The stories and tales of English and American writers presented in this book are united, with all the variety of characters and situations, by a common place of action - a hotel inhabited by ghosts or other otherworldly forces, surrounded by superstitious rumors. Scary stories told by the classics of literature of the 19th century - Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Montague Rhodes James - introduce the reader to the world of spirits and ghosts that live not in ancient noble mansions and Gothic castles, but in crowded space of a big city, in the interiors of hotel rooms and furnished rooms, next to the receptionists, bellhops, maids and head waiters. The shadows of previous owners and guests, many years later disturbing the sleep of their successors, mysteriously disappearing and appearing rooms with “restless” furniture, mysterious secret passages and incomprehensible sounds coming from locked rooms - all this and much more is included in the range of extravagant services, provided to bored travelers for whom the haunted hotel always has free rooms. Discovered and developed by the authors whose works comprised this collection, this plot eventually became one of the most popular in modern horror literature and “horror” films.