Showing results by author "M.R. James" in All Categories

Few ghost stories are as chilling as the ones written by Victorian writers. Featuring work by Jerome K. Jerome, Rhoda Broughton, R.L. Stevenson and Violet Hunt, this second collection of eight enduring horror stories, some well-known, others less familiar, transports you to a candlelit fireside to hear tales of cursed paintings, mysterious locked chests and the consequences of promises broken....

Ghost stories from the golden age. Six great writers weave their spell in creepy, insidious style.

Count Magnus is the story of an amateur scholar travelling in a remote part of Sweden, whose researches lead him to the mausoleum where the infamous Count Magnus is interred. As he researches the history of the long dead count, and learns more about his ill deeds and the mysterious "black pilgimage" from which he returned with something or someone evil...strange and horrifying events begin to overtake him.

A young antiquary and archaeologist named Paxton is on vacation in the south-east coast of England when he hears the legend of the three holy crowns. According to the legend, England was kept safe from being invaded when three crowns were buried long ago at sites near the coast. One of the crowns was later dug up, one is now beneath the sea but one still remains buried in the earth and keeps England safe from invasion. Members of a family named Ager long guarded the site where the crown was buried.

Step into the chilling world of M. R. James, the master of the English ghost story, with this anthology of his finest supernatural tales. From mysterious rooms in curious inns to cursed manuscripts and vengeful spectres, James’s stories weave an atmosphere of dread and suspense that lingers long after the final tick

William Collins Books and Decca Records are proud to present ARGO Classics, a historic catalogue of classic fiction read by some of the world’s most renowned voices. Originally released as vinyl records, these expertly abridged and remastered stories are now available to download for the first...

Throughout the human experience, historians have wondered “what if?”. What if Sherman had fought for the South in the US Civil War? What if Germany had fought to the end in World War I? What if World War III had actually happened? Wonder no more, for these questions, along with many others, are answered in this audiobook.

M. R. James (1862-1936) was provost of King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College. He was a highly regarded scholar and academic but is today remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered among the finest in the genre. His short novel for children, The Five Jars, is a bewitching fairy tale in the form of a letter to a young friend, telling of the writer's strange experiences after discovering a box containing five jars with labels that indicate the mysterious powers of their contents.

Montague Rhodes James, the greatest English writer of ghost stories, was born in 1862 at Goodnestone Parsonage in Kent, where his father was Curate, and spent most of his boyhood at Livermere, near Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia, where his father had become Rector. From childhood he was passionately interested in mediaeval books and antiques. At the age of six, attending his first children’s party, he burst into tears, but was soon comforted by being taken into the library of the house and left there alone.

M. R. James wrote, arguably, the finest supernatural tales in English literature, and this collection contains the best of them, including ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’, ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come To You, My Lad’, ‘Lost Hearts’, ‘Casting the Runes’, and ‘Count Magnus’. James was something of an actor and gifted storyteller and read his tales aloud to select gatherings on many a Christmas Eve. His intention, he said, was to implant in his listener the idea that, ‘if I am not careful, something of this kind might happen to me!’

A child's memory, a shadowed path, a glimpse of something that should not be. In A Vignette, M. R. James offers a final brushstroke of quiet terror—intimate, elusive, and disquietingly real. This short, unsettling piece lingers like a half-remembered dream, evoking the moment when the everyday slips into the uncanny. With masterful restraint and emotional undercurrent, James reminds us that the most chilling hauntings are those born in the mind—and never truly forgotten.

A relic buried. A secret watched. A warning unheeded. In this chilling tale by master of the supernatural M. R. James, the boundaries between legend and reality dissolve into coastal mist. A Warning to the Curious draws the listener into a bleak and beautiful world where ancient guardians still linger—and curiosity can awaken things best left undisturbed. A haunting meditation on the price of trespass, this is classic ghost storytelling at its most precise and unnerving.

A picture that changes. A scholar who watches. A nightmare unfolding one shadow at a time. Forget jump scares—this is horror in its most refined form. The Mezzotint is a slow-burn classic where dread creeps in like fog and nothing is ever quite as it seems. M. R. James delivers a ghost story that gets under your skin—and stays there. Mysterious, unsettling, and quietly terrifying.

The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance is M. R. James at his most disquieting: where festive streets darken quickly, dreams twist into warnings, and something grotesque walks just beyond the edge of understanding. Blending holiday cheer with a creeping sense of dread, this tale invites the listener to question what hides behind tradition, and what slips through the cracks of propriety. Laced with unease and subtle horror, it is not merely a ghost story—it is a disturbance in the fabric of the ordinary.

Some histories refuse to stay buried. In A Neighbour's Landmark , M. R. James offers a haunting meditation on place, memory, and the quiet persistence of old wrongs. Through gentle suggestion and masterful restraint, James evokes a creeping dread rooted in the land itself—a whisper of something long forgotten, but never forgiven. This is not merely a ghost story, but a tale where the landscape remembers, and where every stone may carry a secret. Subtle, strange, and unsettling, this is classic James at his most disquieting.

In the shadowed corners of Barchester Cathedral, a dark and unsettling secret lies hidden, waiting to be uncovered. M. R. James, master of the eerie and the supernatural, weaves a tale of mystery that drips with suspense and an ever-looming sense of dread. The story entangles curiosity with fear as it explores the strange occurrences in a sacred space, offering an atmospheric journey into the unknown. Prepare to be both mesmerized and unnerved by this hauntingly atmospheric tale of forbidden knowledge and the restless dead.

Step into the quiet English countryside, where serenity hides shadows, and ancient grounds guard forgotten secrets. In M. R. James's chilling tale The Rose Garden, a simple act—planting roses on a peaceful estate—unearths more than just soil. Whispers in the wind, a cursed corner of land, and a long-buried injustice begin to stir. Elegant, eerie, and steeped in the uncanny, this masterfully told ghost story unfolds with James's signature subtlety and scholarly dread.

On a winter's night, as the old year slips silently into the new, shadows stir in forgotten corners, and the past refuses to rest. In The Experiment, M. R. James once again proves himself a master of quiet horror—where the chill creeps not from the cold, but from something far older, and far less forgiving. Subtle, strange, and unsettling, this is a tale that whispers its secrets, if you dare to listen. Perfect for a solitary listen by candlelight, just as midnight strikes.

A gentleman stumbles upon a curious old diary—an innocent discovery, or the key to something far more disturbing? In The Diary of Mr. Poynter, M. R. James once again conjures an atmosphere thick with dread, beauty, and the uncanny. This is a tale where the most ordinary object can become a gateway to forces beyond reason, and where curiosity may lead to quiet terror. With James's trademark subtlety and scholarly unease, the story whispers rather than screams—unsettling the soul long after the final word. Haunting, intricate, and elegantly unnerving.

A new Latin master. A strange sentence. A figure at the window. When boys at a quiet English school begin seeing things that shouldn't be there—and writing things they don't understand—a mystery begins to unfold, darker than any textbook could explain. In A School Story, M. R. James blends scholarly detail with creeping dread to deliver a haunting tale of the past refusing to stay buried. Quiet horror with a bite.