M. R. James

M.R. James had a great, and simple, formula for writing ghost stories. Establish the mundane and everyday detail (which is heightened by the Victorian academic settings), and then introduce, briefly, the supernatural, which cracks the surface of everything normal.

Dans ce livre, je ne m'occupe que des histoires apocryphes (Adam et Ève, Salomon et les démons, Abraham). Ces histoires ne sont pas vraies, mais elles sont très anciennes ; certaines d'entre elles, je pense, sont belles, et toutes me semblent intéressantes.

Widely acknowledged as the master of the supernatural, M. R. James penned many of his classic ghost stories to be read aloud to friends, by candlelight, in his study on Christmas Eve. These five adaptations, originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4, perfectly capture the mood of nerve-jangling...

The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James is an omnibus collection of ghost stories. Many of these stories are time-tested classics. Montague Rhodes...

Step into the quiet English countryside, where serenity hides shadows, and ancient grounds guard forgotten secrets. Whispers in the wind, a cursed corner of land, and a long-buried injustice begin to stir.

A child's memory, a shadowed path, a glimpse of something that should not be. In A Vignette, M. R. James offers a final brushstroke of quiet terror—intimate, elusive, and disquietingly real.

A relic buried. A secret watched. A warning unheeded. In this chilling tale by master of the supernatural M. R. James, the boundaries between legend and reality dissolve into coastal mist.

In the shadowed corners of Barchester Cathedral, a dark and unsettling secret lies hidden, waiting to be uncovered. M. R. James, master of the eerie and the supernatural, weaves a tale of mystery that drips with suspense and an ever-looming sense of dread.

On a winter's night, as the old year slips silently into the new, shadows stir in forgotten corners, and the past refuses to rest. Subtle, strange, and unsettling, this is a tale that whispers its secrets, if you dare to listen.

A child's toy, a cursed relic, a mystery that refuses to stay hidden. In The Haunted Dolls' House , M. R. James weaves a tale of exquisite unease, where the innocent facade of a dollhouse reveals a terrifying world of spirits long forgotten. Here, the past and present collide, and the boundaries...

There are rooms best left unopened. In Rats, M. R. James guides us into one such space—silent, neglected, and waiting. Known for his restrained, academic horrors, James delivers here a tale that creeps up slowly and lingers uncomfortably. With a master's touch, he suggests far more than he shows,...

A mournful cry, a well that echoes the past, and an invitation to remember the forgotten. In Wailing Well , M. R. James crafts a haunting tale of mystery and spectral terror, where the quiet of a rural landscape is disturbed by a cry from the past—an eerie wail that resonates through time. As...

A curious traveler. A forbidden tomb. A name best left unspoken. When Mr. Wraxall digs into the past of a long-dead Swedish nobleman, he unearths more than just history. Something stirs beneath the surface—something ancient, waiting, watching. Count Magnus is a masterpiece of restrained horror by...

A picture that changes. A scholar who watches. A nightmare unfolding one shadow at a time. Forget jump scares—this is horror in its most refined form. The Mezzotint is a slow-burn classic where dread creeps in like fog and nothing is ever quite as it seems. M. R. James delivers a ghost story that...

A young orphan. A sprawling country estate. A distant relative with unsettling interests. This is a tale where quiet dread builds behind closed doors, and the line between scholarly pursuit and ancient ritual begins to blur. Twelve-year-old Stephen Elliott arrives at Aswarby Hall expecting...

Something ancient lingers beneath the surface of Castringham Hall. In the stillness of the Suffolk countryside, a presence takes root—silent, watchful, and patient. The Ash-tree is M.R. James at his most unsettling: a precise exercise in creeping dread, where history never rests easy and...

An Episode of Cathedral History is one of M. R. James's most quietly chilling tales—a masterwork of subtle horror, antiquarian mystery, and creeping dread. Behind the stone walls of a venerable English cathedral, the past stirs with a presence that should have remained undisturbed. In this...

A new Latin master. A strange sentence. A figure at the window. When boys at a quiet English school begin seeing things that shouldn't be there—and writing things they don't understand—a mystery begins to unfold, darker than any textbook could explain. In A School Story , M. R. James blends...

Some histories refuse to stay buried. In A Neighbour's Landmark , M. R. James offers a haunting meditation on place, memory, and the quiet persistence of old wrongs. Through gentle suggestion and masterful restraint, James evokes a creeping dread rooted in the land itself—a whisper of something...

An Evening's Entertainment is a tale that lives up to its deceptively quaint title, offering not comfort, but a slow, tightening dread. In the hands of master ghost-storyteller M. R. James, a quiet rural setting becomes the stage for something far more sinister—where folklore whispers, tradition...