A friend of mine, who is a man of letters and a philosopher, said to me one day, as if between jest and earnest,–” Fancy! since we last met, I have discovered a haunted house in the midst of London.”

“Really haunted?–and by what? ghosts?”

“Well, I can’t answer that question; all I know is this–six weeks ago my wife and I were in search of a furnished apartment. Passing a quiet street, we saw on the window of one of the houses a bill, ‘Apartments Furnished.’ The situation suited us: we entered the house–liked the rooms–engaged them by the week–and left them the third day. No power on earth could have reconciled my wife to stay longer; and I don’t wonder at it.” —The House and the Brain, also know as The Haunted and the Haunters (1857) by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton via here.

Lytton is famous for his cliché first sentence: “It was a dark and stormy night”

See also: haunted – horror fiction – 1857