Victorian Book of the Month: Scary Stories edition

The Victorians were very fond of ghost stories. Numerous authors, including many well-known writers of the period, tried their hand at the genre. October’s Victorian Book of the Month is a late 19th century contribution from Rudyard Kipling: The Phantom ‘rickshaw and Other Tales (1888). BYU’s copy of this collection was printed in India.

These short stories, set in India, include the title tale, which narrates the story of a cad who rejects a woman he had been seeing. The obsessed ex-girlfriend follows him around everywhere he goes, trying to rekindle his interest in her. When she dies, he thinks he is free of her, but her spirit continues to pursue him in a ghostly rickshaw.