Read The M.R. James Megapack Online

Authors: M.R. James

Tags: #hauntings, #Fantasy, #dark fantasy, #Ghosts, #Horror

The M.R. James Megapack

Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFO

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

THE MEGAPACK SERIES

PART 1: GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY

CANON ALBERIC’S SCRAP-BOOK

LOST HEARTS

THE MEZZOTINT

THE ASH-TREE

NUMBER 13

COUNT MAGNUS

“OH, WHISTLE, AND I’LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD”

THE TREASURE OF ABBOT THOMAS

PART 2: THE FIVE JARS

THE DISCOVERY

THE FIRST JAR

THE SECOND JAR

THE SMALL PEOPLE

DANGER TO THE JARS

THE CAT, WAG, SLIM AND OTHERS

THE BAT-BALL

WAG AT HOME

PART 3: MORE GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY

CASTING THE RUNES

THE ROSE GARDEN

THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH

THE STALLS OF BARCHESTER CATHEDRAL

MARTIN’S CLOSE

MR HUMPHREYS AND HIS INHERITANCE

PART 4: A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS

THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER

THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER

AN EPISODE OF CATHEDRAL HISTORY

THE STORY OF A DISAPPEARANCE AND AN APPEARANCE

TWO DOCTORS

COPYRIGHT INFO

The M.R. James Megapack
is copyright © 2013 by Wildside Press LLC. All rights reserved.

* * * *

This is version 2.0 of this Megapack.

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

Over the last year, our “Megapack” series of ebook anthologies has proved to be one of our most popular endeavors. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

The Megapacks (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt, Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, A.E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!).

A NOTE FOR KINDLE READERS

The Kindle versions of our Megapacks employ active tables of contents for easy navigation…please look for one before writing reviews on Amazon that complain about the lack! (They are sometimes at the ends of ebooks, depending on your reader.)

RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?

Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the Megapack series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://movies.ning.com/forum (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).

Note:
we only consider stories that have already been professionally published.
This is not a market for new works.

TYPOS

Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.

If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at [email protected] or use the message boards above.

—John Betancourt
Publisher, Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidepress.com

THE MEGAPACK SERIES

MYSTERY

The Achmed Abdullah Megapack

The Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective Megapack

The Detective Megapack

The Father Brown Megapack

The Jacques Futrelle Megapack

The Mystery Megapack

The Penny Parker Megapack

The Pulp Fiction Megapack

The Victorian Mystery Megapack

The Wilkie Collins Megapack

GENERAL INTEREST

The Adventure Megapack

The Baseball Megapack

The Christmas Megapack

The Second Christmas Megapack

The Classic Humor Megapack

The Military Megapack

SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, HORROR

The Achmed Abdullah Megapack

The Edward Bellamy Megapack

The E.F. Benson Megapack

The Second E.F. Benson Megapack

The First Reginald Bretnor Megapack

The Cthulhu Mythos Megapack

The Philip K. Dick Megapack

The Ghost Story Megapack

The Second Ghost Story Megapack

The Third Ghost Story Megapack

The Horror Megapack

The M.R. James Megapack

The Murray Leinster Megapack

The Second Murray Leinster Megapack

The Macabre Megapack

The Second Macabre Megapack

The Martian Megapack

The Mummy Megapack

The Andre Norton Megapack

The Pinocchio Megapack

The H. Beam Piper Megapack

The Pulp Fiction Megapack

The Randall Garrett Megapack

The Second Randall Garrett Megapack

The First Science Fiction Megapack

The Second Science Fiction Megapack

The Third Science Fiction Megapack

The Fourth Science Fiction Megapack

The Fifth Science Fiction Megapack

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack

The Steampunk Megapack

The Vampire Megapack

The Werewolf Megapack

The Wizard of Oz Megapack

WESTERNS

The B.M. Bower Megapack

The Max Brand Megapack

The Buffalo Bill Megapack

The Cowboy Megapack

The Zane Grey Megapack

The Western Megapack

The Second Western Megapack

The Wizard of Oz Megapack

YOUNG ADULT

The Boys’ Adventure Megapack

The Dan Carter, Cub Scout Megapack

The G.A. Henty Megapack

The Rover Boys Megapack

The Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Megapack

The Tom Swift Megapack

AUTHOR MEGAPACKS

The Achmed Abdullah Megapack

The Edward Bellamy Megapack

The B.M. Bower Megapack

The E.F. Benson Megapack

The Second E.F. Benson Megapack

The Max Brand Megapack

The First Reginald Bretnor Megapack

The Wilkie Collins Megapack

The Philip K. Dick Megapack

The Jacques Futrelle Megapack

The Randall Garrett Megapack

The Second Randall Garrett Megapack

The M.R. James Megapack

The Murray Leinster Megapack

The Second Murray Leinster Megapack

The Andre Norton Megapack

The H. Beam Piper Megapack

The Rafael Sabatini Megapack

PART 1: GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY

If anyone is curious about my local settings, let it be recorded that St Bertrand de Comminges and Viborg are real places: that in “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You” I had Felixstowe in mind. As for the fragments of ostensible erudition which are scattered about my pages, hardly anything in them is not pure invention; there never was, naturally, any such book as that which I quote in “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”. “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book” was written in 1894 and printed soon after in the
National Review
, “Lost Hearts” appeared in the
Pall Mall Magazine
; of the next five stories, most of which were read to friends at Christmas-time at King’s College, Cambridge, I only recollect that I wrote “Number 13” in 1899, while “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” was composed in the summer of 1904.

—M. R. JAMES

CANON ALBERIC’S SCRAP-BOOK

St Bertrand de Comminges is a decayed town on the spurs of the Pyrenees, not very far from Toulouse, and still nearer to Bagnères-de-Luchon. It was the site of a bishopric until the Revolution, and has a cathedral which is visited by a certain number of tourists. In the spring of 1883 an Englishman arrived at this old-world place—I can hardly dignify it with the name of city, for there are not a thousand inhabitants. He was a Cambridge man, who had come specially from Toulouse to see St Bertrand’s Church, and had left two friends, who were less keen archaeologists than himself, in their hotel at Toulouse, under promise to join him on the following morning. Half an hour at the church would satisfy
them
, and all three could then pursue their journey in the direction of Auch. But our Englishman had come early on the day in question, and proposed to himself to fill a note-book and to use several dozens of plates in the process of describing and photographing every corner of the wonderful church that dominates the little hill of Comminges. In order to carry out this design satisfactorily, it was necessary to monopolize the verger of the church for the day. The verger or sacristan (I prefer the latter appellation, inaccurate as it may be) was accordingly sent for by the somewhat brusque lady who keeps the inn of the Chapeau Rouge; and when he came, the Englishman found him an unexpectedly interesting object of study. It was not in the personal appearance of the little, dry, wizened old man that the interest lay, for he was precisely like dozens of other church-guardians in France, but in a curious furtive or rather hunted and oppressed air which he had. He was perpetually half glancing behind him; the muscles of his back and shoulders seemed to be hunched in a continual nervous contraction, as if he were expecting every moment to find himself in the clutch of an enemy. The Englishman hardly knew whether to put him down as a man haunted by a fixed delusion, or as one oppressed by a guilty conscience, or as an unbearably henpecked husband. The probabilities, when reckoned up, certainly pointed to the last idea; but, still, the impression conveyed was that of a more formidable persecutor even than a termagant wife.

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