Lafcadio Hearn’s fascinating and unsettling ghost stories are a reinterpretation of oriental legends, and folktales. They are a potent blend of weird beauty and horror. Hearn, who referred to his narratives as ‘stories and studies of strange things’, believed that the spectral world was part of the oriental landscape. Lakes, mountains, ruined castles and terraced fields were the natural locale of ghostly spirits, and their intervention in human affairs was part of the natural order of things. Hearn’s apparitions are not a violent intrusion upon everyday reality; they are already a part of that reality, co-existing with the living.

This collection contains the best of the work of this neglected master of the supernatural tale. Prepare to be charmed and chilled in equal measure.

Contents:

• Introduction
  KWAIDAN
  
• The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoïchi
• Oshidori
• The Story of O-Tei
• Ubazakura
• Diplomacy
• Of a Mirror and a Bell
• Jikininki
• Mujina
• Rokuro-Kubi
• A Dead Secret
• Yuki-Onna
• The Story of Aoyagi
• Jiu-Roku-Zakura
• The Dream of Akinosuke
• Riki-Baka
• Hi-Maware
• Horai
  IN GHOSTLY JAPAN
  
• Fragment
• Furisode
• Incense
• A Story of Divination
• Silkworms
• A Passional Karma
  SOME CHINESE GHOSTS
  
• The Soul of the Great Bell
• The Story of Ming-Y
• The Legend of Tchi-Niu
• The Return of Yen-Tchin-King
• The Tradition of the Tea-Plant
• The Tale of the Porcelain-God