"Canon Alberic's Scrap-book" | |
---|---|
Short story by M.R. James | |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Horror short story |
Publication | |
Publication date | 1895 |
"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" is a horror story by British writer M. R. James, which was written in 1892 or 1893 and first published in 1895 in the National Review . [1] It is his earliest known horror story, and the first (along with "Lost Hearts") to be read aloud to the "Chitchat Society" at Cambridge, where many of his stories made their public debut. [1] It was subsequently included in his first short story collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), though the malevolent entity is a demon rather than a ghost.
Some have considered James' later story "An Episode of Cathedral History" (first published in The Cambridge Review in 1914 and later included in the 1919 collection A Thin Ghost and Others ) to be a sequel or companion piece, as it features a similar creature, obliquely suggested to be the mate of the one encountered in "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book". [2]
The story has a detailed and realistic setting in the tiny decaying cathedral city of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, at the foot of the Pyrenees in southern France. An English tourist spends a day photographing the interior of the eponymous cathedral and is encouraged by the sacristan to buy an unusual manuscript. This, he concludes, had been created long ago by Canon Albéric de Mauléon (an invented character, said to be a collateral descendant of the real 16th-century bishop Jean de Mauléon), who had cut up volumes in the old cathedral library. A disturbing illustration of King Solomon and a demon in the back of the book is a key to the story's suspenseful arc.
The story has inspired a musical composition by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, St. Bertrand de Comminges: "He was laughing in the tower", first performed in 1985 by Yonty Solomon. [3]
In 2020, the story was adapted into a full-cast audio drama for the second season of Shadows at the Door: The Podcast.
Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of his time, central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Three of his best-known works are the locked-room mystery Uncle Silas, the vampire novella Carmilla, and the historical novel The House by the Churchyard.
Montague Rhodes James was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1913–1915). James's scholarly work is still highly regarded, but he is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are considered by many critics and authors as the finest in the English language and widely influential on modern horror.
Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awards. Three of his novels have been adapted into films.
The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight, also known as the Arabic Kama Sutra, is a fifteenth-century Arabic sex manual and work of erotic literature by Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nefzawi, also known simply as "Nefzawi". It has been compared to the ancient Indian Kama Sutra.
Robert Malise Bowyer Nichols was an English writer, known as a war poet of the First World War, and a playwright.
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was an English composer, music critic, pianist and writer whose music, written over a period of seventy years, ranges from sets of miniatures to works lasting several hours. One of the most prolific 20th-century composers, he is best known for his piano pieces, notably nocturnes such as Gulistān and Villa Tasca, and large-scale, technically intricate compositions, which include seven symphonies for piano solo, four toccatas, Sequentia cyclica and 100 Transcendental Studies. He felt alienated from English society by reason of his homosexuality and mixed ancestry, and had a lifelong tendency to seclusion.
Alberic is a name closely related to Aubrey.
Saint-Papoul is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.
Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges is a commune (municipality) and former episcopal see in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. It is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France association.
Kevin John Bowyer is an English organist, known for his prolific recording and recital career and his performances of modern and extremely difficult compositions.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is a collection of ghost stories by British writer M. R. James, published in 1904. Some later editions under this title contain both the original collection and its successor, More Ghost Stories (1911), combined in one volume.
More Ghost Stories is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1911. Some later editions include the stories in this collection and the earlier Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), combined in a single volume. This is his second short story collection.
The former French Catholic diocese of Comminges existed at least from the sixth century, to the French Revolution. The seat of the bishops was at Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, now no more than a village, in the modern department of Haute-Garonne in south-west France. The territory of the old diocese now belongs to the archdiocese of Toulouse. The name of Comminges was incorporated into the titulature of the archbishop of Toulouse on 19 January 1935. He is now the archbishop of Toulouse-Saint Bertrand de Comminges-Rieux.
Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges Cathedral is a former Roman Catholic cathedral in Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, Haute-Garonne, southwestern France. It was the seat of the Ancient Diocese of Comminges.
The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James is an omnibus collection of ghost stories by English author M. R. James', published in 1931, bringing together all but four of his ghost stories.
A Thin Ghost and Others is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1919. It was his third short collection. "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance" and "An Episode of Cathedral History" had been previously published in The Cambridge Review in 1913 and 1914 respectively; the other stories were first published in this collection.
Edmund Gill Swain was an English cleric and author. As a chaplain of King's College, Cambridge, he was a colleague and contemporary of the scholar and author M. R. James, and a regular member of the select group to whom James delivered his famous annual Christmas Eve reading of a ghost story composed specially for the occasion. Swain collaborated with James on topical skits for amateur performance in Cambridge, but he is known best for the collection of ghost stories he published in 1912, entitled The Stoneground Ghost Tales. He also wrote a history of Peterborough Cathedral.
"Gulistān"—Nocturne for Piano, commonly known as Gulistan, is a piano piece by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji written in 1940. Its title refers to Golestan, a collection of poems and stories by 13th-century Persian poet and writer Sa'di. The piece lasts about 30 minutes in performance and is often considered one of Sorabji's greatest works.
"The Haunted Dolls' House" is a 1923 short story by M. R. James, collected by him in A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925). It was commissioned by Queen Mary, wife of George V, as a miniature book for her famous Dolls' House, which can still be seen in Windsor Castle. It is in many ways a typical James story, thematically linked to other works of his, especially "The Mezzotint". Though usually considered a story for adults, it has also been claimed as children's fiction.