Filled with fresh illustrations and illuminating commentary on each story, this collection of Dickens' best ghost stories is a unique and fascinating study of Britain's first great supernatural master. The defining writer of the Victorian Age, Charles Dickens rattled Western society with his dauntless progressivism and his acidic social realism. His ghost stories, too, left a deep impression on the collective imagination of his readers. Often darkly humorous, sometimes thoughtfully allegorical, at times psychologically complex, and in the best cases existentially disturbing, Dickens' specters - from the purgatorial Jacob Marley to the signalman's faceless tormentor - are richly diverse. This illustrated collection contains critical thoughts on each story, and illuminating annotations to two of Dickens' most masterful, complex, and confusing tales: "To Be Read at Dusk" and "The Signal-Man," as well as a fully annotated printing of "A Christmas Carol." Easily read either at Christmas Eve or Hallowe'en, this versatile collection neatly presents a beautiful survey of Dickens' best and most haunting spook tales.