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The Ghost upon the Rail single work   short story   crime  
Is part of The Detective's Album Mary Fortune , Hugh Dalmore , Rex Grayson , A. C. Eiseman , M. Joseph Lynch , 1865 series - publisher
Issue Details: First known date: 1853... 1853 The Ghost upon the Rail
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All Publication Details

First known date: 1896
Serialised by: The Shoalhaven Telegraph 1879 newspaper (1 issues)
Notes:
Serialised from 8 September 1896.
Link: Sighted: 16/07/2024
First known date: 1897
Serialised by: The Northern Star 1876 newspaper (35 issues)
Written as: Unattributed
Notes:
Serialised from 6 November 1897.
Link: Sighted: 16/07/2024
Alternative title: Fisher's Ghost
First known date: 1853
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Botany Bay, or, True Stories of the Early Days of Australia John Lang , London : William Tegg , 1859 Z822154 1859 selected work short story London : William Tegg , 1859
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Australian Journal vol. 15 no. 177 February 1880 Z1010561 1880 periodical issue 1880 pg. 312-316
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Botany Bay, or, True Stories of the Early Days of Australia John Lang , London : William Tegg , 1859 Z822154 1859 selected work short story Fisher's Ghost and Other Stories of Early Australia Melbourne : E. W. Cole , 1920 pg. 5-26
    Note: With title: Fisher's Ghost
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon A Century of Australian Short Stories Cecil Hadgraft (editor), R. B. J. Wilson (editor), Melbourne : Heinemann , 1963 Z577475 1963 anthology short story Melbourne : Heinemann , 1963 pg. 1-19
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years Leonie Kramer (editor), Sydney : Lansdowne , 1985 Z219820 1985 anthology poetry short story Sydney : Lansdowne , 1985 pg. 34-50
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Best Australian Short Stories Mary Lord (editor), Ringwood : Penguin , 1991 Z307411 1991 anthology short story extract humour satire crime historical fiction (taught in 1 units) Ringwood : Penguin , 1991 pg. 23-43
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Oxford Book of Australian Ghost Stories Ken Gelder (editor), Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1994 Z356827 1994 anthology short story crime young adult 'Did Australian ghosts suffer from a cultural cringe? Dr Ken Gelder indicates in the introduction to another fascinating OUP anthology that early ghost stories were essentially a "transported genre" that looked back to England as their source. Thus John Lang's well-known story "The Ghost upon the Rail" is based upon a case of murder for post-convict wealth. Gelder argues that Australian ghost stories possess their own ironical flavour, but the gothic tradition has to be resolved in outback locations or deserted mining towns, as in David Rowbotham's "A Schoolie and the Ghost".'

    'Gelder relies heavily on Victorian and Edwardian writers, such as Marcus Clarke, Barbara Baynton and Hume Nisbet, as if unsure as to the nature of contemporary ghosts. It is interesting to see that Australia's science fiction writers, such as Lucy Sussex and Terry Dowling, provide the link between the past and the present. Dowling's "The Daeman Street Ghost-Trap" effectively uses traditional settings to link ghosts with a current horror, namely cancer. Several bunyip stories remind us of a particular Antipodean creature to stand against the assorted European manifestations.'

    (Colin Steele, SF Commentary No 77, p.55).


         Melbourne : Oxford University Press , 1994     pg. 1-18
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Anthology of Colonial Australian Gothic Fiction Ken Gelder (editor), Rachael Weaver (editor), Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2007 Z1415120 2007 anthology short story extract horror mystery science fiction historical fiction children's (taught in 7 units)

    'This anthology collects the best examples of Australian gothic short stories from colonial times. Demonic bird cries, grisly corpses, ghostly women and psychotic station-owners populate a colonial landscape which is the stuff of nightmares.

    'In stories by Marcus Clarke, Mary Fortune and Henry Lawson, the colonial homestead is wracked by haunted images of murder and revenge. Settlers are disoriented and traumatised as they stumble into forbidden places and explorers disappear, only to return as ghostly figures with terrible tales to tell. These compelling stories are the dark underside to the usual story of colonial progress, promise and nation-building, and reveal just how vivid the gothic imagination is at the heart of Australian fiction.' (Publication summary)

         Carlton : Melbourne University Press , 2007     pg. 11-30
Subjects:
Settings:
  • Penrith, Penrith area, Sydney Outer West, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Bush,
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