One of Irving’s least well-known ghost stories is perhaps also one of his most interesting and personal. Like “Guests from Gibbet Island,” it is a rare foray into the classic ghost story. Most of his ghost stories end up like “Rip Van Winkle” or “The Bold Dragoon” – in that they purport to tell supernatural histories, but are laced with satire, cheek, and burlesque overtones making them ambiguous, while tales like “Sleepy Hollow” and “The Spectre Bridegroom” are overt farces, and others like...

Walpurgis Night—observed on the eve of May 1—sits in that peculiar category of European traditions that feel at once familiar and slightly unsettled, as if they have drifted across centuries without ever fully settling into a single meaning. On the surface, it is tied to the feast of Saint Walpurga, an early medieval abbess whose memory was honored across parts of Christian Europe. Yet alongside this ecclesiastical layer runs a much older and more diffuse set of seasonal customs: bonfires,...

Many of James’ best stories are nightmarish wish fulfilments of their author’s own personal fantasies. We see this in “A Warning to the Curious,” where the narrator bewails (“alas! alas!”) the 17th century destruction of an uncovered Anglo-Saxon crown, and proudly crows about laying eyes on one (“I can now say that I have seen an actual Anglo-Saxon crown”), full well knowing that the treasured glimpse cost Paxton his life. We again get a glimpse into James’ personal daydreams in stories...