The Spectre Bridegroom Part Second

Originally published in 1976, this anthology includes facsimile reprints of five early ghost and horror stories: "The Spectre Bridegroom: A Terrific and Interesting Tale," by Alexa; "A Nocturnal Expedition Round My Room," by Xavier de Maistre, translated by Edmund Goldsmid; "Midnight Horrors; or, The Bandit's Daughter: An Original Romance," anonymous; "The Spectre Mother; or, The Haunted Tower," anonymous; and "The Last of the Vampires: A Tale," by Smyth Upton. Two of the stories in the original anthology, "The Demon Hunter" and "The Pixy," have been dropped from this version.

Along with "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity, especially because of a character known as the Headless Horseman believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" relates the tale of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel. Ichabod Crane, a Yankee and an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassel's extravagant wealth ...