The Demanding Dead

With eight outstanding ghost stories, this collection highlights Edith Wharton's ability to switch genres seemingly without effort. The same literary genius evident in her best known works such as The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, and The House of Mirth is here dedicated to giving the reader a damned good scare. Stories such as "Kerfol" (adjudged by aficionados to be Wharton's best ghost story) and "Pomegranate Seed" are perfect illustrations of consummately crafted horror fiction. Wharton's vivid sense of the supernatural betrays her deeper anxieties about the claustrophobia of domestic life and the pain of a failing relationship.