J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 5

"J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 5" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is a collection of spooky short stories from the late 1800s, full of puzzling and dark events that show off the time period's love of ghosts and the supernatural. These stories have scary settings and detailed characters that pull the reader into a world where it's hard to tell what's real and what's not. The book begins with "Laura Silver Bell," which is set in Dardale Moss, with a fortune-teller named Mother Carke who people think is also a witch, and as she walks home, she runs into a scary man asking about a young girl named Laura, who might be connected to fairies and a dark destiny. The story hints at Laura's unclear past and what might happen because she is uncircumcised, mixing together ideas about love, danger, and destiny, full of supernatural signs to set up the scary and magical nature of all the stories found within.