The Turn of the Screw, a short novel by Henry James published in 1898, tells the story of a governess who, while caring for two children, becomes convinced that she sees the ghosts of her predecessor and her master's valet.

W. W. Jacobs's short story ‘‘The Monkey's Paw’’ (1902) revolves around a magical monkey's paw that grants three wishes to grieving parents. They use one of their wishes to bring their deceased son back to life.

Virginia Woolf's "A Haunted House'' (1921) is a short story about two ghosts who return to the house where they once experienced great happiness.

In Elizabeth Bowen's ‘‘Pink May’’ (1945), a woman engaged in an affair during wartime is haunted by a female ghost, leading to the dissolution of her marriage.

Elizabeth Bowen's short story "Mysterious Kor’’ (1945) depicts a woman and her soldier-lover who create an imaginary city to escape the harsh realities of wartime London.

Mervyn Peake's poem "London, 1941’’ humanizes the architectural destruction of London during the Blitz.

"The Demon Lover,'' a novel by Charles Williams, explores the interactions between the living and the undead amidst the ruins of postwar London. T. S. Eliot remarked about Williams and his work, "For the reader who can appreciate them, there are terrors in the pit of darkness into which he can make us look; but in the end, we are brought nearer to what another modern explorer of the darkness has called 'the laughter at the heart of things.'''