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A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories

by M. R. James

First published: 1925
Pages: 99

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About this book

M. R. James spent his days cataloguing medieval manuscripts and his evenings frightening his friends, and this 1925 gathering is the last collection he assembled himself. The stories send curious men toward things better left alone. An antiquary buys an ornate dollhouse and watches a murder replay itself in miniature. A scholar digs up one of the crowns buried to guard the English coast and learns that it still has a keeper. James almost never reaches for gore. He prefers a shape at the edge of a field, a hand where no hand should be, and the awful patience of whatever has noticed you. The title story is one of the finest things in English ghost fiction. Read the whole collection free in PDF and EPUB.

About the author

M. R. James

M. R. James spent his working life inside two institutions, as provost of King's College Cambridge from 1905 and then as provost of Eton from 1918 until his death, and his profession was cataloguing medieval manuscripts, a job he did so thoroughly that the catalogues are still consulted.