Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories

M. R. James

Horror Short Stories

This selection of twenty-one short stories by M.R. James – a first-class writer of supernatural fiction – represents his best work, including "Count Magnus," "The Rose Garden," "The Uncommon Prayer-book," "Rats," "The Malice of Inanimate Objects," and "A Vignette," as well as the title story.

Contents:

  • Introduction by Michael Cox
  • Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book
  • The Mezzotint
  • Number 13
  • Count Magnus
  • "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad"
  • The Treasure of Abbot Thomas
  • A School Story
  • The Rose Garden
  • The Tractate Middoth
  • Casting the Runes
  • The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral
  • Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance
  • The Diary of Mr. Poynter
  • An Episode of Cathedral History
  • The Uncommon Prayer Book
  • A Neighbour's Landmark
  • A Warning to the Curious
  • Rats
  • The Experiment
  • The Malice of Inanimate Objects
  • A Vignette
  • Explanatory Notes by Michael Cox
  • M. R. James on Ghost Stories
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Published
1987
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Author

M. R. James

Montague Rhodes James, OM, MA, (1862–1936), 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 dispensing with many of the formal gothic trappings of his predecessors, and replacing them with more realistic contemporary settings. H. P. Lovecraft was an admirer of James's work, extolling the stories as the peak of the…