The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain

by Charles Dickens

"The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain" by Charles Dickens is a novella published in 1848. A brooding chemistry teacher is visited by his ghostly twin, who offers a tempting gift: the ability to forget all past sorrows and wrongs, and to pass this power onto others. But when Redlaw accepts the bargain, he discovers that erasing painful memories transforms people in horrifying ways. As his gift spreads like a curse, he must confront what humanity loses when it forgets its suffering.