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Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

by M.R. James, E.F. Bleiler (introduction), James McBride (illustrator)

4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 · rating details · 709 ratings · 72 reviews

Eight classics by great Edwardian scholar and storyteller. "Number Thirteen," "The Mezzotint," "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook," more. Renowned for their wit, erudition and suspense, these stories are each masterfully constructed and represent a high achievement in the ghost genre. New introduction by E. F. Bleiler. 4 plates by James McBride.

Paperback, 176 pages

Published November 24th 2011 by Dover Publications (NY) (first published 1904)

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Aug 24, 2012 Terry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, audio-books, short-stories

This volume contains eight tasty little nuggets of supernatural horror that I found very satisfying. In each of them the story is told second or even third hand by a genial narrator whose acquaintances, who are themselves of a decidedly scholarly bent, have been the victims of supernatural intrusion into our world. Often the stories revolve around an ancient artifact able to invoke the otherworldly that is discovered by these particularly luckless individuals (though they often feel themselves l...more This volume contains eight tasty little nuggets of supernatural horror that I found very satisfying. In each of them the story is told second or even third hand by a genial narrator whose acquaintances, who are themselves of a decidedly scholarly bent, have been the victims of supernatural intrusion into our world. Often the stories revolve around an ancient artifact able to invoke the otherworldly that is discovered by these particularly luckless individuals (though they often feel themselves lucky indeed when they first make their discoveries). The tales are all good, but my favourites were “Canon Alberic's Scrap-book”, “Lost Hearts”, “”The Mezzotint”, and “Count Magnus”. I found myself thinking of both Lovecraft (in James’ use of made-up manuscripts and a reliance on protagonists of a learned bent whose curiosity proves to be their bane) and Clark Aston-Smith (though with prose that was a little less flowery) though I think James is a much better stylist than the former and a little less given to the more extreme flights of fancy of the latter.

“Canon Alberic's Scrap-book” – An antiquary discovers a scrap-book of ancient manuscripts compiled by the titular Canon Alberic in the 17th century that is in the keeping of the sacristan of a church in France that he is studying. One picture, “The dispute of Solomon with a demon of the night”, proves to be particularly compelling…and why is the sacristan so eager to get rid of a book so obviously of great value? Great evocation of mood and the way in which the supernatural creature manifests itself was suitably creepy.

"Lost Hearts" – A rather moving tale of revenge from beyond the grave and the perils of devoting oneself to the arcane teachings of the ancients in the hopes of gaining eternal life. I knew where this one was going pretty much after the first paragraph, but I heartily enjoyed the ride.

"The Mezzotint" – I really liked the interesting way in which the artifact in question here, the mezzotint of the title, manifested the supernatural and the foreboding sense of a quiet yet unstoppable horror that was the result.

"The Ash-tree" – A nobleman and his descendants find that being the star witness in a witch trial probably isn’t a good idea. Good creepy/gross factor with the creatures invoked for vengeance.

"Number 13" – What happens when you book a room in an inn that used to belong to a man accused of having been an alchemist and magician several generations ago? Nothing good, especially if you rent the room right next to the one in which he mysteriously died. Space and time have a funny way of bending and twisting when the undead get involved.

"Count Magnus" – The titular count reminded me a bit of Vigo the Carpathian from Ghost Busters 2; he was a mean-spirited son of a bitch who liked to torture people in his spare time and go on trips with names like “the Black Pilgrimage”. Perhaps it’s wisest if you’re a travel writer getting good copy from his native village to leave the crypt where he’s entombed alone. Just sayin’.

"'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" – Ah skeptics…they always learn their lesson in the end, don’t they? Well, they do in these kind of stories anyway. If you’re kind of a priggish and pedantic professor going on a holiday to sharpen up your golf game (golf is a re-occurring motif in these stories and I don’t think James was a fan) don’t promise to do some investigating of the local Templar preceptory for a colleague, and if you do for God’s sake don’t muck around with anything you find there. If you’re lucky you’ll run into an old military type who doesn’t trust papists.

"The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" – When the Abbot of a 16th century monastery basically dares you, though the enciphered clues he left behind in some striking stained glass windows, to uncover his hidden treasure don’t do it. Trust me on this.

I like the way in which James gives us enough of a glimpse at the ghosts and undead horrors he unleashes in his stories to avoid Lovecraft’s almost laughable (to me at least) approach of “oh, it was so horrible I can’t even begin to describe it, just trust me it was really, really, really, mind-crushingly horrible!” and yet was sufficiently vague to leave enough of the horror to the imagination of the reader. The charming, almost homely, voice of the narrator was also a nice contrast to the ultimate invocation of otherworldly menace in the tales. All in all a really solid collection of old-school ghost stories that may not leave you cringing in terror, but you may end up looking over your shoulder from time to time. And you’ll definitely take greater care the next time that weird old manuscript seems to fortuitously land in your lap.
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Apr 23, 2012 Graziano rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: edmonton-library, e-book

CANON ALBERIC’S SCRAP-BOOK

‘They were in the sitting-room of the house, a small, high chamber with a stone floor,
full of moving shadows cast by a wood-fire that flickered on a great heart.’ (p.13)

Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book was first published in 1904, although it was written in 1894.
The story is set in southern France.
An English tourist is photographing the interior of the cathedral of Saint-Bernard-de-Comminges at the foot of Pyrenees, when the cathedral’s sacristan tries to sell him a strange...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Esdaile rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-library, short-story-collection, ghost-and-gothic

Most reveiewers here feel that MR James is a master of the genre and I agree. There are certain expectations of a ghost story writer and for many readers these expectations are fulfilled. As in the case of Lovecraft, the stories tend to be disarmingly similar, which is at once a weakness in terms of the religious or philosophical horizon, but has all the strength of a discipline imposed and accepted. Charcateristic of the genre is an inciteement to fear of the inheritance of the past and fear of...more Most reveiewers here feel that MR James is a master of the genre and I agree. There are certain expectations of a ghost story writer and for many readers these expectations are fulfilled. As in the case of Lovecraft, the stories tend to be disarmingly similar, which is at once a weakness in terms of the religious or philosophical horizon, but has all the strength of a discipline imposed and accepted. Charcateristic of the genre is an inciteement to fear of the inheritance of the past and fear of a possible spirit world living close to us but seldom seen or apprehended. This spirit world embodies (if that is the word!) a bond with the past, our past. This is also the case with the murder mystery genre. In both the murder mystery and the ghost story, the writer works on a titilation of fear or horror, but acknowledges a clear limit to the extent of the horror. Evil remains courteous and confined and geenrally a stranger to us. Ghosts may droop and be gloomy and dreadful but they should not make us gloomy even if they make us fearful. These books are not intended to depress: quite the contrary. It is worth asking ourselves why not. Do ghost stories not deal with tales of fear, depression, murder and unrest? They do, but the negative or depressive aspect of any ghost story is likely to be counter-balanced, and that is certainly the case in these stories, by a nostalgic appeal. We expect our vampires to be elaborately and aristocratically dressed. We expect, or at least many of us expect, our ghost stories to be located in an old mansion or church, to be deeply rooted in events which have taken place long ago in surroundings themselves so ancient that they were silent witnesses to those past events. In short, these stories appeal to a tradition and where the reader's traditions are dead or dying, such stories can be called nostalgic and will have a nostalgic appeal. For the same reasons that tourists travel in masses to see the architecture of the past and not of today-reasons aethetic for sure but also spiritual, so people hanker after tales which remind them of a world where the past still breathed and where the dead still walked. Filled with anguish and longing together, we will that the dead walk again, that not all graves are silent. The world of these tales may have been troubled and corrupt but there was still life among the ruins. The modern world, without ghosts, is fashioned after the Death Star of "Star Wars", a world with no echoes and with no history. Our modern world is a networked vulgarity, an over-exposure, a world with its share of horror but devoid of ghosts. These ghosts stories are all history, all soul and the spirits who haunt the pages of these tales are the spirits of the past, our past, come to haunt us, whispering, "come back, come back, it is dark and old and cosy here". Today all glitters and is surface only, we fear the lving not the dead and not living people so much as their creations and their demands. The surface of the past was the heavy iron lid over nightmares but also over dreams of longing, the longing for a world, not perfect, not without the eternal combat of good and evil, but a world in which neither evil nor good was ever, ever conceivably vulgar.(less)

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Nov 20, 2012 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

3.5 stars. These were pretty interesting little ghost stories. They were much more simple than what we are used to today. They were almost more like supernatural vignettes, but they were very well written.

There's this interesting sense that these single manifestations, as simple as they generally were, were enough to elicit incredible horror. The context was always so mundane, so real, that it really emphasizes the horror of the actual event, making in some cases, a brief glimpse of some superna...more

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Feb 23, 2011 Rhys Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am a big fan of ghost stories, and enjoy nothing more than choosing a scary book to read over the Halloween period. And so you can imagine my joy when Amy introduced me to the works of M. R. James. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary was his first collection of ghost stories, published in 1904. The tales all follow a similar route – a build up of otherworldly hints topped off by a ghastly visitation – and all are very enjoyable. What I liked most about the stories were his descriptions of building....more

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Nov 06, 2011 Kevin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fantastic stuff. Occasionally the text feels a little dated and why shouldn't it? It's only a century old. Still, some of the chills delivered were better than anything I've read that was written in the last 10, so obviously James knew what he was doing. Highly recommended, free off of Gutenberg.

Now for a personal note:

I was reading the short story 'Count Magnus' and there was the barest glimmer of recognition near the end, and then I came across the following passage:

People still remember last...more

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Aug 09, 2009 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, 2009, ghost-story, review

Full review from Badelynge
I love a good ghost story. M.R.James is one of the best at the short form of the genre. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is packed with some of his best. All the stories here were written between 1894 and 1904 and were originally read to the author's friends at Christmas at Kings College, Cambridge where James was a noted British medieval scholar. I'd guess the best way to experience these chilling little stories would be to have them read to you on a dark night, in the de...more

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May 04, 2012 Bill Kerwin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: weird-fiction, ghost-stories

This is M. R. James first book of ghost stories, containing eight of his best. I believe six of these eight are among the twenty best tales of ghostly terror ever written--and the other two tales are very good too. If you like traditional ghost stories that unnerve the reader subtly by suggestion and indirection, this is a book you should read.

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Jul 09, 2011 Tania Donald rated it 5 of 5 stars

As Leonardo is to painting, so M R James is to the short ghost story. He really is that good. These stories are like beautifully crafted little gems, rich in tiny, exquisite detail, and sparkling with dark beauty.
There is an indefinable rare something that marks out the greatest writers of supernatural fiction. H P Lovecraft had it, and M R James had it. It's a kind of mood, an atmosphere, but it's more than that. Effortlessly, these writers draw you into a world where the most strange and terri...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Thelonereviewer added it

One of the great aspects of the Kindle is the ability to discover classic authors we may never have chanced upon before because of the prohibitive cost of their books. But now that out of copyright books are available for free, I suspect there will be a torrent of interest in many unfairly neglected authors.

M.R. James certainly falls into this category - Ghost Stories of an Antiquary contains several mesmerising ghost stories that will stay with you long after you have read them. James' prose s...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If I could give 4.5, it would get that: I just don't think it was quite worth 5 stars because the tone is so similar through all the stories, so there's not quite enough variety.

I thoroughly enjoyed this short collection of ghost stories. I was familar with a few of them, through the BBC's Christmas Ghost Stories - especially Whistle and I'll Come To You, from the very creepy b&w film starring Michael Horden. However, I have to say that the tale is creepier. Every story - apart from Lost He...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

No one writes more chilling ghost stories than M R James.These tales are agreeably creepy while you are reading them and then prey on your mind for ages (years in the case of Lost Hearts and Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad).
In most of the stories the humdrum lives of the protagonists are suddenly and traumatically invaded by the supernatural without any real cause. For instance, in Oh Whistle and I'll come to you my Lad - an elderly professer undergoes a terrifying and almost fatal exper...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Stephanie Angelini rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am a huge fan of ghost stories and these are not to be missed. M. R. James' stories are not only a delight in themselves, but he was a huge influence on numerous horror writers after him, including H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, and every writer and movie that includes an old house of odd construction, paintings that move, creepy ghost children, or travelers to small towns who get more than they bargain for.

Try to find an edition with with original illustrations - they are un...more

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May 01, 2012 Matthew Hunter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-dark-fiction-ghosts, short-stories

In honor of M.R. James reading these ghost stories out loud on Christmas Eve at Cambridge, I read these stories out loud to my family over a series of evenings. My primary impression? Enjoyable, but not very scary or chilling. Like M.R., most of the main characters are scholars. And for the most part, these scholars are not the ones narrating the story. That task is left to other scholars who stumble upon collections of letters, journals, or local histories that tell of prior events. This approa...more In honor of M.R. James reading these ghost stories out loud on Christmas Eve at Cambridge, I read these stories out loud to my family over a series of evenings. My primary impression? Enjoyable, but not very scary or chilling. Like M.R., most of the main characters are scholars. And for the most part, these scholars are not the ones narrating the story. That task is left to other scholars who stumble upon collections of letters, journals, or local histories that tell of prior events. This approach adds distance between the reader and events being described, diluting the impact of the ghost stories.

James also places distance (doubt) between readers and the exact nature or appearance of the evil being confronted. Instead of seeing bodies crawling out of sarcophagi, the main protagonist sees the open locks on the floor of the mausoleum and runs. Instead of an entity toying with the scholars directly, they watch events unfold in an old photograph. Instead of meeting the sketchy being in No. 13, we get snippets from shadows on walls, glances of sleeves at neighboring windows, and flashes of a skinny aged arm as it claws at turned backs. I wonder if James influenced Spielberg's approach to Jaws, where the audience doesn't see the shark for the first 95 percent of the film. In some instances, the unseen terrifies more than the seen. James describes the unseen beautifully, but then compromises it's power to move readers through academic distance.

What can I say? I need more immediacy with my darkness. I want storytellers to help me see sweat on terrified brows, anticipate spectral fingers grasping at unaware hotel guests, and experience the addled mind of the hunted. James gives me something too safe for my taste.

Despite my overall disappointment with the ghost stories, I did enjoy James' wry sense of humor. Here's the opening paragraph of "Number 13": "[H]ard by [the town of Viborg, Denmark] is Finderup, where Marsk Stig murdered King Erik Glipping on St. Cecilia's Day, in the year 1286. Fifty-six blows of square-headed iron maces were traced on Erik's skull when his tomb was opened in the seventeenth century. But I am not writing a guide-book." Some guide book! James' stories have entertaining moments, I'll give him that. No doubt, many people weighing whether or not to read "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" will enjoy themselves more than I did. And since it's free in ebook format on Project Gutenburg, I'd encourage folks to give James a try. He is a legend of dark fiction, after all.
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Dec 13, 2010 Oscar rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: antología-recopilación, clásicos, míos, terror, misterio-suspense, 5-estrellas, mis-obras-maestras, favorites

M.R. James fue uno de los mejores escritores dedicados al peculiar género de las ghost stories, o historias de fantasmas. Realmente, no se dedicaba a ello profesionalmente; creaba sus historias para contarlas a sus amigos y conocidos, siendo para él más una afición con la que disfrutar enormemente, eso sí, haciéndonoslo pasar "mal". Afortunadamente, se fueron publicando porque se trata, indiscutiblemente, de uno de los maestros del relato breve.

Sus cuentos son una delicia escalofriante. M.R. Jam...more M.R. James fue uno de los mejores escritores dedicados al peculiar género de las ghost stories, o historias de fantasmas. Realmente, no se dedicaba a ello profesionalmente; creaba sus historias para contarlas a sus amigos y conocidos, siendo para él más una afición con la que disfrutar enormemente, eso sí, haciéndonoslo pasar "mal". Afortunadamente, se fueron publicando porque se trata, indiscutiblemente, de uno de los maestros del relato breve.

Sus cuentos son una delicia escalofriante. M.R. James fue un erudito y arqueólogo de fama reconocida, miembro del Eton College, algo que sale a relucir tanto en el contenido de sus relatos como en la calidad de los mismos. Las historias escritas por James están ambientadas habitualmente en antiguas catedrales, ruinas olvidadas y parajes lúgubres, y nos son relatadas de manera fina y elegante, como cabe esperar de un miembro de Eton. Más que sustos, la sensación que nos transmiten son de un sutil horror, jugando un importante papel la imaginación del lector.

Estos son los cuentos reunidos en 'Historias de fantasmas de una anticuario':

- EL ÁLBUM DEL CANÓNIGO ALBERICO. Denniston viaja a Saint Bertrand de Comminges, un viejo pueblo situado en los Pirineos, para recabar información de la iglesia del lugar. No contaba con encontrar nada valioso, hasta que llega a sus manos un viejo libro con unas extrañas láminas...

- CORAZONES PERDIDOS. Stephen, un joven huérfano, acaba de llegar a la mansión de su primo, el señor Abney, algo que extraña a la vecindad, por el carácter arisco del tal señor Abney. Stephen irá descubriendo la horrible pesadilla en la que se ha visto envuelto. Imprescindible.

- EL GRABADO. El señor Williams es un gran aficionado a adquirir viejos grabados y estampas. Como es habitual, recibe un catálogo del señor Britnell, sugiriendo éste que examine cierto grabado que puede ser de su interés. Dicho grabado contiene la vista de una casa de principios del siglo XVIII, y al final lo solicita, junto a otros artículos del catálogo. Poco a poco irá desvelándose la naturaleza del grabado. Otro cuento imprescindible, con imágenes verdaderamente escalofriantes.

- EL FRESNO. Existe un gran fresno junto a la casa de Castingham Hall, cuya historia está relacionada con cierta mujer acusada de bruja.

- LA HABITACIÓN NÚMERO 13. El señor Anderson viaja a Viborg, Dinamarca, para continuar su investigación sobre la Iglesia de este país, hospedándose para ello en el "León de Oro", concretamente en la habitación número 12. Al subir de cenar, se orienta observando los números de las habitaciones... 14,13, y, por fin, la 12. Cuál no será su sorpresa al enterarse de que el hotel no tiene habitación número 13... Otra muestra del la maestría de James.

- EL CONDE MAGNUS. El señor Wraxall viaja a Suecia con motivo del libro de viajes que está escribiendo. Una de sus paradas es la mansión de De la Gardie, toda una antigüedad. Entre las reliquias se encuentra el retrato de Magnus, el primer De la Gardie, por quien siente un vivo interés; incluso querrá visitar el mausoleo de la familia...

- ¡SILBA Y ACUDIRÉ! Parkins, profesor del St. James College, decide pasar unos días jugando al golf en la costa, concretamente en Burnstow. Al enterarse de la noticia, un colega le pedirá que eche una mirada a cierto convento de templarios, para saber si vale la pena excavar allí más adelante. Será cumpliendo este deseo cuando Parkins encuentre un curioso silbato... Estupendo relato.

- EL TESORO DEL ABAD THOMAS. Cuenta la leyenda que el abad Thomas ocultó un tesoro, dejando ciertas pistas para que fuese encontrado. Y en ello anda el anticuario Somerton, al que seguiremos en su investigación, pesquisa tras pesquisa. ¡Cuánto hubiese dado por no hallar el secreto! Imprescindible.(less)

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Sep 30, 2008 Scott rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: edwardian, horror, 1900s

"If any of these stories succeed in causing their readers to feel pleasantly uncomfortable when walking along a solitary road at nightfall, or sitting over a dying fire in the small hours, my purpose in writing them will have been attained." So wrote the renowned paleographer, manuscript historian, and educator M. R. James on Halloween, 1904, in the preface to his first collection of spooky tales, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.

The eight tales that make up this ghastly anthology are replete with...more

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Sep 21, 2010 Bianca van Willigenburg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, fiction-classic

Even when reading this book for the second time the stories are good. Most of the time the ghosts or supernatural beings are not described in any detail or not at all because they stay unseen. Often this is more effective than describing every detail of horror and gore as is often the case with modern ghost/horror stories.

At times the language is old fashioned and often more so because the narrator quotes even older texts.

Personally, I didn't find the stories scary, but I'm not easily scared.

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Mar 09, 2013 K.S. Lewis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: spooky-and-odd

Contains eight stories.
I really enjoyed them all. Big fan of James' language and the framing.

The stories include: Canon Alberic's Scrap-book, Lost Hearts, The Mezzotint, The Ash-tree, Number 13, Count Magnus, 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad', and The Treasure of Abbot Thomas.

Of the eight, my favorites were probably: Canon Alberic's Scrap-book, The Mezzotint, Number 13, and the Treasure of Abbot Thomas.

But there wasn't a single one I didn't enjoy.

Highly recommend to anyone interested i...more

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Mar 06, 2010 Josiah rated it 4 of 5 stars

These tales belong to the school of the scholarly ghost story, if there is such a thing. The main character in each is some academic so buried in his particular researches that he myopically stumbles into something unexplained. The stories are not outright scary, but are rather subtle, with details that you don't note outright - until you find yourself remembering them in the dark. I read these by candlelight, which seemed only appropriate.

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Aug 27, 2012 Jane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Creepy tales that I will definitely read again. The author would read these stories aloud to his colleagues at Cambridge so it is written in an informal humorous style that I really enjoyed. I loved the language and had to look up the meanings of several words I've never come across before. One of the benefits of reading on Kindle is the online dictionary and that out-of-copyright books like this one can be downloaded for free.

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Jan 27, 2012 Hollie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-book

Not your typical ghost stories in that there are no explanations, just an examination of the facts in each case. The author's imagination must have been something to behold, though, since he came up with some decently creepy occurences that could be elaborated on in the reader's mind or be a jumping off point for some new ghost stories.

This book was downloaded for free from Amazon.com onto my Kindle for PC app.

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Mar 11, 2013 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2013, fiction, 3-star

I was quite honestly surprised by just how much I enjoyed these stories. I am not, generally speaking, a fan of much horror and I felt that these stories may fall into that space. But, a friend recommended, and so I tried. What I loved about these was the suspense and how clear the characters were painted. It wasn't gory and it wasn't really scary. It was just good fiction. These would probably be best read aloud. My favorite of the tales was "Number Thirteen".

Three stars solely because it coul...more

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Jun 02, 2011 John added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, horror, british-literature

Highly recommended. This is the first collection of ghost stories by M.R. James, one of the masters of the form (though in truth some of these stories would probably best be regarded as "weird tales" rather than ghost stories per se). The effect of the stories is created by a combination of factors: the author's clear feel for moldy, musty old places, and his knack at describing them; the articulate manner in which the stories are narrated and in which the scholarly characters express themselves...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, horror, read-in-2012, free-e-books

I can't believe I'd never read these, given how much I love ghost stories. I'm generally not into short stories, but these are tied together nicely through the single narrator conveying stories from his colleagues, all academics making inquiries of various kinds that lead them to the supernatural encounters. The stories are subtle and creepy and hold up well, despite their age. There's even a touch of humor from time to time. The story that had been recommended to me so highly in recent years, "...more

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Oct 29, 2011 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm a horror story fan. I also love the language of the classics. MR James gave me both of these loves in Ghost Stories. His subtle hintings of horror to come mixed with his "so very human" and everyday foundational set-up serve delicious feasts of language, delivering ghost stories that certainly satisfy. I want to read it again!

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Jun 01, 2012 Gian Piero rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ghost-stories

These stories probably feel a bit naive to the modern reader who's been exposed to several generations of their successors, but here we're looking at the very seed of this genre. Definitely more unsettling than scary, but still very much worth the read.

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Oct 28, 2011 Jia yousuf rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own

OMG!!!!!i waz feaked out:-s.........dat 2 totally...my advice if u ever come across this, read it in daylight coz in d night it sends shivers down ur spine....but it waz interesting.....kinda u can say but i wud definitely lyk 2 keep away frm dis book...):

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Apr 04, 2013 Steven Walle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, horror

M. R. James is a master at develping the suspense in the horror short jenra. These are a collection of short stories that are sure to disterb your sleep for a time. Read with the lights on is my advise. A very good collection in my estamation.

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Aug 27, 2012 Timothy Ferguson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Perfectly read, perfectly written

If you love ghost stories, then you simply must try these. They are excellent, don't spoonfeed the reader, and are performed perfectly in the Librivox recording.

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Oct 21, 2011 MRJamesPodcast rated it 5 of 5 stars

Included many of my favourite James ghost stories. It's impossible to pick an overall favourite, but I'm very into Lost Hearts at the moment, having recently discussed it in our podcast.

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About M.R. James

Montague Rhodes James, who used the publication name M. R. James, was a noted British mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918) and of Eton College (1918–1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. One of James' most important achievements was to redefine the ghost story for the new century by...more

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Books by M.R. James

Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories

The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Ghost Stories

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Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

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