Told After Supper

Told After Supper (1891) is a collection of short ghost stories written by the English writer Jerome K Jerome. The collection's &quote;introductory&quote; starts as follows: &quote;It was Christmas Eve. I begin this way because it is the proper, orthodox, respectable way to begin [...] The experienced reader knows it was Christmas Eve, without my telling him. It always is Christmas Eve, in a ghost story.&quote; Hence, all the short stories included here happen on Christmas Eve and their events are marked with the presence of supernatural elements. Being all told by a first-person narrator, the stories are entitled &quote;How the Stories Came to be Told,&quote; Teddy Biffles' story,&quote; &quote;The Doctor's story,&quote; &quote;Mr. Coombe's Story,&quote; &quote;My Uncle's Story,&quote; &quote;A Personal Explanation,&quote; and &quote;My Own Story.&quote; Jerome mingles the fantastic with humor and even tells jokes about ghosts to mix the feeling of fear with laughter. He classifies these nightly visitors into &quote;middle-class ghosts,&quote; &quote;young ghosts,&quote; &quote;conscientious ghosts,&quote; &quote;average British ghosts,&quote; and &quote;lady specters&quote; who are &quote;contradictory and snappish, and liable to burst into tears.&quote; They all hold their annual feast on Christmas Eve, their &quote;great gala night.&quote;