Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was no stranger when it came to telling a scary ghost story. His "Legends of the Province House" was mentioned as being exemplary by H.P. Lovecraft and his 1835 story titled "Graves and Goblins" is quite good. But this post is about Lady Eleanor's Mantle, which floats in at the 16th spot in my countdown of the scary ghost stories for the first half of the nineteenth century.
"Lady Eleanor's Mantle" is a ghostly tale of pestilence and because of that it draws certain parallels to Edgar Allan Poe's "Mask of the Red Death," which is included in my recently published book: The Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Ghost Anthology. Without giving away too much, the horror story contains an insane person and is well worth a read on a moonlit night. Enjoy.
