A neglected Georgian house, shutters still, poplars trees surround it, whispering. Downstairs is a row of servant bells to call servants. One has a mysterious name and is reputed to ring when no one is there. Rumour speaks of a hooded figure and an owl; the corridors mutter with sounds of pipes, disconnected wires, and something harder to dismiss. By night, faces seem to change in the mirror; but by day, the rooms are ordinary. Servants won't stay there and then the owner organises an investigation, a ghost hunt, if you like. A society of guest who are to keep their counsel until Twelfth Night, listening for what remains and for the presence that speaks when the house is empty.

First published as the Christmas number of All the Year Round (December 1859), a collaborative sequence framed and partly written by Charles Dickens.

This reading includes Dickens’s chapters: “The Mortals in the House” and “The Ghost in Master B.’s Room.”

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was a British novelist and social critic, author of Oliver Twist, Bleak House, and Great Expectations.

He edited Household Words and All the Year Round, helping to make the Victorian Christmas ghost story a tradition.

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