Haunted Castles of the World: Ghostly Legends and Phenomena from Keeps and Fortresses Around the Globe [Paperback]

Charles A. Coulombe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2005 | Series: Haunted

An entertaining and informative guide to haunted castles around the globe.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...A year-round resource to ghostie places..."--Chicago Tribune

From the Back Cover

Dark spooky castles haunted by phantoms - what could be a more intriguing image? The ghost of Hamlet's father stalking the walls of Elsinore is burned into the mind of every literature student. Yet haunted castles do exist, and not just on lonely Scottish moors or German hillsides! On every continent - from the gothic keeps of Europe, to the exotic battlements of old Japan, to the lonely Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town - such places can be found.
In Haunted Castles of the World, Charles A. Coulombe takes us on a global tour of the homes of the rich and ghoulish, examining the legends and the phenomena that have gained them the reputation for being haunted. Here you will meet the ghostly cast of characters who haunt these places, and where and why these hauntings occur. All of the castles and palaces featured are accessible for public visits, and some are even open for overnight stays - if you dare! Whether you are planning an overseas vacation, or hunkering down in your favorite chair on a dark and stormy night, you are sure to find something in these pages to chill you.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592285341
• ISBN-13: 978-1592285341
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,274,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Guide book? Sure. Ghost book? Not really., April 18, 2006

By 

Stefan Isaksson "www.stefanisaksson.se" (Malmoe, Sweden) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Haunted Castles of the World: Ghostly Legends and Phenomena from Keeps and Fortresses Around the Globe (Paperback)

Castles and ghosts go hand in hand, we all know that. Every castle ever built, it seems, appears to have its own White Lady, its own ghosts walking the gloomy halls at night frightening the people who happen to see them, and their own myths and legends about gruesome deaths and unhappy love.

This becomes extra clear after having read through Haunted Castles of the World. Every chapter looks the same; Coulombe begins by offering a short description of the history of the castle and its inhabitants, followed by stories about different ghosts and how they have appeared throughout the centuries, and the chapter is then closed with a lively remark and the address and contact information in case the reader too wants to go there and see what all the fuzz is all about.

Which is both good and bad. It's good because you'll always learn where the castle is, what ghost or ghosts it has, and how to contact the owners if you want to go there yourself. But at the same time it's pretty dull, because you really don't learn very much about the ghostly phenomena themselves. The book is actually more of a history book than a ghost book, because the chapters all have a lot more text dealing with history than with ghosts. And also, there's no bibliography whatsoever, not even when the author uses direct quotes, and all in all the entire book very easily feels boring and repetitive.

But on the other hand, it's written as a guide book about different castles and their ghosts all over the world - England, Scotland, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and much more - and as such a book it works perfectly. As long as you're aware of the fact that it's a guide book you probably won't get disappointed, but if you want to learn more about the ghost phenomenon itself you're a lot better off picking a different book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ghost Stories-Too Short, December 28, 2007

By 

Y. Vashchenko - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Haunted Castles of the World: Ghostly Legends and Phenomena from Keeps and Fortresses Around the Globe (Paperback)

I bought this book because I love ghost stories and pictures of haunted castles. However, this book provided none of that. It is more like world guide of haunted places, and each place gets a couple of pages of fanciful description and then the address. It did not provide the beautiful castle pictures, nor the involved, ghostly stories based on history I was looking for.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hauntings?, July 22, 2007

By 

Veronica Rothwell (Melbourne, VIC, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Haunted Castles of the World: Ghostly Legends and Phenomena from Keeps and Fortresses Around the Globe (Paperback)

A great book that is informative, but would like it to have more substance and more ghost phenomena written down for the castles. it feels like a quick run down of certain local tourist hotspots, and does not give much information about the particular hauntings that go on at the locales.