WORKS BY DR. M. R. JAMES
(PROVOST OF ETON COLLEGE)
“In this book are no ordinary hauntings or common-place apparitions, but real, inexplicable, horrid Things belonging to another world, such as might have been summoned by medieval wizards to their own lasting undoing. Dr. James excels in the description of intelligences higher than beasts and lower than men, whose aim is to do evil. The spiders in ‘The Ash Tree’ seemed to us bad enough, but the toad-shaped guardian of the ‘Treasure of the Abbot Thomas’ surpasses them, The antiquarian setting of the story lends to them both interest and probability; an old document, an inscription, an ancient whistle discovered amongst some ruins are the means by which the powers of darkness are called forth, and when they come they appear in a way which convinces the reader of their actual existence. We do not hesitate to say that these are among the best ghost stories we have ever read; they rank with that greatest of all ghost stories, Lord Lytton’s ‘The Haunted and the Haunters.’”—The Guardian.
With Illustrations by GILBERT JAMES
“An uncanny, unusual, but quite delightful fairy-tale is Dr. M. R. James’s latest excursion into a field where he has already made his mark. Wide knowledge, deep thought, vivid fancy, and a rare gift for visualising the invisible universe which lies about us have gone to the construction of this fascinating tale, with its never-failing wealth of delightful surprises and original fancies.”—The Guardian.
“A very charming and original story, beautifully written and of most delicate invention. It is actually a new kind of fairy story.”—New Statesman.
“The Provost of Eton, who has written some of our best and most haunting ghost stories, is seen here in a lighter atmosphere. In ‘The Five Jars’ he gives us a delightful fantasy of fairies and conversational animals. He relates his tale with such a convincing particularity of detail and such a clear simplicity of style that miracles seem the most natural thing in the world.”—The Spectator.
LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD & CO.
