Written in 1912, Selma Lagerlöf's The Phantom Carriage is a powerful combination of ghost story and social realism, partly played out among the slums and partly in the transitional sphere between life and death. The vengeful and alcoholic David Holm is led to atonement and salvation by the love of a dying Salvation Army slum sister under the guidance of the driver of the death-cart that gathers in the souls of the dying poor. Inspired by Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol, The Phantom Carriage remained one of Lagerlöf's own favourites, and Victor Sjöström's 1921 film version of the story is one of the greatest achievements of the Swedish silent cinema.
