When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral.The men attended her funeral as a show of respect.Even after the South had lost the American Civil War, Miss Emily had continued to live her life as if the War had never been lost.The men admired this quality in her.The women, however, attended her funeral mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house.No one had set foot inside her house in at least ten years-no one except an old, black man-servant.Her house was big and square-shaped and had once been bright white in color.It was decorated with small domes, rowers and beautiful balconies that all looked somewhat old-fashioned.The house had been built in what was once the most elite neighborhood in town.But as time passed by, garages and factories had been constructed, one by one,in and around that neighborhood.Eventually, Miss Emily's house was the only old-fashioned house left on the street.Surrounded by modern factories, cotton wagons and gasoline pumps, it looked ugly and out of place.And now, with Miss Emily gone, the future of her house was uncertain.Alive, Mrss Emily had been, just like her house, extremely traditional and old-fashioned.In 1894 Colonel Sartoris, the mayor had declared that Miss Emily no longer needed to pay her taxes for the rest of her life.His intention was to help Miss Emily financially in the wake of her father's death.Miss Emily's old-fashioned sense of dignity,however, would have never allowed her to accept charity Knowing this, Colonel Sartoris had invented a complicated tale about how Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town years ago.The town was,thus, choosing to forgive her taxes in order to pay off her father's loan.Only a man of Colonel Sartoris' generation and thought could have invented such an unbelievable story: And only a woman could have believed it.本书包含5个故事:《献给艾米莉的玫瑰》《坎特维尔的幽灵》《敞开的落地窗》《猴爪》《莫尔格街凶杀案》。浪漫的爱情故事背后隐藏着什么?面目可憎的幽灵也许只是恶作剧?你害怕的究竟是谎言还是真相?轻易实现的愿望也许要付出沉痛的代价,而理性的分析将带领我们接近所有的真相。