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Trama e riassunto di Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
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A chi è rivolto
You will love this book if you enjoy tales told by a dry, clever voice, old libraries and cathedrals, curious scholars on the trail of a puzzle, and chills that creep up quietly.
Che cos’è questo libro
A Cambridge scholar arrives in a ruined mountain town in France to photograph a church. The man who guards it hovers at his side all day, white with fear. Later he sells the scholar a priceless old scrapbook for far too little money, and his daughter begs him to take a silver crucifix. Why would anyone give a treasure away so cheaply?
That is the opening of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, the first book of tales by M. R. James.
In questo riassunto
- 1A bargain scrapbook carries a terrible priceFree
- 2A kind cousin keeps a strange notebook
- 3A dull print starts to change
- 4A witch's few words hang over a house
- 5A hotel room gains a door at night
- 6A curious traveler talks to a sleeping count
- 7A whistle from a ruin calls up a wind
- 8A riddle in colored glass points to gold
Punto chiave 1 di 8
A bargain scrapbook carries a terrible price
Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book begins in the declining town of St Bertrand de Comminges beneath the Pyrenees. In 1883 an Englishman from Cambridge, whom the narrator calls Dennistoun, arrives to photograph the cathedral. He hires the sacristan for the day. This is a dried-up little man with a hunted look, who glances over his shoulder at every sound.
A thin metal laugh drifts down from the tower, and the sacristan turns deathly pale. What could frighten a person so deeply?
At dusk the sacristan offers to show him a book at his house. It belonged to Canon Alberic de Mauléon and is a huge folio filled with leaves cut from illuminated manuscripts. At the back is a sepia drawing of King Solomon on his throne. Soldiers stare in horror at a crouching creature, thin as a skeleton, with burning yellow eyes.
Dennistoun asks the price. The sacristan will take 250 francs and not a coin more. At the door the daughter gives him a silver crucifix and wants nothing for it. Father and daughter watch him go as if he has done them some great service.
A price that is far too low should make a buyer ask what else comes with the goods.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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Who’s who
- Dennistoun
- A Cambridge scholar who buys a seventeenth-century scrapbook from a frightened sacristan in a French mountain town.
- Mr Abney
- A cold, bookish recluse in Lincolnshire who invites his young cousin to live at Aswarby Hall and keeps careful notes.
- Stephen Elliott
- A curious orphan boy who comes to Aswarby Hall and wants to know who lived there before him.
- Mr Williams
- The keeper of an art museum at another university who receives a dull engraving of a country house that does not stay still.
- Mr Anderson
- An English researcher in Denmark who chooses a room at the Golden Lion and keeps losing count of its doors.
- Mr Wraxall
- A well-read English traveler in Sweden who studies the old Count Magnus de la Gardie and is too curious for his own good.
- Professor Parkins
- A precise, skeptical Cambridge professor who goes to the coast to improve his golf and picks up a bronze whistle.
- Mr Somerton
- An English antiquary who decodes a message hidden in stained glass and sets out for Steinfeld to find Abbot Thomas's gold.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 41,500 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
What is Ghost Stories of an Antiquary about?
It is a collection of eight tales in which scholars and travelers find old objects, such as a scrapbook, a print, a whistle, or a window, and wake something supernatural. The settings range from French cathedrals to a Jutland hotel and a Suffolk park.
Are the places and books in the stories real?
Some places are. The author says St Bertrand de Comminges and Viborg are real, and that Felixstowe was in his mind for the whistle tale. Nearly all the learned books and scraps are his own invention, including the book quoted in the abbot tale.
When did M. R. James write these stories?
He wrote the first tale, Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book, in 1894, Number 13 in 1899, and The Treasure of Abbot Thomas in the summer of 1904. He read many of them to friends at Christmas at King's College, Cambridge.
Is Ghost Stories of an Antiquary easy to read?
The tales are short, with clear plots and a friendly narrator who often speaks straight to you. Each story stands alone, so you can read one by the fire in a single sitting and come back for the next when you like.
What kind of ghosts does M. R. James write about?
His ghosts are usually physical and strange, such as a hairy hand, a crawling figure in a picture, spiders in a tree, or a face of crumpled linen. They are drawn to old objects and to the curious scholars who disturb them.
Cite this edition
James, M. R. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary.
James, M. R. (2026). Ghost stories of an antiquary. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary (Original work published 1904)
James, M. R. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary.
@book{james2026ghost,
author = {James, M. R.},
title = {Ghost Stories of an Antiquary},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary},
note = {First published 1904}
}
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Get the full summary of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, free
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