Classic ghost stories: spooky tales to read at Christmas.

Do you believe in ghosts? Not monsters, not floating objects or unexplained coincidences, but an actual presence - a flicker in the corner of the eye, a shadow in a darkened hallway, a hand pressed against the window, or a figure at the end of the bed.

Sometimes they are a malevolent warning, or they come seeking revenge, or as a horrible reminder of past misdeeds.

But ghosts could visit on the brightest summer's day, on a lonely stretch of beach, making their presence felt just when you least expect it.

The great writers of the 19th and early 20th century, from Elizabeth Gaskell to Rudyard Kipling, also produced some of the most influential ghost stories ever written, shaping the conventions of the form for generations of writers to follow.

Collected here are some of the most iconic of these Victorian ghost stories.