(Other)Worldly Goods: Ghost Fiction as Financial Writing in Margaret Oliphant and Charlotte Riddell

摘要: Margaret Oliphant and Charlotte Riddell are both practitioners of what could be considered the comforting, morally didactic ghost story. The stories each generally eschew malevolent ghosts in favour anguished souls need earthly assistance, or who themselves seek to protect otherwise benefit living. Although their tales sometimes contain significant elements uncanniness, tonal emphasis falls not predominantly upon producing shock horror, but on creating a reassuring sense providential ordering universe that just occasionally requires some sympathetic interaction between living dead help it along.