Other editions of book The Haunted House

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The Haunted House is a story published in 1859 for the weekly periodical All the Year Round. It was ”Conducted by Charles Dickens”, with contributions from others. It is a ”portmanteau” story, with Dickens writing the opening and closing stories, framing stories by Dickens himself and five other authors: ”The Mortals in the House” (Charles Dickens) ”The Ghost in the Clock Room” (Hesba Stretton) ”The Ghost in the Double Room” (George Augustus Sala) ”The Ghost in the Picture Room” (Adelaide Anne Procter) ”The Ghost in the Cupboard Room” (Wilkie Collins) ”The Ghost in Master B’s Room” (Charles Dickens) ”The Ghost in the Garden Room” (Elizabeth Gaskell) ”The Ghost in the Corner Room” (Charles Dickens) The story appeared in the Extra Christmas Number on 13 December 1859. Dickens began a tradition of Christmas publications with A Christmas Carol in 1843 and his Christmas stories soon became a national institution. The Haunted House was his 1859 offering. Dickens’s opening story, The Mortals in the House, is the strongest of the collection and demonstrates his mastery of storytelling and characterisation. When the narrator sees a deserted house from his railway carriage he becomes determined to take up residence there. However, the house is said to be haunted and the servants gradually become agitated. The narrator sends them away and invites a group of his friends to stay with him and fend for themselves. On Christmas Eve the friends arrive with the aim of discovering evidence of the supernatural. Secluded in their rooms for the holiday, the friends agree to keep silent about any ghostly experiences until they gather on Twelfth Night. The ghosts the characters see have no connection with the house, and are not even really ghosts; the stories are of injustice, terror, or regret.

In 1859, various literary luminaries - including Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and Wilkie Collins - collaborated on a serialised work concerning events in a most peculiar house. This is their tale... When our narrator espies a deserted house from his railway carriage, he cannot resist the challenge of taking up residence in a place no one else will inhabit. Local legend has terrified the nearby villagers, who in turn convince his servants to abandon ship. Undaunted, he and his sister invite a group of friends to join them - each of whom is then commissioned to rout out the supernatural from their respective rooms. And come Twelfth Night, they will meet to recount their experiences...

The story appeared in the Extra Christmas Number on 13 December 1859. Dickens began a tradition of Christmas publications with A Christmas Carol in 1843 and his Christmas stories soon became a national institution. The Haunted House was his 1859 offering. Dickens's opening story, The Mortals in the House, is the strongest of the collection and demonstrates his mastery of storytelling and characterisation. The narrator's ("John") health "required a temporary residence in the country.

The house's reputation for being haunted has caused it to become "an avoided house," and although the narrator decides to rent it for six months (from October to March) and live there with his spinster sister (Patty), they cannot retain any servants due to a plethora of bizarre house noises. Therefore, by mid-November, Patty suggests that she and John "take the house wholly and solely into our own hands" and live without servants, with the exception of Bottles the stable-man who is deaf and therefore not bothered by the haunted noises.

Collins among its contributors,The Haunted House is an ingenious tale of the supernatural with touches of pure Dickensian comedy. When the narrator espies a deserted house from his railway carriage, he cannot resist the challenge of taking up residence in a place no one else will inhabit. Local legend has terrified the nearby villagers, and they, in turn, convince his servants to abandon ship. Undaunted, he and his sister invite a group of friends to join them. Having shared out the household tasks, the guests are then commissioned to rout out the supernatural from their respective rooms. On Twelfth Night they meet to share their ghostly tales. The result is a feast of lively and bizarre storytelling, uniting the finest in Victorian literary talent. "As a document of self-revelation, The Haunted House is of the utmost significance for anyone interested in exploring the genius of Charles Dickens."

The Haunted House (+Biography and Bibliography) (Matte Cover Finish):Under none of the accredited ghostly circumstances, and environed by none of the conventional ghostly surroundings, did I first make acquaintance with the house which is the subject of this Christmas piece. I saw it in the daylight, with the sun upon it. There was no wind, no rain, no lightning, no thunder, no awful or unwonted circumstance, of any kind, to heighten its effect. More than that: I had come to it direct from a railway station: it was not more than a mile distant from the railway station; and, as I stood outside the house, looking back upon the way I had come, I could see the goods train running smoothly along the embankment in the valley. I will not say that everything was utterly commonplace, because I doubt if anything can be that, except to utterly commonplace people and there my vanity steps in; but, I will take it on myself to say that anybody might see the house as I saw it, any fine autumn morning.

"The Haunted House" (1859) by Charles Dickens is actually a compilation work, with contributions from Hesba Stretton, George Augustus Sala, Adelaide Anne Procter, ​Wilkie Collins, and Elizabeth Gaskell. Each writer, including Dickens, writes one “chapter” of the tale. The premise is that a group of people has come to a well-known haunted house to stay for a period of time, experience whatever supernatural elements might be there to experience, then regroup at the end of their stay to share their stories. Each author represents a specific person within the tale and, while the genre is that of the ghost story.