Ghost stories are my (not so guilty) pleasure, as you know, and I'm still sifting through the Librivox catalog looking for old goodies. Right now I'm listening to
Present at a Hanging (Gutenberg text
here), stories by the American journalist/satirist
Ambrose Bierce. So far my favorite is "A Man With Two Lives." These stories are much shorter and sharper than the gothic tales I usually read, and I like that—sometimes a story goes on for thirty or forty pages, and the dénouement isn't as dramatic as all that narrative build-up would suggest. Make sure you read "A Man With Two Lives"—it'll only take you a few minutes.
And speaking of Ambrose Bierce: I've been thinking a lot about epigraphs lately, how they flavor and (hopefully) enhance the reader's experience of the story they're about to read, and I thought I would show you the epigraph that opens
Petty Magic:
WITCH, n. 1, Any ugly and repulsive old woman, in a wicked league with the devil.
2, A beautiful and attractive young woman, in wickedness a league beyond the devil.
More thoughts on epigraphs in a future entry.
