Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) was a medieval scholar; Provost of King's College, Cambridge. He wrote many of his ghost stories to be read aloud in the long tradition of spooky Christmas Eve tales. His stories often use rural settings, with a quiet, scholarly protagonist getting caught up in the activities of supernatural forces. The details of horror are almost never explicit, the stories relying on a gentle, bucolic background to emphasise the awfulness of the otherworldly intrusions.
"Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" was written as two collections, presented here as two volumes in a single work. There is a short author's preface before the first story in each volume. (Summary by Peter Yearsley)
Read by Peter Yearsley.
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Reviewer:GM Arnold Raleigh NC - - January 7, 2008 Subject: Marvelous These are some of the greatest ghost stories ever written (according to HP Lovecraft, and who are we to disagree), read to perfection. As you listen imagine yourself sitting in a scuffed leather chair by the fire, drinking a brandy, in a fine club in London. To quote HPL: "Dr. James, for all his light touch, evokes fright and hideousness in their most shocking form, and will certainly stand as one of the few really creative masters in his darksome province." In addition to that I really must give the highest commendation to the reader of these stories.