The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: Vintage Movie Classics Paperback – September 23, 2014

I am writing this review to remind people there are better works of supernatural romance out there than Twilight. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is one such example. The novel was written in 1945 and then adapted into a film with George Sanders and later a TV series in the sixties.The ghost and Mrs. Muir tells the story of a young widow, Lucy Muir who has decided she wants to break away from the control of her over-bearing and dominating in-laws. Already by this point the feminism and strength of the protagonist of the 1945 novel exceeds that of the more modern supernatural romance Twilight. When Lucy Muir finds a house to her liking she discovers very quickly that it is haunted by a very vocal spectre of an old sea captain by the name of Captain Daniel Gregg.The ghost of Captain Daniel Gregg is one of my three favourite fiction ghosts. The list consists of Captain Daniel Gregg of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Sir Simon de Canterville from The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde (particularly Patrick Stewart's portryal) and Hrothbert of Bainbridge AKA Bob from the short lived television series adaptation of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Hrothbert of Bainbridge doesn't exist in the actual Dresden Files novels).The plot of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is pretty straight forward. A widow decides she doesn't want to be dominated by her in-laws so she moves to a house by the sea. The house happens to be haunted by a dead sea captain that everyone believes committed suicide but it turns out his death was accidental. The sardonic old ghost and the widow become reluctant friends after getting on each other's nerves. And eventually fall in love. The widow gets seduced by a living jerk (played by George Sanders in the movie) who is only using her. When Mrs. Muir starts to run out of money she writes a book (with the aide of the ghost) about life on the open seas called Blood and Swash and it ends up successful.There's a lot of comedy in which the ghost puts her in-laws in their place by pulling pranks on them and provoking Mrs. Muir / tricking her into telling them off. But in the end I won't deny it's a romance and not everyone's sort of thing. In general I don't like romance novels but this one amuses me.In The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, despite the ghost's seeming misogyny Lucy and the captain develop a quirky and strangely affectionate relationship. For all of his roughness and snark the captain is actually a gentleman inside. The character portrayals are realistic and very human unlike the protagonists of Twilight in which the characters are two dimensional archetypes to appeal to a shallow demographic.The Ghost and Mrs. Muir isn't just a sweet romance. It also has a running wit and humour completely lacking in most modern supernatural romances. It seems today all attempts at humour in romance become self-parodies. There's more to the story than just fluff. It's about taking control of your own life, standing up for yourself, independence, love and moving on, the power of love and friendship, and the value of love, life and family (no matter how unusual the definition might be), as well as the agelessness of real love all told with excellent wit and humour.The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is highly underrated. It deserves more attention. It is a brilliant story far ahead of it's time. I actually wish there would be a new film adaptation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, not because I think there is anything wrong with the first film adaptation, but because I think a new generation should be introduced to good supernatural romantic fiction as opposed to what is currently trendy and sadly many of the current generation won't watch a black and white film or read a novel more than twenty years old because they make negative assumptions about the content such as assuming it would be out dated, stuffy, cheesy or hard to follow. The ghost and Mrs. Muir is none of these things. It's a head of the curb and I certainly would rather re-read The ghost and Mrs. Muir than Twilight. Thanks to Terrence Mann's portrayal of Hrothbert of Bainbridge in the short lived Dresden Files TV series I can completely see him as Captain Daniel Gregg if there was a new film version to be made.I strongly recommend The Ghost and Mrs. Muir to anyone interested in supernatural romance, ghost stories, dry wit, or just good literature in general. This semi-obscure gem needs more attention and I truly feel it is of a higher quality in writing than what is currently fashionable in supernatural literature and fantasy. The edition currently for sale on amazon has a very plain, very boring berry coloured cover with no artwork at all. Don't judge a book by it's cover. The book is not plain or boring. It's the only supernatural romance I like. I have always loved supernatural fiction but I was never one for romance novels.Now for the negative:The one truly annoying thing about The Ghost and Mrs. Muir novel is that you never physically see the ghost. This really gets on my nerves. The book is written in such a way that you're supposed to just forget that you never actually see the ghost but I don't.Because you never actually see him and because the ghost opts to telepathically communicate with Mrs. Muir there has been some debate on if the ghost was real or just a figment of Mrs. Muir's imagination, a manifestation of what she needed in order to make herself assertive and independent. There are subtle hints that he might only exist in her head and you're made to question this a lot. Is he real or isn't he? I did not like that.The ambiguity of this however is quickly broken by the final scene in which we are given a scene of the ghost and Mrs. Muir together shortly after her own death. Yet again there is no physical description but I guess it's because ghosts have no physical bodies.The lack of physical description for the ghost and the implication that he never takes physical form in the novel is somewhat annoying. It eventually got on my nerves. I understand the author might have wanted to make it hard to tell if he was real or just in her head (which later gets mocked in an episode of the 1960s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir TV series with the episode 'Dear Delusion') but it seemed like a half-hearted attempt at depth that wasn't fully explored.The question if is the ghost real reminded me of the film K-Pax and the novel it was based on where you had to question if the character was really an alien or just a mental patient (which later revealed in the series that he was an alien after all). I actually did not like this aspect of the novel. It seemed to take away from Mrs. Muir's character to hint that Captain Grregg might have only been in her head. She was strong enough without him in making up her mind to leave her controlling in-laws.This was one thing that I felt they improved with the film and TV series in giving the captain a physical manifestation, the illusion of a living man he chose to appear as. The one thing I preferred of the novel though is that in the novel the ghost doesn't abruptly leave her when she's attracted to the jerk, Miles.In the film she finds out Miles is already married and then she has no one because the ghost left her. It's implied that Captain Gregg had left her because he didn't want to interfere with her life. He wanted her to live her life, not pine for the dead. He even had her convinced that their entire relationship had just been a dream in the film (until she passes away at the end and they reunite). I HATED this in the film. In the novel Captain Gregg leaves for a little while but not through the rest of the entirety of her life, leaving her lonely until she dies (again, I hate that in the film). And he never convinces her that he was just a dream in the novel.It bugs me that he never manifests physically in the novel and there's a half hearted attempt to make you question if he's real or in her mind until the final scene when they are finally truly united. And that was one thing I'm glad they didn't use for the film. The film needed a physical appearance for the ghost and it worked better.In general I do like this book but it's not perfect. And I have to admit that if it had been left completely ambiguous if the ghost was real or not I might not have liked it at all. I don't need a romantic version of The Turn of the Screw where you spend the whole time wondering if the ghost is real or in her imagination. I suspect that it's possible that R. A.'s publisher demanded she confirm the ghost was real at the end because it might not sell otherwise.I liked the personality of the character of the sarcastic and seemingly misogynistic ghost and don't like the idea of him only being in her mind. At times he was the most fleshed out character of the story.This novel is better than Twilight. I think perhaps all reviews here should end on that note. It's better than Twilight...

I saw this movie as a child, but the story is infinitely better, of a woman in Edwardian England, making her way in a hostile world with the help of a ghost. Funny, entertaining, poignant. A wonderful read

Once more, I find myself reading a book upon which a favorite movie has been based. Even though I've never been a fan of either Gene Tierney or Rex Harrison, the 1947 screen adaptation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir has always been a favorite. Since I don't care for the actors, I think it's safe to say that it's all due to the story.The movie actually follows along rather closely to the book, only changing the chronology from time to time and having Mrs. Muir have just one child-- an excision I could understand completely.At the very beginning of the book, we are told that Lucy Muir is a little woman, but it takes no time at all to see that the only people who call her little are those who go through life with blinders on-- and those who insist on keeping her "in her place." R.A. Dick's novel is so much more than a ghost story; it's about a woman who insists on living the life that she wants without other people telling her what to do.My experiences in reading books that have been the source of favorite movies have been a bit hit-or-miss, but I'm happy to say that reading The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a success. Both book and film are well done. Both stand the test of time, and both can bring a tear to the eye.

I have loved this story for so many years and now even more so. This is the first time I read the actual book after seeing the movie many times in my life. It is so well written but I admit that the voice of Rex Harrison was the only one I heard when the Captain bellowed. Absolutely incredible.

To me the original motion picture and this book where the movie came from fit like a silk glove. Slightly different from each other but complimentary. Both romantic and tear jerkers If you have ever really loved someone this book is for you..

I had seen the movie recently and a few times the tv series, but hadn't read the book until now. Really charming.

It beats me why it took me so long to get around to reading this little book. I loved The Ghost and Mrs Muir TV show as a child and enjoyed the movie with Rex Harrison when I saw it about 30 years ago. I think it just took a long time to click that this was based on a book rather than being a made-for-the-screen idea.In any case, I have now read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't think I could like Captain Gregg any more than I did but this book succeeded in increasing my enthusiasm for him as a character. Mrs Muir was perhaps a little bit more naive than I expected, but she was still sweet and I was surprised at how introspective the story was, with a lot of surprising points of view and an interesting spiritual angle, which I should have expected since it's clear that it concerns the afterlife to some degree.Definitely a nice, short enjoyable read and highly recommended for someone who wants to try a classic but doesn't want something too wordy or complex.

Bem escrito e divertido... Me motivou a procurar o filme e assisti-lo....

Libro en inglés, llegó en tiempo y forma. Busqué por mucho este libro y no decepciona, es una historia conmovedora y muy breve de una mujer con un capitán fallecido. Muy recomendado, así como la película clásica.

Loved this story ever since I read my mother's copy. If you're a romantic you'll love this but bear in mind this story is set before the 2nd World War so it appears to be a little dated in its social attitudes, but I love it.

Book arrived very quickly in perfect condition.

A short novel, but very entertaining and delicate. I'm happy to have read it. If you're looking for something quite and introspective, you'll enjoy it. The main character ha her own (slight) faults, and it's not exactly a story about growing, but rather about how two solitary and different people can become family. More than romance this is about developing a working coexisting relationship, as the both the Ghost and Mrs Muir are more themselves when they are together rather than separate.