This book resituates the ghost story as a matter of literary hospitality and as part of a vital prehistory of modernism, seeing it not as a quaint neo-gothic ornament, but as a powerful literary response to the technological and psychological disturbances that marked the end of the Victorian era. "A terrific book, tightly-argued, highly-disciplined, constantly making interconnections of a convincing kind between the examples; never obscure or wandering from the point, often witty and sharp in observation and deduction - a brilliant account of what goes on and what's at stake when the ghost gets into the machine of narrative." - Professor Peter Barry, author of Beginning Theory "Literary Ghosts is a courageous book, unafraid to make room for the voices of capital-T Theory without allowing them to shout down the voices of fiction... If the ghostly voice is worth discussing, Thurston implies, then it is worth listening to, echoing (as it echoes us), and making it our own. Given such a compelling account, I agree with him." - Jennifer Bann, University of Glasgow, Review 19? "Thurston is ambitious in his theoretical scope... [his] book is a radical guest within the field of established Gothic readings of haunting. As hosts, it is our duty to welcome a study that advances our knowledge of the field significantly." - MattFoley, The Gothic Imagination?