 The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories, by Oscar Wilde.
This collection has four of Wilde's stories, two almost novelette-length and two shorter. The title story is sort of a 19th-century Beetlejuice (it may have been the inspiration for Beetlejuice, for all I know). A British lord haunts his former mansion, but when an American family moves in, they refuse to take him seriously. The children torment him with pranks, and the adults offer him lubricant for his clanking chains and throat remedies for his howling. Only the teenage daughter shows him any kindness or understanding. "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" is a dark comedy where the title character is warned by a palm reader that he's destined to commit murder. Lord Arthur decides that he can't marry his beloved with that dark fate hanging over his head. His incredible solution: commit the murder now and get it out of the way. Only, there's no one in particular that he wants to murder, and when he does settle on a victim, he turns out to be farcically bad at assassination. (Bonus for Wilde fans: Lady Windemere appears in the story, fan in hand.) The two shorter stories, "The Sphinx With No Secret" and "The Model Millionaire" are both mostly forgettable, with spoilers in the titles. (The model in question is an artist's model dressed as a beggar.) Popsugar Reading Challenge: A travel ghost story. 52 Book Club Challenge: Written in the 1800s. This Challenge Killed the Bookworm: Cozy fantasy.
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