What Are the 5 Most Influential English Ghost Stories?

A supernatural element was one of the foundations of Gothic literature. Adding ghosts to these tales linked them back to ancient and religious beliefs of souls and the afterlife. Writers have also experimented with form and perspective to develop psychological depth to their ghost stories. By rooting the supernatural in recognizable and domestic settings, other writers sought to shock the reader and create profound unease. The writers of these 5 stories are heralded as some of the greatest writers of ghost stories in English.<

Emily Bronte’s Gothic masterpiece is remembered for its tempestuous lovers, windswept moors and tragic family drama. However, when creating her novel, Emily Bronte chose to open with a violent and terrifying ghostly encounter. In the opening of the novel, Lockwood (the narrator), spends the night in a forbidden bedroom after being caught in a storm. He has read the names Catherine alongside Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Linton, all carved in the wooden window frame.

As he sleeps, he is awoken by a knocking on the window pane and, thinking it a branch, reaches out to break it. The reader is then startled to read that Linton’s wrist is grasped by the ice-cold fingers of Cathy’s ghost. Her specter cries that she has been ‘a waif for twenty years,’ have inspired countless other works of fiction including the song Wuthering Heights by  Kate Bush. 

The Signal Man (1866), by Charles Dickens

Another influential detail is Dickens’s knowledge and use of contemporary technology (the steam railways) and resemblance to real events (The Clayton tunnel train crash is eerily similar to the first accident). Dickens may also have been inspired by his own brush with death on the railroad. He had been on board during the terrible Staplehurst rail crash which killed 10 passengers, an incident which left him traumatized. Using such psychological realism in his ghost story makes it one of the most influential of all time. 

Oscar Wilde created The Canterville Ghost as a humorous short story in 1887. The plot is simple; an American family moves into a haunted English country house. However, the ghost, Sir Simon Canterville, becomes increasingly frustrated when the family fail to find him terrifying. Instead, they begin terrorizing him with pranks. Eventually the ghost learns to move on and the human family learns some life lessons too.

Wilde’s story may not be as eerie as the others on the list, but it is certainly influential: there have been over 25 productions on film, TV and radio of the story in multiple languages around the world. Without this story we may never have had Casper the Friendly Ghost, the BBC comedy Ghosts, and many more tales with a benevolent spirit in need of some help.

Lost Hearts (1895), by M. R. James

Possibly the most prolific writer of ghost stories, M. R. James was said to be particularly pleased with his late 19th century tale Lost Hearts. It features all the quintessential ingredients of a Jamesian ghost story: a naive narrator witnessing supernatural events; references to antiquity; and shocking horror. In the story, the narrator, Stephen Elliott, observes with increasing concern his older cousin’s behavior. The cousin, Mr. Abney, is a scholar and occultist whose extensive historical, mythical and religious knowledge lead him to child murder. The ‘lost hearts’ of the title are a reference to the gruesome vision of two murdered children that the narrator is tormented by.

Enriching his tale with his scholarly knowledge lends credibility and fascination to a genre once derided as sensationalist. Later authors such as Sarah Waters and Susan Hill can be seen as directly inspired by the tone and style of James’s stories. 

The Turn of the Screw defies easy categorization. Whilst it uses several Gothic characteristics (the country estate, family secrets, supernatural visions), James’s adoption of modern psychology alongside a radical, unreliable narrator means the story is often hailed as one of the scariest stories of all time. The plot revolves around an unnamed governess hired to look after the orphaned children Miles and Flora.

The governess becomes drawn into the mysteries surrounding the family and is increasingly haunted by the malevolent forces of the former governess (Miss Jessel) and another employee (Peter Quint). Convinced that these spirits influence the children in escalating displays of misbehavior, the governess narrates the tale, placing herself as the heroine desperately trying to save the children’s souls. 

The tragic finale is chilling in its twist; the ambiguity is a shocking new development in the history of ghost stories. Admired by Stephen King and Gillan Flynn, contemporary masters of horror and tension, The Turn of the Screw has been adapted for stage and screen countless times both directly and indirectly: It thereby provides the archetype for the creepy children ubiquitous in so many of today’s horror films.