Ghost Stories of M.R. James - hardcvr

Illustrated with six wood engravings by Keith A. Pettit

In Ghost Stories of M.R. James you are invited to enter the chilling world of the undisputed master of the antiquarian ghost story. This volume showcases the eerie brilliance of a luminary of supernatural fiction whose stories have haunted readers for generations.

From shadowy libraries to desolate East Anglian beaches, James creates a world of the uncanny and the strange in compelling narratives of unwary scholars and unsuspecting researchers. If a part of the appeal of James’s stories to some readers is that they offer a ‘pleasing’ comfort, what makes them worth reading and re-reading is that his ‘safe’ and distant world is undermined by a masterful and effective revelation of horror.

Ghost Stories of M.R. James is a celebration of best of the author’s fiction, but to give a flavour of  his academic work we include two newly transcribed essays, one from the beginning of his career, and the other from near the end: ‘Occult Sciences’ and ‘On Demonology’. Both demonstrate James’s deep knowledge of arcane and occult matters.  Illustrated with six wood engravings by Keith A. Pettit.

Contents:

'Introduction' by R.B. Russell and Rosalie Parker.

Ghost Stories: ‘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” ’, ‘The Treasure of Abbot Thomas’, ‘Casting the Runes’, ‘The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral’, ‘Martin’s Close’, ‘Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance’, ‘A View from a Hill’, ‘A Warning to the Curious’, ‘An Evening’s Entertainment’, ‘A Vignette’.

Appendices: ‘Occult Sciences’, ‘On Demonology’.

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Keith A. Pettit is a British artist based in his native East Sussex, a county which informs and shapes his art, whether it be engraving or sculpture. His work has been exhibited internationally.