Dark Gothic Tales to Read Upon a Midnight Dreary

Posted on the 23 October 2024 by Snapdragon
Once upon a midnight dreary
While you pondered, weak and weary
Over many quaint 
and curious volume of forgotten lore

While you nodded, nearly napping,
 suddenly there came a tapping
As if someone gently rapping
rapping at your chamber door

"Tis some visitor", you muttered, 
"Here to tell me I ran out of ghost stories to read 
and nothing more"

"Nevermore" 
quote the raven

Here are thirteen ghost stories to read upon a midnight dreary . In case you too chicken and want something more light hearted. Short story number 5,6, and 7 are fun reads that might get a laugh out of you or warm your heart.

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1. The Old Nurse’s Story by Elizabeth Gaskell

Year: 1852

From: Victorian Ghost Stories: An Oxford Anthology

Read online

About: An old nurse tells her story about the tragic events that happen during a snow storm.

2. The Tomb of Sarah by F.G. Loring

Year: 1900

From: Victorian Ghost Stories: An Oxford Anthology

Read online

About: A small group of brave men gather together to hunt down a vampire that been terrorizing their village.

3. The Open Door by Charlotte Riddell

Year: 1882

From: Victorian Ghost Stories: An Oxford Anthology

Listen to the story on Horror Babble Podcast

About: A man investigates an empty house and try to find out why a door keeps being left open. Is it a ghost?

4. “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” by M. R. James 

Year: 1904

From: Horror Babble Podcast

Listen to the story on Horror Babble Podcast

About: A man who finds a whistle. When he blows it he finds out what happens.

5. The Haunted Mill or, The Ruin Home by Jerome K. Jerome

From: Fun Phantoms: Tales of Ghostly Entertainment

Read story online – I could not find this as a single story

About: A man inherited a mill and every night the ghost would lead him to where the buried treasure is…or not.

6.The Centerville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

Common enough to be find in varies anthologies

Year: 1887

About: A ghost tries to scare away an American family that move into his house. Only for it to backfire every time.

Read online

7. Sam and the Sea by George Mackay Brown

From: The Walker Book of Ghost Stories

About: A boy join an ancient feast with Vikings.

8. Hop Frog by Edgar Allen Poe

From: The Unabridged Edgar Allen Poe

Year: 1849

About: A jester seeks revenge on his curl master

9. The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chamber

Year: 1895

Common enough to be find in varies anthologies

About: Two friends read the curse play, The King in Yellow from beginning to end. Slowly they descend into madness.

Listen to the story on Horror Babble Podcast

10. The Moonlit Road by Ambrose Bierce

Year: 1907

From: Horror Babble Podcast

About: A short story told from the perspires of the psych medium, the vitim, and the murderer.

Listen to story on Horror Babble Podcast

11. The Thing in the Moonlight by H.P. Lovecraft

Year: 1941

From: Horror Babble Podcast

About: A man dreams of a strange thing in the moonlight

12. The October Game by Ray Bradbury

Year: 1948

From Horror Babble Podcast

About: Kids played a game at a birthday party that comes to a dreadful conclusion.

Listen to story on Horror Babble Podcast

13. The Temple by Joyce Carol Oates

Year: 1938

From: American Gothic Tales anthology

About: A man discovers a shine to a strange god up in the attic of an old house.

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So tell me have you read any of these stories?

Would you read any of these stories?

Let me know down in the comments.