled with shivers and glad tidings, harkening us back to a time when the sun died, and the powers of darkness held sway. Gather ‘round the fire and unwrap some of the greatest ghost stories in the English language. Unearthed from moldering Victorian magazines and crumbling newsprint, many of these tales haven’t been reprinted for over a century and include spine tingling classics alongside little known rarities by B.M. Croker, Florence Marryat, Ernest R. Suffling, Margaret Oliphant, and many more. The dead are not at rest this holiday. Victorian era Christmas’s are haunted by vengeful pagan entities, wandering wraiths, and folklore fiends. Malignant phantoms wreak havoc at Christmas Eve revels. Cursed portraits seduce both flesh and soul. Festive reunions end in unspeakable tragedy. Nocturnal visitors collect damned souls, devilish deals are made, and graveyard visitants haunt houses and minds alike. Funerary fables of phantom monks, White Ladies, and black magic strike just the right balance of fright and fun for the long winter evenings. This volume offers modern readers the experience of perusing a Victorian era Christmas Number. Editor Simmons contributes an Introduction and Notes examining the cultural and literary context of the Christmas ghost story tradition, roun