My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Oh, what an absolutely sweet and lovely book this turned out to be. A classic of the era, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir carries the reader on a soothing journey of finding oneself.

Lucy Muir wants only to be allowed to live life in her own terms without too much inference from her late husband’s sisters or his mother. To achieve her independence, she moves to a sea side village of Whitecliff and begins life anew in her own terms with her children. But Gull cottage also has another resident, that of a very handsome ghost of Captain Daniel Gregg.

Lucy finds companionship in the ghostly presence of the sea captain and what others believe as loneliness is purely what Lucy desires. As days and weeks turn into years, Gregg forces her to write his life story so that she can have an income and sees her children grow up and choose their own paths into life, grow old and cranky and finally find love and happiness in the beyond.

This was purely excellent writing capturing the inner essence of a woman’s basic need of finding peace and simple joy in the day to day happenings of her life rather than be forced into things for someone else. I loved the writing so much, as a major part of it reflects the elemental need of a person and his or her right to choose it.




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The basis for Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s cinematic romance starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison.

Burdened by debt after her husband’s death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg. Through the struggles of supporting her children, seeking out romance from the wrong places, and working to publish the captain’s story as a book, Blood and Swash, Lucy finds in her secret relationship with Captain Gregg a comfort and blossoming love she never could have predicted.

Originally published in 1945, made into a movie in 1947, and later adapted into a television sitcom in 1968, this romantic tale explores how love can develop without boundaries, both in this life and beyond. 

With a new foreword by Adriana Trigiani.