it isn't in human power to prevent its coming."
Welcome to the
Christmas ghost story for 2003!
This year's selection is
in a mellow and melancholy mood,
"At Chrighton Abbey,"
from bestselling Victorian author
Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
Originally published in 1871,
this is the tale of a spinster aunt
(at "three-and-thirty," her
"youth was quite gone"),
her loving nephew, and his
snobbish bride-to-be,
whose lives are complicated
by the ghostly family omens at their Gothic mansion.
The link is to the homepage of Japanese
Dickens and Gaskell scholar
Mitsuhara Matsuoka, who
has kindly provided some etexts of
Victorian Ghost Stories on the web.
Follow the link
at the bottom of the story when
you're done, and check it out!