M. James - Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2017

Life & Times section © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Silvia Crompton asserts her moral right as author of the Life & Times section

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from Collins English Dictionary

Cover by e-Digital Design

Cover image: © Aelice/iStock

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9780008242091

Ebook Edition © June 2017 ISBN: 9780008242107

Version: 2017-05-30

Contents

Cover

Title Page GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY M. R. James

Copyright Copyright Copyright History of William Collins Life & Times 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 Footnotes Classic Literature: Words and Phrases About the Publisher William Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2017 Life & Times section © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Silvia Crompton asserts her moral right as author of the Life & Times section Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from Collins English Dictionary Cover by e-Digital Design Cover image: © Aelice/iStock A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Source ISBN: 9780008242091 Ebook Edition © June 2017 ISBN: 9780008242107 Version: 2017-05-30

History of William Collins

Life & Times

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

Footnotes

Classic Literature: Words and Phrases

About the Publisher

In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books, and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William co-published in 1825, Greek and English Lexicon . Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

Soon after, William published the first Collins novel; however, it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed, and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

Aged 30, William’s son, William II, took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly ‘Victorian’ in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and The Pilgrim’s Progress , making them available to the masses for the first time.

A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases, and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.

In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of ‘books for the millions’ was developed, although the phrase wasn’t coined until 1907. Affordable editions of classical literature were published, and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel, and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time, and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.

HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics, and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition – publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible, and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.

For a writer considered the leading light of a literary genre Montague Rhodes James lived a private, uncontroversial life. Born into a respectable Christian family in Kent in 1862 and then raised in Suffolk, he was educated at Eton College, studied diligently, and was later accepted into Cambridge University, where he was awarded numerous prizes and a double first in Classics. Remaining in Cambridge after graduation, James went on to become the director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, a fellow of King’s College, and ultimately vice-chancellor of the university. His final post was back at Eton, as provost, from 1918 until his death there in 1936. He never married and rarely expressed an interest in politics.

It was a quiet life, and one filled with simple pleasures: travels around Britain and Europe; fine art and interesting books; lively debate with students about Classics and literature; ghost stories with friends around the fire at Christmas time. It is perhaps surprising that, in his extracurricular fictional works, James should be content to write about unremarkable scholars with quiet lives – but he knew what he was doing. The genius of M. R. James lies largely in the fact that so many of his characters are just like him.