Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories

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By M. R. James & S. T. Joshi

Publisher Description

The only annotated edition of M. R. James’s writings currently available

Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories contains the entire first two volumes of James’s ghost stories, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. These volumes are both the culmination of the nineteenth-century ghost story tradition and the inspiration for much of the best twentieth-century work in this genre. Included in this collection are such landmark tales as “Count Magnus,” set in the wilds of Sweden; “Number 13,” a distinctive tale about a haunted hotel room; “Casting the Runes,” a richly complex tale of sorcery that served as the basis for the classic horror film Curse of the Demon; and “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,” one of the most frightening tales in literature. The appendix includes several rare texts, including “A Night in King’s College Chapel,” James’s first known ghost story.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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9 Reviews

3.5

Aaronrich

Created about 1 year ago

Willa

Created almost 3 years ago

“These were good creepy ghost stories, buti have to say I was disappointed in the endings for the most part. I think it was the way of the times when they were written, but most just trailed off and didn't really have a detailed resolution and were therefore a bit of a letdown. But they were well written and enjoyable, despite the fact that the only women even mentioned were cleaning ladies, wives, or sisters, and there weren't even many of those. Of course, the characters were mostly professors, and that wasn't allowed to women back then.”

Shannon

Created almost 3 years ago

“Average rating of all stories: 3.5”

Carl Bluesy

Created almost 4 years ago

jaydekitten

Created almost 6 years ago

About M. R. James

Montague Rhodes James (1862–1936) is one of the originators and most influential writers of supernatural fiction. Among his many honors was the Order of Merit, bestowed upon him by King George V in 1930.

S. T. Joshi is a freelance writer and editor. He has edited Penguin Classics editions of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (1999), and The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories (2001), as well as Algernon Blackwood’s Ancient Sorceries and Other Strange Stories (2002). Among his critical and biographical studies are The Weird Tale (1990), Lord Dunsany: Master of the Anglo-Irish Imagination (1995), H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (1996), and The Modern Weird Tale (2001). He has also edited works by Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Machen, and H. L. Mencken, and is compiling a three-volume Encyclopedia of Supernatural Literature. He lives with his wife in Seattle, Washington.