From "The Tractate Middoth": "Indeed, Mr. Garrett, I insist; besides, my watch tells me I have but very little time left in which to get my things together and take the train. No -- not another word -- it would be more distressing to you than you imagine, perhaps. Now there is just one thing I want to say. I feel that I am really indirectly responsible for this illness of yours, and I think I ought to defray the expense which it has -- eh?" * Also includes "A School Story," "The Rose Garden," "The Tractate Middoth," "Casting the Runes," "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral," "Martin's Close," and "Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance."

Author Biography

Montague Rhodes James (1862 - 1936), who published under the name M. R. James, was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905-18) and of Eton College (1918-36). Though James's work as a medievalist is still highly regarded, he is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre. James redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the formal Gothic cliches of his predecessors and using more realistic contemporary settings. However, James's protagonists and plots tend to reflect his own antiquarian interests. Accordingly, he is known as the originator of the "antiquarian ghost story."