It is a ghost story and in fact it was published as Three Ghost stories. A year before he wrote the story, on 9 June 1865 the Staplehurst rail crash took place. The train in which Dickens was travelling jumped a gap in the line where the rails had been removed for maintenance, the bridge collapsed causing most of the carriages to fall into the river below. Dickens was in the first carriage that derailed sideways but did not fall completely – it was suspended at a precarious angle by the coupling of the coach in front and held up by the remains of the viaduct masonry. Dickens helped with the rescue of the other passengers, and was commended for his actions, but the experience had a profound effect on his subsequent. The supernatural theme of the story may have been influenced by the author's own involvement in it.
C.A. (España, 2015)