ISBN: 2940014584869

CONTENTSPART 1: GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY 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' … Plus…

CONTENTSPART 1: GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY 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 ThomasPART 2: MORE GHOST STORIES A School Story The Rose Garden The Tractate Middoth Casting the Runes The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral Martin's Close Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance * * * * *PART 1: GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY * * * * *If anyone is curious about my local settings, let it be recorded that StBertrand de Comminges and Viborg are real places: that in 'Oh, Whistle,and I'll Come to You' I had Felixstowe in mind. As for the fragments ofostensible erudition which are scattered about my pages, hardly anythingin them is not pure invention; there never was, naturally, any such bookas that which I quote in 'The Treasure of Abbot Thomas'. 'Canon Alberic'sScrap-book' was written in 1894 and printed soon after in the _NationalReview_, 'Lost Hearts' appeared in the _Pall Mall Magazine_; of the nextfive stories, most of which were read to friends at Christmas-time atKing's College, Cambridge, I only recollect that I wrote 'Number 13' in1899, while 'The Treasure of Abbot Thomas' was composed in the summer of1904.M. R. JAMES * * * * *CANON ALBERIC'S SCRAP-BOOKSt Bertrand de Comminges is a decayed town on the spurs of the Pyrenees,not very far from Toulouse, and still nearer to Bagnères-de-Luchon. Itwas the site of a bishopric until the Revolution, and has a cathedralwhich is visited by a certain number of tourists. In the spring of 1883an Englishman arrived at this old-world place--I can hardly dignify itwith the name of city, for there are not a thousand inhabitants. He was aCambridge man, who had come specially from Toulouse to see St Bertrand'sChurch, and had left two friends, who were less keen archaeologists thanhimself, in their hotel at Toulouse, under promise to join him on thefollowing morning. Half an hour at the church would satisfy _them_, andall three could then pursue their journey in the direction of Auch. Butour Englishman had come early on the day in question, and proposed tohimself to fill a note-book and to use several dozens of plates in theprocess of describing and photographing every corner of the wonderfulchurch that dominates the little hill of Comminges. In order to carry outthis design satisfactorily, it was necessary to monopolize the verger ofthe church for the day. The verger or sacristan (I prefer the latterappellation, inaccurate as it may be) was accordingly sent for by thesomewhat brusque lady who keeps the inn of the Chapeau Rouge; and when hecame, the Englishman found him an unexpectedly interesting object ofstudy. It was not in the personal appearance of the little, dry, wizenedold man that the interest lay, for he was precisely like dozens of otherchurch-guardians in France, but in a curious furtive or rather hunted andoppressed air which he had. He was perpetually half glancing behind him;the muscles of his back and shoulders seemed to be hunched in a continualnervous contraction, as if he were expecting every moment to find himselfin the clutch of an enemy. The Englishman hardly knew whether to put himdown as a man haunted by a fixed delusion, or as one oppressed by aguilty conscience, or as an unbearably henpecked husband. Theprobabilities, when reckoned up, certainly pointed to the last idea; but,still, the impression conveyed was that of a more formidable persecutoreven than a termagant wife. Digital Content>E-books>Classics>Coll Classics>Coll Classics, SAP Digital >16<

ISBN: 2940014584869

CONTENTSPART 1: GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY 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' … Plus…

CONTENTSPART 1: GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY 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 ThomasPART 2: MORE GHOST STORIES A School Story The Rose Garden The Tractate Middoth Casting the Runes The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral Martin's Close Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance * * * * *PART 1: GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY * * * * *If anyone is curious about my local settings, let it be recorded that StBertrand de Comminges and Viborg are real places: that in 'Oh, Whistle,and I'll Come to You' I had Felixstowe in mind. As for the fragments ofostensible erudition which are scattered about my pages, hardly anythingin them is not pure invention; there never was, naturally, any such bookas that which I quote in 'The Treasure of Abbot Thomas'. 'Canon Alberic'sScrap-book' was written in 1894 and printed soon after in the _NationalReview_, 'Lost Hearts' appeared in the _Pall Mall Magazine_; of the nextfive stories, most of which were read to friends at Christmas-time atKing's College, Cambridge, I only recollect that I wrote 'Number 13' in1899, while 'The Treasure of Abbot Thomas' was composed in the summer of1904.M. R. JAMES * * * * *CANON ALBERIC'S SCRAP-BOOKSt Bertrand de Comminges is a decayed town on the spurs of the Pyrenees,not very far from Toulouse, and still nearer to Bagnères-de-Luchon. Itwas the site of a bishopric until the Revolution, and has a cathedralwhich is visited by a certain number of tourists. In the spring of 1883an Englishman arrived at this old-world place--I can hardly dignify itwith the name of city, for there are not a thousand inhabitants. He was aCambridge man, who had come specially from Toulouse to see St Bertrand'sChurch, and had left two friends, who were less keen archaeologists thanhimself, in their hotel at Toulouse, under promise to join him on thefollowing morning. Half an hour at the church would satisfy _them_, andall three could then pursue their journey in the direction of Auch. Butour Englishman had come early on the day in question, and proposed tohimself to fill a note-book and to use several dozens of plates in theprocess of describing and photographing every corner of the wonderfulchurch that dominates the little hill of Comminges. In order to carry outthis design satisfactorily, it was necessary to monopolize the verger ofthe church for the day. The verger or sacristan (I prefer the latterappellation, inaccurate as it may be) was accordingly sent for by thesomewhat brusque lady who keeps the inn of the Chapeau Rouge; and when hecame, the Englishman found him an unexpectedly interesting object ofstudy. It was not in the personal appearance of the little, dry, wizenedold man that the interest lay, for he was precisely like dozens of otherchurch-guardians in France, but in a curious furtive or rather hunted andoppressed air which he had. He was perpetually half glancing behind him;the muscles of his back and shoulders seemed to be hunched in a continualnervous contraction, as if he were expecting every moment to find himselfin the clutch of an enemy. The Englishman hardly knew whether to put himdown as a man haunted by a fixed delusion, or as one oppressed by aguilty conscience, or as an unbearably henpecked husband. Theprobabilities, when reckoned up, certainly pointed to the last idea; but,still, the impression conveyed was that of a more formidable persecutoreven than a termagant wife. Digital Content>E-books>Literature>Literature>Literature, SAP Digital >16<

ISBN: 2940014584869

GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY Ghost-Stories-Of-An-Antiquary~~M-R-James Literature>Literature>Literature NOOK Book (eBook), SAP