Curious Warnings - The Great Ghost Stories Of M.R. James (100 page)

M
ONTAGUE
R
HODES
J
AMES
(1862–1936) was Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and Eton. Most of his ghost stories were occasional pieces, written for friends or college magazines, and were collected in
Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary
(1904),
More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
(1911),
A Thin Ghost and Others
(1919), and
A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories
(1925). Widely regarded as one of the finest authors of supernatural fiction in the English language, James is credited as the originator of the “antiquarian ghost story,” replacing the Gothic horrors of the previous century with more contemporary settings for his subtle hauntings. Many of his stories were originally written as Christmas entertainments and were read aloud by the author to selected gatherings of friends.

S
TEPHEN
J
ONES
is one of Britain’s most acclaimed anthologists of horror and dark fantasy. He has more than 115 books to his credit and has won numerous awards. You can visit his website at
www.stephenjoneseditor.com

L
ES
E
DWARDS
is an award-winning artist who has established himself as a stalwart of the British fantasy, horror and science fiction illustration scene in a career spanning more than thirty-five years. You can visit his website at
www.lesedwards.com

†
We now know that these leaves did contain a considerable fragment of that work, if not of that actual copy of it.

†
He died that summer; his daughter married, and settled at St. Papoul. She never understood the circumstances of her father’s “obsession.”

†
The Dispute of Solomon with a demon of the night. Drawn by Alberic de Mauléon.
Versicle
. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Psalm
. Whoso dwelleth (xci.).

Saint Bertrand, who puttest devils to flight, pray for me most unhappy. I saw it first on the night of Dec. 12, 1694: soon I shall see it for the last time. I have sinned and suffered, and have more to suffer yet. Dec. 29, 1701.

The “Gallia Christiana” gives the date of the Canon’s death as December 31, 1701, “in bed, of a sudden seizure.” Details of this kind are not common in the great work of the Sammarthani.

†
Mr. Rogers was wrong,
vide Dombey and Son
, chapter xii.

†
An account of the Premonstratensian abbey of Steinfeld, in the Eiffel, with lives of the Abbots, published at Cologne in 1712 by Christian Albert Erhard, a resident in the district. The epithet
Norbertinum
is due to the fact that St. Norbert was founder of the Premonstratensian Order.

†
There is a place for gold where it is hidden.

††
They have on their raiment a writing which no man knoweth.

†††
Upon one stone are seven eyes.

†
Keep that which is committed to thee.

†
Apparently the ichneumon fly (
Ophion obscurum
), and not the true sawfly, is meant.

†
by William Frend de Morgan (1907)