"This is a ghost story about ghost stories. It tells a tale about the telling of tales, and of the need, the absolute necessity, for stories that strike fear into men's hearts - stories that delve into the unknown and the uncanny..." ... and in most of the stories in this collection, the telling of ghostly tales plays a vital part. Here are stories told by firelight in isolated cottages, by lantern-light on storm-lashed beaches, by gaslight in scholars' studies and clubrooms, or by twilight in libraries and in lonely asylum cells. Here are stories of things that crawl stealthily across moonlit lawns, of legends it is better to remember, and of relics that are best left forgotten in the dark, of the malice of objects that are not as inanimate as they might seem, and of ancient tragedies re-enacted before helpless and horrified eyes. Here are stories of... Strange books unearthed from the college library foundations, and the dreadful shadowy form that seeks their return... The man with no sense of humour who plays a joke that has deadly results... The legendary gambling club where something far more precious than money is at stake... The book of ghost stories whose contents prove more than usually absorbing for the unfortunate reader... The solitary lighthouse in the middle of a treacherous sea, and the nightmare that awaits its keepers one stormy night, when someone comes knocking at the door... The painter whose commission for an unseen sponsor produces horrifying portraits that capture more than a mere likeness of the subjects... The old house with an alarming history, and the professor who is drawn to it in hope of fulfilling his overwhelming ambition to finally see a ghost... And the gentlemen's club where the patrons gather on Hallowe'en night to exchange ghoulish tales, and where a very special tale of horror must yet be told. Here are stories of phantoms and demons, of those who are haunted by them, and those, like Dr. Lawrence, the antiquarian scholar, who seek them and face them.