Medieval Studies And The Ghost Stories Of M R James

Montague Rhodes James authored some of the most highly regarded ghost stories of all time—classics such as “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” that have been adapted many times over for radio and television and have never gone out of print. But while James is best known as a fiction writer and storyteller, he was also a provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and Eton College, and a legendary and influential scholar whose pioneering work in the study of biblical texts and medieval manuscripts, art, and architecture is still relevant today. In Medieval Studies and the Ghost Stories of M. R. James, Patrick J. Murphy argues that these twin careers are inextricably linked. James’s research not only informed his fiction but also reflected his anxieties about the nature of academic life and explored the delicate divide between professional, university men and erratic hobbyists or antiquaries. Murphy shows how detailed attention to the scholarly inspirations behind James’s fiction provides considerable insight into a formative moment in medieval studies, as well as into James’s methods as a master stylist of understated horror. During his life, James often claimed that his stories were mere entertainments—pleasing distractions from a life largely defined by academic discipline and restraint—and readers over the years have been content to take him at his word. This intriguing volume, however, convincingly proves otherwise.

"Medieval Ghost Stories" is a collection of ghostly occurrences from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries; they have been found in monastic chronicles and preaching manuals, in sagas and heroic poetry, and in medieval romances. In a religious age, the tales bore a peculiar freight of spooks and spirituality which can still make hair stand on end; unfailingly, these stories give a fascinating and moving glimpse into the medieval mind. Look only at the accounts of Richard Rowntree's stillborn child, glimpsed by his father tangled in swaddling clothes on the road to Santiago, or the sly habits of water sprites resting as goblets and golden rings on the surface of the river, just out of reach...

The only annotated edition of M. R. James’s writings currently available Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories contains the entire first two volumes of James’s ghost stories, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. These volumes are both the culmination of the nineteenth-century ghost story tradition and the inspiration for much of the best twentieth-century work in this genre. Included in this collection are such landmark tales as “Count Magnus,” set in the wilds of Sweden; “Number 13,” a distinctive tale about a haunted hotel room; “Casting the Runes,” a richly complex tale of sorcery that served as the basis for the classic horror film Curse of the Demon; and “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,” one of the most frightening tales in literature. The appendix includes several rare texts, including “A Night in King’s College Chapel,” James’s first known ghost story. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Collected Ghost Stories" by M. R. James. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Includes all stories from A thin ghost and others (1919) and A warning to the curious and other ghost stories (1925), and other stories.

Looking for some spooky stories to read on a camping trip, at a Halloween party, or at home with the family in front of a roaring fire? The works of medieval scholar M.R. James should fit the bill. James often said that he wrote his stories to be read aloud, so snuggle up and lose yourself in their slow-building suspense and lulling language.

In these stories James continues his transformation of the ghost story from its nineteenth century heritage. Drawing upon his deep knowledge of medieval history, biblical curiosa, and the hidden and mysterious corners of the English countryside, James fashioned stories that, while drawing upon the ancient past, exhibit horrors that are all too balefully active in the present. The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

Collected Ghost Stories by M R James is a collection of twenty-two ghost stories, plus a fascinating essay on the writing of ghost stories. Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) was a medieval scholar and Provost of King's College, Cambridge. His stories are classics of their genre, understated, beautifully paced and almost never explicit. Their idyllic rural backgrounds and amiable hero make the chilling terror of otherworldly intrusions all the more horrific. The collection is comprised of the following twenty-two stories: The Uncommon Prayer-Book; A Neighbour's Landmark; Rats; The Experiment; The Malice Of Inanimate Objects; A Vignette; Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book; The Stalls Of Barchester Cathedral; An Episode Of Cathedral History; The Story Of A Disappearance And An Appearance; The Haunted Dolls' House; Lost Hearts; Mr. Humphreys And His Inheritance; Martin's Close; The Diary Of Mr. Poynter; The Rose-Garden; Casting The Runes; A School Story; The Tractate Middoth; Two Doctors; A View From A Hill; The Residence At Whitminster; Appendix: M. R. James On Ghost Stories Note: This is not to be confused with the Book ""The Collected Ghost Stories of M R James"" which was published in 1931.