Ghost Stories of an Antiquary [Hardcover]

M. R. James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004

From "The Ash Tree": Everyone who has traveled over Eastern England knows the smaller country-houses with which it is studded -- the rather dank little buildings, usually in the Italian style, surrounded with parks of some eighty to a hundred acres. . . . I have to tell you of a curious series of events which happened in such a house as I have tried to describe. It is Castringham Hall in Suffolk. I think a good deal has been done to the building since the period of my story, but the essential features I have sketched are still there -- Italian portico, square block of white house, older inside than out, park with fringe of woods, and mere. The one feature that marked out the house from a score of others is gone. As you looked at it from the park, you saw on the right a great old ash tree growing within half a dozen yards of the wall, and almost or quite touching the building with its branches. I suppose it had stood there ever since Castringham ceased to be a fortified place, and since the moat was filled in and the Elizabethan dwelling-house built. At any rate, it had well-nigh attained its full dimensions in the year 1690. In that year the district in which the Hall is situated was the scene of a number of witch-trials. Also includes the classic M.R. James tales, "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook," "Lost Hearts," "The Mezzotint," "Number 13," "Count Magnus," "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'," and "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809596121
• ISBN-13: 978-0809596126
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,357,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read and must-have for serious ghost story aficionados, December 13, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (Paperback)

It would be tough to identify a writer whose ghost stories are more effective than those of Montague Rhodes James. Edith Wharton and Shirley Jackson are among the few whose work approaches that of James. If you are a connoisseur or collector, this title would be among the last you would part with as you sold your collection one volume at a time to buy life-sustaining soup. Atmosphere (both psychological and positional), character development, settings - all of these are handled with mastery. Buy this book, retreat to a quiet room lit by a single lamp (and, preferably, a sputtering fire), and enjoy!

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Content over Convenience, July 4, 2009

By 

TLG - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (Transaction Large Print Books) (Kindle Edition)

I love M.R. James! His work is fairly hard to find these days, so getting two full volumes of his stories for FREE is definitely exciting. My five-star rating of this book though, is geared toward the work itself-- this Kindle edition isn't very convenient...there is no interactive table of contents, so I went in and highlighted the title of each story and now use the "my notes and markings" menu as a table of contents. Pain in the butt, but works just fine. Despite all this, I would encourage anyone who likes a good spooky story to pick up this title and its second volume, which has my favorite, "O, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad".

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ghostly Tales from a Scholar of Medieval Manuscripts, December 1, 2003

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (Paperback)

Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), Vice-Chancellor at Cambridge, Director of the prestigious Fitzwilliam Museum, and later Provost of Eton, was possibly the world's greatest authority on medieval manuscripts. He is thought to have studied nearly twenty thousand documents. He also wrote ghost stories.

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary was published in a limited edition in 1904 and reprinted nine times in the next decade. He subsequently published three other collections - More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious (1926). M. R. James greatly admired the supernatural fiction of J. Sheridan LeFanu and thought of himself as simply a follower in LeFanu's footsteps.

In the interesting introduction to this Dover edition E. F. Bleiler writes that the "evil that dieth not, but lieth in wait" is a common theme in these chilling stories. This evil that dieth not is best left undisturbed. The curious ones, those seekers of forgotten lore, often discover that knowledge comes at a high price. And the reader may find that sleep comes less easy.

I quite enjoyed this short collection and I am sure that it will appeal to any reader of Victorian ghost stories. A few may seem somewhat familiar as undoubtedly the tales of M. R. James have long served as a source of inspiration for later stories and screenplays.

The stories in this collection 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 Abbott Thomas.