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    A Thin Ghost and Others by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    A Thin Ghost and Others by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    A Thin Ghost and Others by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
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    A Thin Ghost and Others 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 Thin Ghost and Others 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 Thin Ghost and Others 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
    ISBN9781788774581
    A Thin Ghost and Others 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 Thin Ghost and Others by M. R. James - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) - M. R. James

      The Complete Works of

      M. R. JAMES

      VOLUME 3 OF 19

      A Thin Ghost and Others

      Parts Edition

      By Delphi Classics, 2013

      Version 1

      COPYRIGHT

      ‘A Thin Ghost and Others’

      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 458 1

      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 3 of the Delphi Classics edition of M. R. James in 19 Parts. It features the unabridged text of A Thin Ghost and Others 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 Thin Ghost and Others

      James’ third collection of ghost stories was published (again by Edward Arnold) in 1919. Two of the stories (‘The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance’ and ‘An Episode of Cathedral History’) had previously appeared in the Cambridge Review, while ‘The Residence at Whitminster’ and possibly also ‘Two Doctors’ were written specifically to fill the volume. The tales are further examples of the antiquarian ghost story tradition, which James originated, detailing the privations of a series of present-day clerics and academics who fall foul of the terrifying apparitions that haunt the relics of the past – or, in the case of ‘Two Doctors’, constitute an attempt by a present-day narrator to reconstruct an apparently supernatural occurrence by assembling extant manuscript sources. The ‘thin ghost’ of the title appears in ‘The Residence at Whitminster’.

      Stylistically, the tales in this collection are more fragmented and ambiguous than in James’ previous fiction. ‘The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance’, for example, relates a series of sinister events apparently connected to a Punch and Judy show, but does not signify exactly how they might link together to form a coherent story. In ‘Two Doctors’, a similar strategy is used, with the antiquarian narrator presenting a series of disconnected sources relating to events surrounding an unnatural death in the past, but without ever explicitly filling in the gaps. The result is a difficult and oddly unsettling read and James’ admirers still debate to this day the exact nature of the events presented in these challenging stories.

      The cover of the first edition

      CONTENTS

      THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER

      THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER

      AN EPISODE OF CATHEDRAL HISTORY

      THE STORY OF A DISAPPEARANCE AND AN APPEARANCE

      TWO DOCTORS

      A Punch and Judy show, a tradition that features sinisterly in ‘The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance’

      Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House – James’ story ‘The Haunted Dolls’ House’ was written for its miniature library

      THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER

      Dr. Ashton — Thomas Ashton, Doctor of Divinity — sat in his study, habited in a dressing-gown, and with a silk cap on his shaven head — his wig being for the time taken off and placed on its block on a side table. He was a man of some fifty-five years, strongly made, of a sanguine complexion, an angry eye, and a long upper lip. Face and eye were lighted up at the moment when I picture him by the level ray of an afternoon sun that shone in upon him through a tall sash window, giving on the west. The room into which it shone was also tall, lined with book-cases, and, where the wall showed between them, panelled. On the table near the doctor’s elbow was a green cloth, and upon it what he would have called a silver standish — a tray with inkstands — quill pens, a calf-bound book or two, some papers, a churchwarden pipe and brass tobacco-box, a flask cased in plaited straw, and a liqueur glass. The year was 1730, the month December, the hour somewhat past three in the afternoon.

      I have described in these lines pretty much all that a superficial observer would have noted when he looked into the room. What met Dr. Ashton’s eye when he looked out of it, sitting in his leather arm-chair? Little more than the tops of the shrubs and fruit-trees of his garden could be seen from that point, but the red brick wall of it was visible in almost all the length of its western side. In the middle of that was a gate — a double gate of rather elaborate iron scroll-work, which allowed something of a view beyond. Through it he could see that the ground sloped away almost at once to a bottom, along which a stream must run, and rose steeply from it on the other side, up to a field that was park-like in character, and thickly studded with oaks, now, of course, leafless. They did not stand so thick together but that some glimpse of sky and horizon could be seen between their stems. The sky was now golden and the horizon, a horizon of distant woods, it seemed, was purple.

      But all that Dr. Ashton could find to say, after contemplating this prospect for many minutes, was: Abominable!

      A listener would have been aware, immediately upon this, of the sound of footsteps coming somewhat hurriedly in the direction of the study: by the resonance he could have told that they were traversing a much larger room. Dr. Ashton turned round in his chair as the door opened, and looked expectant. The incomer was a lady — a stout lady in the dress of the time: though I have made some attempt at indicating the doctor’s costume, I will not enterprise that of his wife — for it was Mrs. Ashton who now entered. She had an anxious, even a sorely distracted, look, and it was in a very disturbed voice that she almost whispered to Dr. Ashton, putting her head close to his, He’s in a very sad way, love, worse, I’m afraid. Tt — tt, is he really? and he leaned back and looked in her face. She nodded. Two solemn bells, high up, and not far away, rang out the half-hour at this moment. Mrs. Ashton started. Oh, do you think you can give order that the minster clock be stopped chiming to-night? ‘Tis just over his chamber, and will keep him from sleeping, and to sleep is the only chance for him, that’s certain. Why, to be sure, if there were need, real need, it could be done, but not upon any light occasion. This Frank, now, do you assure me that his recovery stands upon it? said Dr. Ashton: his voice was loud and rather hard. I do verily believe it, said his wife. Then, if it must be, bid Molly run across to Simpkins and say on my authority that he is to stop the clock chimes at sunset: and — yes — she is after that to say to my lord Saul that I wish to see him presently in this room. Mrs. Ashton hurried off.

      Before any other visitor enters, it will be well to explain the situation.

      Dr. Ashton was the holder, among other preferments, of a prebend in the rich collegiate church of Whitminster, one of the foundations which, though not a cathedral, survived dissolution and reformation, and retained its constitution and endowments for a hundred years after the time of which I write. The great church, the residences of the dean and the two prebendaries, the choir and its appurtenances, were all intact and in working order. A dean who flourished soon after

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