Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully written, subtly spooky ghost stories!
Review: "Spookiness is, after all, the real purpose of the ghost story." This line is from the late Roald Dahl's delightful introduction to a collection of ghost stories he selected in the late 1950's for a proposed t.v. series that was never picked up by a network. Not a single one of these stories was written by Roald Dahl, although he tells us in the introduction that he tried valiantly. His conclusion is that not just everyone is capable of writing for this genre and he apparently is one of those who is not.
The stories are beautifully written, every one, and present a nicely balanced variety of chills, from the eerie, oh-so-British, "Harry" by Rosemary Timperley to the primitive and gripping "Elias and the Draug" by Norwegian, Jonas Lie.
Be prepared, however, for these stories to be a bit subtle for a generation raised on the likes of Stephen King. They are the faint scritch-scratching of a ghostly hand on the chamber door -- as opposed to a bloodied corpse body-slamming through the door and clutching the reader by the throat.
I bought this book to read to my children, based on how much we adore Roald Dahl's children's books. This was not necessarily the best choice, not because the stories are too graphic or violent, but because the writing style in many of them is slightly wordy and archaic; rather slow going for an antsy eight and nine year old. Several did, however, pass our family "spooky test," which is whether or not one needs to take a flashlight to bed with one.
Rating: 
Summary: scary!
Review: A ghost story should first and foremost be about atmosphere, and this collection of subtle, beautifully written ghost stories is a must-have. The stories range from the classic Victorian style to more bizarre stories such as the brilliant "Ringing the Changes." In addition, Dahl has selected works that are not usually included in the horror cannon. There is no Poe, no "Monkey's Paw." Instead, Dahl chose to emphasize more subtle and lesser-known works. And his introduction about the importance of women writers is also not to be missed. This is a brilliant anthology.
Rating:
Summary: A Great And Little Known Horror Gem
Review: A ghost story should first and foremost be about atmosphere, and this collection of subtle, beautifully written ghost stories is a must-have. The stories range from the classic Victorian style to more bizarre stories such as the brilliant "Ringing the Changes." In addition, Dahl has selected works that are not usually included in the horror cannon. There is no Poe, no "Monkey's Paw." Instead, Dahl chose to emphasize more subtle and lesser-known works. And his introduction about the importance of women writers is also not to be missed. This is a brilliant anthology.
Rating:
Summary: Eerie and Mysterious
Review: A novelist receives strange and disturbing post cards from an unknown fan ; lonely children speak to and about what their parents or guardians dismiss as imaginary friends until contrary evidence materializes ; an impoverished writer visits an antique shop finding different surroundings and tenants at night to those during the daytime ; a strange hand haunts a mansion and it's inhabitants ; strange telephone calls from the dead ; a mystery figure sweeps up leaves at night ; all who sleep on cabin 105 on the ship Kamschatka go mad and throw themselves overboard. All of these happenings have only the explanation of the supernatural: Strange encounters with phantoms, ghosts , ghouls and the undead.
Roald Dahl puts together a charming anthology of eerie old-fashioned ghost stories from various different authors, with all the right touches, where the twists in the tale all have a supernatural flavour. These stories will chill your spine and stay in your mind long after you have read them.
My personal favourites are Harry, Playmates, Ringing the Changes, The Ghost of a Hand, The Sweeper and On the Brighton Road.
Rating:
Summary: The best anthology of literary ghost stories I've ever read.
Review: And I've read most ghost story anthologies in print. However, I don't agree that the recommended reading level should be young adult and I can't help but wonder if this classification was made hastily because Dahl is best known as a writer of children's books. Most of these stories may be too dense, too subtle for readers used to graphic horror. Readers who are used to so-called "told for the truth" ghost tales will see how much more chilling and "true" a literary ghost story, well-told can be. "Suddenly something dark and shapeless with its arm seeming to hold a black vesture over its head, flitted, all sharp angles like a bat down the narrow ill-lighted street, the sound of its passage audible to none." --from Robert Aickman's "Ringing the Changes," my favorite story in the collection. For readers who like this kind of literary heft in their ghost stories, I also recommend THE GHOST STORIES OF EDITH WHARTON and VICTORIAN GHOST STORIES BY NOTED WOMEN WRITERS.
Rating: 
Summary: Lovely, subtle spookiness
Review: I don't usually seek out "scary" fiction, but I was looking for a gift for my son (a teen) and bought this one. He hasn't tried it yet, but I have been eagerly reading the stories. My favorite was also "Playmate", but all of the stories are good.
It should be noted that all of these stories were written quite a while ago. This means that the language is more complex and even maybe seems a little stilted to modern ears, but on the other hand, this is very high-caliber writing, and the language is a joy. (Many readers will have their vocabulary stretched just a little) I found the writing style to be an inspiration for my own writing. This is a very good collection!
Rating:
Summary: Scary
Review: I loved this book. Some of the stories really freaked me out. Especially the first one.
Rating:
Summary: scary!
Review: I read this alone at night (2nd time) and it still scared me! Some are scarier than others, but theese are real ghost stories, creepy not gory.
Rating:
Summary: This Book's the Best
Review: I think that this book is the best he has written. I read it for a report in sixth grade and loved it. All of the ghost stories he assembled in this collection were terrific. My favorite story of the fourteen in the book was called Playmates, but the rest were also wonderful.In the introduction, Roahld Dahl said that in good ghost stories you don't see the actual ghost, just the people and events that are affected by the spirit. I think that the book was a great idea and more like it should be published.
Rating:
Summary: introduced me to a few authors i'll read more of
Review: most of the stories in this book i could have done without. i found them boring and not the least bit frightening. i loved the edith wharton story (just buy her book of ghost stories), and the rosemary timperley stories were great too! more disturbing than any of the stories was dahl's sexist introduction. he waxes lyrical on how women authors are kept out of the literary canon, because men really have the upperhand in that area, but ladies sure can write a creepy story. i was incredibly irritated. this book gets 3 stars instead of one because it peaked my interest in ghost stories written by victorian women writer's- aside from that, it was pretty blah. and don't get me wrong, i've always been a fan of his, and have read quite a lot of his books, but the sexist remarks dampened my admiration. i strongly suggest flipping through this one before purchasing it.
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