Tonight, for our next Spooky Sleep Story, we’ll read Phantasmagoria, a narrative poem by Lewis Carroll first published in 1869. A polite Ghost drops in after midnight and proceeds to instruct his puzzled host in the finer points of spectral etiquette.

Each October we bring back Snoozecast’s Spooky Stories Series—now in its seventh year—our annual run of classics with a candlelit vibe: ghostly, atmospheric, and cozy rather than truly scary. Think creaking floorboards and wry smiles, not jump scares.

Best known for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll turns domestic life into mock-epic ritual here, mixing puns with parody of Victorian manners. In seven cantos, the Ghost explains everything from haunt-house “housekeeping” to courtly forms of address—an odd, amiable manual for the afterlife delivered with Carroll’s playful logic.