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    A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
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    A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

    By M. R. James

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    About this ebook

    This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of M. R. James’.



    Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of James includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

    eBook features:
    * The complete unabridged text of ‘A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’
    * Beautifully illustrated with images related to James’s works
    * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
    * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPublishdrive
    Release dateJul 17, 2017
    ISBN9781788774598
    A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    Author

    M. R. James

    Montague Rhodes James was born in 1862 at Goodnestone Parsonage, Kent, where his father was a curate, but the family moved soon afterwards to Great Livermere in Suffolk. James attended Eton College and later King's College Cambridge where he won many awards and scholarships. From 1894 to 1908 he was Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and from 1905 to 1918 was Provost of King's College. In 1913, he became Vice-Chancellor of the University for two years. In 1918 he was installed as Provost of Eton. A distinguished medievalist and scholar of international status, James published many works on biblical and historical antiquarian subjects. He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1930. His ghost story writing began almost as a divertissement from his academic work and as a form of entertainment for his colleagues. His first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary was published in 1904. He never married and died in 1936.

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      Book preview

      A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) - M. R. James

      The Complete Works of

      M. R. JAMES

      VOLUME 4 OF 19

      A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories

      Parts Edition

      By Delphi Classics, 2013

      Version 1

      COPYRIGHT

      ‘A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories’

      M. R. James: Parts Edition (in 19 parts)

      First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

      © Delphi Classics, 2017.

      All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

      ISBN: 978 1 78877 459 8

      Delphi Classics

      is an imprint of

      Delphi Publishing Ltd

      Hastings, East Sussex

      United Kingdom

      Contact: sales@delphiclassics.com

      www.delphiclassics.com

      M. R. James: Parts Edition

      This eBook is Part 4 of the Delphi Classics edition of M. R. James in 19 Parts. It features the unabridged text of A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of M. R. James, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

      Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of M. R. James or the Complete Works of M. R. James in a single eBook.

      Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

      M. R. JAMES

      IN 19 VOLUMES

      Parts Edition Contents

      The Short Story Collections

      1, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

      2, More Ghost Stories

      3, A Thin Ghost and Others

      4, A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories

      5, The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James

      6, Uncollected Stories

      The Children’s Books

      7, The Five Jars

      8, Forty-Two Stories by Hans Christian Andersen

      The Non-Fiction

      9, Henry the Sixth: A Reprint of John Blacman’s Memoir

      10, The Wanderings and Homes of Manuscripts Helps for Students of History

      11, Old Testament Legends

      12, Prologue to Le Fanu’s Madam Crowl’s Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery

      13, The Apocryphal New Testament

      14, Introduction to ‘Ghosts and Marvels’

      15, Some Remarks on Ghost Stories

      16, Ghosts — Treat Them Gently!

      The Guidebooks

      17, Abbeys

      18, Suffolk and Norfolk

      The Memoir

      19, Eton and King’s: Recollections, Mostly Trivial, 1875-1925

      www.delphiclassics.com

      A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories

      This was James’ final collection of original ghost stories and was published by Edward Arnold in 1925. Unusually, with the exception of ‘An Evening’s Entertainment’, all of the volume’s six tales had been previously published in periodicals between 1921 and 1925 – a reflection of the demand that had grown for new ghost tales from James’ pen. ‘A Neighbour’s Landmark’ first appeared in The Eton Chronic, the magazine of the famous Eton College. James had enjoyed his time there as a pupil and was Provost (or Master) of the college from 1918 until his death in 1936.

      ‘The Haunted Doll’s House’ had originally been written in 1922 for the curious ‘Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House’ project. A lavish doll’s house had been built for George V’s consort, Queen Mary of Teck and an invitation sent to several noted writers of the day to provide works that would fill the toy house’s library. James’ tale was a re-working of the central idea of his earlier story ‘The Mezzotint’, with an animated doll’s house replacing the animated picture of the previous work.

      The title story is one of James’ best-known works and its title has come to define the ethos of James’ tales as a whole – to many commentators, ‘Warnings to the Curious’ seems an appropriate label for a body of work that appears to warn even the most ardent scholars from underestimating hubristically the potency still retained by the arcane mysteries of the past.

      Cover of the first edition

      CONTENTS

      The Haunted Dolls’ House

      The Uncommon Prayer-Book

      A Neighbour’s Landmark

      A View From a Hill

      A Warning to the Curious

      An Evening’s Entertainment

      A scene from the 1972 television adaptation of ‘A Warning to the Curious’, broadcasted as part of the BBC’s acclaimed Ghost Story for Christmas strand

      Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast, which James claimed was the basis for ‘Seaburgh’ in ‘A Warning to the Curious’

      Dippersmoor Manor in Herefordshire, where James’ ward Jane McBryde lived with her mother Gwendolyn (the widow of James McBryde, who had illustrated James’ first story collection). The landscape around the house became the setting for ‘A View from a Hill’

      A scene from the 2005 television adaptation of ‘A View from a Hill’, broadcasted as part of the BBC’s short-lived revival of its acclaimed Ghost Story for Christmas strand

      The Haunted Dolls’ House

      I suppose you get stuff of that kind through your hands pretty often? said Mr. Dillet, as he pointed with his stick to an object which shall be described when the time comes: and when he said it, he lied in his throat, and knew that he lied. Not once in twenty years – perhaps not once in a lifetime – could Mr. Chittenden, skilled as he was in ferreting out the forgotten treasures of half a dozen counties, expect to handle such a specimen. It was collectors’ palaver, and Mr. Chittenden recognized it as such.

      Stuff of that kind, Mr. Dillet! It’s a museum piece, that is.

      Well, I suppose there are museums that’ll take anything.

      I’ve seen one, not as good as that, years back, said Mr. Chittenden thoughtfully. But that’s not likely to come into the market: and I’m told they ‘ave some fine ones of the period over the water. No: I’m only telling you the truth, Mr. Dillet, when I was to say that if you was to place an unlimited order with me for the very best that could be got – and you know I ‘ave facilities for getting to know of such things, and a reputation to maintain – well, all I can say is, I should lead you straight up to that one and say, ‘I can’t do no better for you than that, sir.’

      Hear, hear! said Mr. Dillet, applauding ironically with the end of his stick on the floor of the shop. How much are you sticking the innocent American buyer for it, eh?

      Oh, I shan’t be over hard on the buyer, American or otherwise. You see, it stands this way, Mr. Dillet – if I knew just a bit more about the pedigree—

      Or just a bit less, Mr. Dillet put in.

      Ha, ha! you will have your joke, sir. No, but as I was saying, if I knew just a little more than what I do about the piece – though anyone can see for themselves it’s a genuine thing, every last corner of it, and there’s not been one of my men allowed to so much as touch it since it came into the shop – there’d be another figure in the price I’m asking.

      And what’s that: five and twenty?

      Multiply that by three and you’ve got it, sir. Seventy-five’s my price.

      And fifty’s mine, said Mr. Dillet. The point of agreement was, of course, somewhere between the two, it does not matter exactly where – I think sixty guineas. But half an hour later the object was being packed, and within an hour Mr. Dillet had called for it in his car and driven away. Mr. Chittenden, holding the cheque in his hand, saw him off from the door with smiles, and returned, still smiling, into the parlour where his wife was making the tea. He stopped at the door.

      It’s gone, he said. Thank God for that! said Mrs. Chittenden, putting down the teapot. Mr. Dillet, was it?

      Yes, it was.

      Well, I’d sooner it was him than another. Oh, I don’t know; he ain’t a bad feller, my dear.

      Maybe not, but in my opinion he’d be none the worse for a bit of a shake up.

      Well, if that’s your opinion, it’s my opinion he’s put himself into the way of getting one. Anyhow, we shan’t have no more of it, and that’s something to be thankful for. And so Mr. and Mrs. Chittenden sat down to tea.

      And what of Mr. Dillet and his new acquisition? What it was, the title of this story will have told you. What it was like, I shall have to indicate as well as I can.

      There was only just enough room for it in the car, and Mr. Dillet had to sit with the driver: he had also to go slow, for though the rooms of the Dolls’ House had all been stuffed carefully with soft cottonwool, jolting was to be avoided, in view of the immense number of small objects which thronged them; and the ten-mile drive was an anxious time for him, in spite of all the precautions he insisted upon. At last his front door was reached, and Collins, the butler, came out.

      Look here, Collins, you must help me with this thing – it’s a delicate job. We must get it out upright, see? It’s full of little things that mustn’t be displaced more than we can help. Let’s see, where shall we have it? (After a pause for consideration.) Really, I think I shall have to put it in my own room, to begin with at any rate. On the big table – that’s it.

      It was conveyed – with much talking – to Mr. Dillet’s spacious room on the first floor, looking out on the drive. The sheeting was unwound from it, and the front thrown open, and for the next hour or two Mr.. Dillet was fully occupied in extracting the padding and setting in order the contents of the rooms.

      When this thoroughly congenial task was finished, I must say that it would have been difficult to find a more perfect and attractive specimen of a Dolls’ House in Strawberry Hill Gothic than that which now stood on Mr. Dillet’s large kneehole table, lighted up by the evening sun which came slanting through three tall slash-windows.

      It was quite six feet long, including the Chapel or Oratory which flanked the front on

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