Wonder Of Women - Haunted House Stories: Celebrate the true pioneers of female literature

In the days when Britain ruled the waves and bestrode the world as its policeman and plunderer in chief it also subjugated half of its own people to second class status. Women were chattel and property. There were some exceptions based on wealth and birthright but for the overwhelming majority your lot was to fall in with the rules and do as you were told. Many did.

But whilst male society sought to place obstacles in the path to equality, it could not deny their literary talents, which many times they circumvented by using male pseudonyms. However, the soaring sales of magazines and periodicals during the Victorian Age meant they had voracious appetites for literature, whatever the sex of its gender.

Dozens of authors appeared to fill the need. Narratives had new ideas. Characters were emboldened by societal changes and the female voice taking responsibility.

The women included here are talents that dazzle. Put them up against anyone and they rise to the top. Whether they remain with an avid readership today or faded to obscurity with the passing of the times their quality remains undimmed.

1 - Women of Wonder - Haunted House - An Introduction

2 - The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

3 - The Ebony Frame by Edith Nesbit

4 - The Open Door - Part 1 by Margaret Oliphant

5 - The Open Door - Part 2 by Margaret Oliphant

6 - The Shadows on the Wall by Mary E Wilkins Freeman

7 - The Ghost in the Clock Room by Hesba Stretton

8 - The Ghost at the Rath by Rosa Mulholland

9 - The Last of Squire Ennismore by Charlotte Riddell

10 - The Villa by Elinor Mordaunt

11 - Decay by Marjorie Bowen

12 - To Let by B M Croker

13 - The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth by Rhoda Broughton

14 - The First Evening by Catherine Crowe

15 - Man Size In Marble by Edith Nesbit