Charlotte's Spectre

Celebrate Halloween with a Brontë (sort of) ghost story. Charlotte Brontë's juvenilia story The Green Dwarf (1833) contains an episode where the emperor Napoleon encounters an spectre (not surprisingly renamed in anthologies, Napoleon and the Sceptre). Not really very spooky but very nice to read considering that Charlotte was 17 years old when she wrote it. Being by the author of Jane Eyre and not forgetting that it is in the public domain it is not rare to see it included in various Ghost Stories compilations. Like this one, recently published:

The Best Ghost Stories Ever Told
Edited by Stephen Brennan
Skyhorse Publishing
Paperback
ISBN-10 1616083646
ISBN-13 978-1-61608-364-9
Publication Date: September 2011

Are you sure that chill on the back of your neck is just a breeze?
When “gut feelings” have been replaced by a thirst for proof and hard evidence, it’s good to know that you can still be spooked by a collection like this one. Best Ghost Stories is a creepy group of over forty tales by some of the most impressive names in the writing world. Terrifying, bone-chillingly eerie, and good fun, these haunting narratives give vivid descriptions of creepy characters and happenings that will make you hesitate before turning out the light!
More than just a niche product, ghost stories hold a bewitching appeal for all kinds of writers and readers—some of the truly great authors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have lent their horror stories to this collection, including Arthur Conan Doyle, Louisa May Alcott, Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, H. G. Wells, and many more. Count on our Best Stories series for entertaining tales that you won’t soon forget.
12 black-and-white illustrations

The book is reviewed on the Dayton Daily News.