Varla Ventura's Paranormal Parlour

How many of us have been startled awake at night, wondering if the quiet tap on the wall or phantom breath on our necks was only a dream?

From shimmering spectres to paranormal parlour tricks to late night encounters with a Thing That Should Go Unnamed, we are fascinated, terrified and addicted to the ghost story. This book includes original ghostly tales, classic ghost stories, legends, hauntings, séances, superstitions, death customs and more. From the wild woods to the tangled urban underbelly, Ventura explores the very thing that scares us the most: the unknown entity that lurks just outside our window.

This book includes a collection of startling ghost stories as told to the author – including actual ghost stories from some of today's most popular paranormal explorers like Jeff Belanger and Ron Kolek - as well as legendary ghosts and haunted locations and an overview of the paranormal parlour games that rose to popularity in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. It, also, includes hidden history such as the story of Mark Twain's ghost, the quiet horror writings of the architect who started the Gothic Revival movement (Ralph Adams Cram), Charles Dickens' Haunted House project and the secret lives of upstanding citizens who conducted séances, wrote ghostly romances and more.