Charles Dickens’ gothic-influenced short story The Signal Officer reveals the master’s genius for creating dark atmospheres. This striking narrative, in which a signalman on duty at a cold and foggy railroad crossing is forced to take on the role of messenger for a supernatural being, is both an examination of conscience and a story of prophecy.

In this short but intense work, Dickens touches on the human costs of the industrial revolution, the alienation created by technology and the limits of the human mind. The Signal Officer is not just a horror story; it is a finely wrought elegy about time, guilt, loss and fate.

First published in 1866, this classic became one of the most popular of his “ghost stories” and inspired many great names from Alfred Hitchcock to M.R. James. This work invites you on a journey into Dickens’ dark imagination, accompanied by a flickering red light.