Curious Warnings - The Great Ghost Stories Of M.R. James
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Authors: M.R. James
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Genre Fiction, #Horror, #Ghosts, #Occult, #Short Stories, #Single Author, #Single Authors
“There are all sorts of writers of all sorts of nightmares, but M.R. James wrote the best ghost stories. He may well have created the ghost story in its current form. Nobody can do what he did as well as he could.”
Neil Gaiman
“I have given M.R. James the title of genius, an accolade which should not be lightly bestowed.”
Ruth Rendell
“A writer of great supernatural imagination, a master of style and purity … I believe that it is unlikely his ghost stories will ever be surpassed.”
Christopher Lee
“M.R. James is the most influential British writer of supernatural fiction.”
Ramsey Campbell
“His own subtle and oblique way of constructing narrative has been my dictum: less is more.”
Basil Copper
“M.R. James did more for the ghost story than any other writer. He raised the art of writing tales of terror to a new high level.”
Hugh Lamb
“Stylish, beautifully constructed, mountingly sinister and ultimately frightening tales.”
Peter Haining
“I was agreeably sensible of their eeriness … There is much invention shown in their construction.”
Thomas Hardy
“The name of Montague Rhodes James at once signifies the very best in ghost fiction.”
Mike Ashley
“The tales of M.R. James remain as entertaining, and as implausibly plausible, as ever.”
Michael Cox
“James is perhaps unsurpassed in originality by any living writer.”
Clark Ashton Smith
“The most frightening, learned and humorous ghost stories.”
Sir John Betjeman
“M.R. James is one of horror fiction’s few class acts.”
Geoff Ryman
“A literary weird fictionist of the very first rank.”
H.P. Lovecraft
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary (1904)
More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911)
A Thin Ghost and Others (1919)
Ander og Trolddom, translated by Ragnhild Undset (1919)
A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925)
The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1931)
The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1931)
Thirteen Ghost Stories (1935)
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1937)
Best Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1944)
Three Ghosts, with H.G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling (1947)
More Ghost Stories (1959)
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1971)
Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1973)
The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1984)
Collected Ghost Stories (1985)
The Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1986)
“Casting the Runes” and Other Ghost Stories (1987)
A Warning to the Curious: The Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1987)
The Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1991)
Collected Ghost Stories (1992)
Room 13 and Other Ghost Stories: Elementary Level (1992)
Two Ghost Stories: A Centenary (1993)
Ghost Stories (1994)
The Haunted Dolls’ House, with Robert Louis Stevenson (1995)
Selected Ghost Stories (1995)
A Warning to the Curious (1998)
Casting the Runes (1998)
The Fenstanton Witch and Others: M.R. James in Ghosts and Scholars (1999)
A Warning to the Curious (1999)
The Haunted Dolls’ House and Other Stories (2000)
A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings of M.R. James (2001)
Collected Ghost Stories (2002)
Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories: The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James Vol.1 (2005)
The House in Picture and Abbott Thomas’s Treasure: Beginner, with F.H. Cornish (2005)
The Haunted Dolls’ House and Other Stories: The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James Vol.2 (2006)
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (2006)
Collected Ghost Stories (2007)
Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book (2011)
Collected Ghost Stories (2011)
SEPARATE PUBLICATIONS
The Five Jars (1922)
Wailing Well (1928)
The Five Jars (1976)
The Five Jars (1995)
MEMOIR
Eton and King’s: Recollections, Mostly Trivial 1875–1925 (1926)
Eton and King’s: Recollections, Mostly Trivial 1875–1925 (2006)
AS EDITOR
Madam Crowl’s Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1923)
AS TRANSLATOR
Hans Andersen: Forty Stories, by Hans Christian Andersen (1930)
The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen (1935)
Hans Andersen: Forty-Two Stories, by Hans Christian Andersen (1953)
NON-FICTION
Some Remarks on Ghost Stories (1985)
INTRODUCTIONS
Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary (1904)
The Story of a Troll-Hunt, by James McBryde (1904)
More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911)
A Thin Ghost and Others (1919)
The Lion’s Birthday, by Emily Plenderleath Harrison (1920)
Madam Crowl’s Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1923)
Ghosts and Marvels, edited by V.H. Collins (1924)
A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925)
Uncle Silas, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1926)
The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1931)
The Great Ghost Stories of
M.R. JAMES
150TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Edited with an Afterword by
STEPHEN JONES
Illustrated by
LES EDWARDS
New York • London
This selection and editorial material © 2012 by Stephen Jones
Cover and interior illustrations © 2012 by Les Edwards
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of the same without the permission of the publisher is prohibited.
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ISBN 978-1-62365-025-4
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, institutions, places, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons—living or dead—events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
“Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”
The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral
Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance
The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance
An Episode of Cathedral History
VI: The Cat, Wag, Slim and Others
After Dark in the Playing Fields
There Was a Man Dwelled by a Churchyard
The Experiment: A New Year’s Eve Ghost Story
The Malice of Inanimate Objects
The Bulbul and the Cuckoo: An Indian Folk Tale
