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Fiction General

The Signal-Man

illustrated by Charles Dickens

Publisher
Biblioasis
Initial publish date
Nov 2015
Category
General, Ghost, Short Stories (single author)
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781771960649
    Publish Date
    Nov 2015
    List Price
    $8.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Overtaken by insomnia, a gentleman wanders through a damp winter countryside - until he discovers the black mouth of a railway tunnel. To his amazement, deep in the gorge before the tunnel, he sees an ancient signal-man. Although at first unresponsive to his calls, the signal-man eventually invites him down to a lonely shack. It's there, over the course of two sleepless nights, that we learn the signal-man's horrifying secret: a shrouded figure haunts him, foretelling a catastrophe soon to befall that very stretch of the tracks. Has the signal-man lost his mind in the solitary dark of his profession? Or does he see the phantom of his own grizzly fate? First published in 1866 for a special Christmas issue of All the Year Round, Charles Dickens' "The Signal-Man" has since fallen into obscurity. This beautiful reissue, designed and illustrated by the inimitable Seth, breathes new life into a work many consider one of the best Christmas ghost stories ever written.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Seth's comics and illustrations have appeared in the New Yorker, the Walrus, the New York Times Magazine, Best American Comics, and McSweeneys Quarterly. He is the author of the best-selling comic book series Palookaville, is Lemony Snicket's partner for the new Young Readers series, All the Wrong Questions, and designed Biblioasis' 2012 translation of Anton Chekhov's Love Stories. Seth lives in Guelph, Ontario, with his wife Tania and their two cats.