Halloween is creeping closer

As Halloween and the long Icelandic nights draw near, perhaps skip the horror films once or twice and open the covers of some Spooky classic ghost stories instead.

In our recent search through the shelves, we’ve uncovered some true treasures from the pen of Henry James. One is the famous The Turn of the Screw (1898), a novella that has chilled readers for more than a century. A governess, two children, and a lonely estate create a story whose power lies in its ambiguity: is this a tale of genuine ghosts, or the slow unraveling of a fragile mind? The tension proved so enduring that Benjamin Britten later transformed it into a haunting opera.

In the very same collection, is another remarkable James tale: Owen Wingrave. Britten also set this one to music, but here the theme is not only ghosts, but pacifism. Owen is a young man from a proud military family who refuses to fight -a choice that brings him ridicule and ultimately a hauntingly fate. It is a not only a ghost story but also one that asks uncomfortable questions about courage, tradition, and the price of peace. In times like ours, when the world feels ever more fragile, its message of resistance to violence feels deeply needed.