The sinister tale builds slowly, refusing to offer any clear solutions – which makes the whole business even spookier. The governess begins to see two figures of a man and a man around the grounds of the house, and learns from the housekeeper that Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, both former employees at the house (and both of whom have since died), were involved in a relationship and were also close to the two children. The main narrative is told by a governess at a house who is put in charge of two children, Miles and Flora. This is the ‘ambiguous ghost story’ par excellence, a tale that – like many of James’s less popular works (he described The Turn of the Screw as a ‘pot-boiler’), refuses to tell us exactly what it means.

Henry James, The Turn of the Screw(1898).

Soon after his arrival, the young boy learns that two children who came to stay at the house in the past both mysteriously disappeared… James published in the Victorian era (many of his stories were written in the 1900s and 1910s), this is an unsettling story about an orphan boy who goes to stay at the house of his distant relation, Mr Abney. (Some curious facts about Kipling’s life and work here.) But are they mere hallucinations? And can someone be so frightened of their own shadow as to – well, we’ll say no more, for fear of giving the game away. We’re off to India for this next tale, about a British colonial official who – afflicted by the severe heat – begins to hallucinate and experience unsettling visions. Rudyard Kipling, ‘ At the End of the Passage‘ (1890). Indeed, in a curious twist it is the ghostly Sir Simon who ends up terrified, when the twin sons of the American owners produce a mock-up fake ghost! ‘The Canterville Ghost’ is a satire on the social and cultural differences between the American and English people, as well as on the Victorian ghost-story genre itself. But this is a ghost story with the Oscar Wilde treatment, so the family completely fail to be terrified by the presence of the ghost.

I am legend victorian monsters