We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. She spoke about the inspiration for his many stories, including his fear of spiders and also his obsession with old churches.

The titles in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary range from witchcraft to the occult, and tap into our primal fear of things that go bump in the night. The tales all follow a similar route - a build up of otherworldly hints topped off by a ghastly visitation - and all are very enjoyable.

I read this at bedtime and had to put it down before finishing The Ash Tree because the spiders were just too terrifying.

Every time anyone looks at it, something has subtly changed – is it imagination or the supernatural? Published on the 80th anniversary of James’s death, this is a graphic novel to be read on a winter’s night, a book to curl up with – but not a book for the faint-hearted. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. His fiction has been published in anthologies from Combustion Books, Ghostwoods Books, PS Publishing, Snowbooks, Swan River Press, and Vagrants Among Ruins. The powerful sense of evil – darkness, creepy hairy presences, cloaks, hoods, talons and tentacles – pervades these classic ghost stories by M.In some stories, a seemingly harmless object acts as a catalyst to the story; in The Mezzotint, an indifferent print of a manor house seems to have a life of its own. Bleiler notes, "Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary is generally taken to mark the beginning of the modern era of supernatural fiction. They take place in the quiet corners of churches, and between the dusty shelves of esteemed college libraries. Burrage praised Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and its successor, More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary as "two really admirable books of ghost stories". The Ash-tree' – A nobleman and his descendants find that being the star witness in a witch trial probably isn’t a good idea.

Spine and board edges browned, ink splashes to foot of rear board, inner hinges starting, book block remaining firm, scattered foxing to contents, tide mark to fore edge of front free endpaper, a very good copy. 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, replacing them with more realistic contemporary settings.James McBryde had originally intended to supply more illustrations for the work, but unfortunately died prematurely before he could complete them. His stories often use rural settings, with a quiet, scholarly protagonist getting caught up in the activities of supernatural forces. GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY, Edward Arnold, 1904, first edition, a tight vg+ copy in the publishers original buckram binding.

If you like traditional ghost stories that unnerve the reader subtly by suggestion and indirection, this is a book you should read. I don't want to spoil anyone, but the last stories really finish the book in a stellar way, and I was very perturbed when I went to bed after reading them. The mystery of their manifestations is part of their appeal to James and he assumes a similar understanding in his reader.

He has found them quite enjoyable, They are well illustrated, in graphic novel style, but do capture the spirit and feel of the stories. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Volume 2 comprises graphic adaptations of four spine-chilling stories by M. R. James, is well known to ghost story fanatics, but if you are unfamiliar with his work you are in for a wonderful treat. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The popularity of this collection led to widespread requests for more: consequently More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary followed in 1911, A Thin Ghost and other Stories in 1919, and A Warning to the Curious in 1925.