Would you move into a haunted cottage? For Lucy Muir, the ghost of a grumpy old sea captain turns out to be just what she needed to complete her picture of perfect domestic bliss in The Ghost and Mrs Muir. The novel was published by Irish author Josephine Leslie under the pseudonym R. A. Dick in 1945. It was adapted into a popular film in 1947, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. If you’re looking for something sweet, slow, and low-stakes to read this summer, definitely check out this classic!
Freshly widowed while still quite young, Lucy Muir is ready for her life to finally begin. For far too long, she has lived the way others wanted her to—letting her husband and his family dictate nearly every aspect of her life. Even in death, her husband has left her a debt that severely limits Lucy’s prospects. Despite this, she is determined to finally start living on her own terms, and that means moving out from under the thumb of her meddling sisters-in-law. When a realtor reluctantly shows her the apparently haunted Gull Cottage, Lucy takes it—ghost and all. Though the cantankerous Captain Gregg isn’t thrilled to share his home, he and Lucy come to an understanding: he’ll restrict his haunting to only her bedroom if Lucy will leave his favorite belongings undisturbed and carry out his final wishes regarding the house. Captain Gregg and Lucy grow closer as she spends the years raising her two children, experiencing heartbreak, and turning the Captain’s adventures at sea into a swashbuckling novel.
Over the course of this novel, what starts out as a disruptive haunting becomes a quiet, contented love. The Ghost and Mrs Muir is the slowest of slow-burn romances, with Lucy and Captain Gregg’s relationship taking years to develop. But it is also incredibly sweet, and feels well-earned by the end. Rather than following more typical romance beats, the story simply follows two people (or rather, a person and a ghost), who live side by side for decades, sharing their space as well as their hopes, their regrets, and their innermost feelings. While Lucy can’t really talk to anyone else about her burgeoning relationship with a dead man (who would believe her, let alone be happy for her?), she learns to find happiness in privacy and solitude. And with Captain Gregg haunting her, she’s never completely alone.
The depiction of spirits in this novel is quite interesting. Captain Gregg’s ghost is invisible and mainly exists as a disembodied voice, though he can interact in some ways with the physical world—doing things like opening a window, or preventing a stove from lighting. And not everyone can hear his voice; those who are self-absorbed and closed-minded are unable to communicate with ghosts. If he wishes, however, Captain Gregg can affect such people by pestering them with cold breezes and disrupting their sleep. When not actively haunting Lucy, Captain Gregg spends part of his time in an afterlife realm, which he describes as being beyond the comprehension of the living. Overall, ghosts in this book seem to inhabit a world of pure spirit, leaving the physicality of the flesh behind. But that doesn’t mean leaving romance behind!
Whether you’re a fan of the classic film adaptation or have never heard of it, The Ghost and Mrs Muir is definitely worth the read! You may have to do some digging to find this older title in a bookstore, but you can also buy a copy online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve read it, let me know what you think in the comments!