Let's be clear. We are all equal under the law. However, even in these more modern times that is not an absolute and still remains a distant ambition for many.

In the days when Britain ruled the waves and bestrode the world as its policeman and plunderer in chief it also subjugated half of its own people to second class status. Women were chattel and property. There were some exceptions based on wealth and birthright but for the overwhelming majority your lot was to fall in with the rules and do as you were told. Many did.

But whilst male society sought to place obstacles in the path to equality, it could not deny their literary talents, which many times they circumvented by using male pseudonyms. However, the soaring sales of magazines and periodicals during the Victorian Age meant they had voracious appetites for literature, whatever the sex of its gender.

Dozens of authors appeared to fill the need. Narratives had new ideas. Characters were emboldened by societal changes and the female voice taking responsibility.

The women included here are talents that dazzle. Put them up against anyone and they rise to the top. Whether they remain with an avid readership today or faded to obscurity with the passing of the times their quality remains undimmed.

1 - Women of Wonder - Ghost Stories - An Introduction

2 - Man Size In Marble by Edith Nesbit

3 - The Eyes by Edith Wharton

4 - The Story of Salome by Amelia Edwards

5 - The Shadows on the Wall by Mary E Wilkins Freeman

6 - A Spirit Elopement by Clotilde Graves

7 - Since I Died by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

8 - Reality or Delusion by Mrs Ellen Wood

9 - Was It An Illusion. A Parson's Story by Amelia Edwards

10 - The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth by Rhoda Broughton

11 - The Ghost at the Rath by Rosa Mulholland

12 - Christmas Eve at a Cornish Manor House by Clara Venn

13 - The Ghost by Catherine Wells

14 - The Ghost in the Clock Room by Hesba Stretton

15 - The Little Room by Madeline Yale Wynne

16 - The Open Door - Part 1 by Margaret Oliphant

17 - The Open Door - Part 2 by Margaret Oliphant

18 - To Let by B M Croker

19 - Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley.wav

20 - The Runaway by Marion Hepworth-Dixon

21 - The Phantom Coach by Amelia Edwards

22 - The 4 15 Express by Amelia Edwards

23 - The Token by May Sinclair

24 - The Striding Place by Gertrude Atherton

25 - The Readjustment by Mary Austin

26 - The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

27 - The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell

28 - Dionea - Part 1 by Vernon Lee

29 - Dionea - Part 2 by Vernon Lee

30 - John Charrington's Wedding by Edith Nesbit