In the twentieth-century literature of the supernatural, the single most important book, in the opinion of most scholars and enthusiasts, is Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, by Montague Rhodes James. First printed in 1904, it is the landmark book that established the modern horror story. It has been reprinted more times than any other book in this field, and it contains several of the best ghost stories in the English language.
The antiquary here is M. R. James, Provost of Eton, one of the most formidable scholars that England has ever produced, who has drawn upon an unmatched knowledge of the hidden byways of the past to form a series of inimitable stories. Among them are such favorites as Number Thirteen, Canon Alberic's Scrap-book, and Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad. Common to all of them is the breath of the evil that dieth not but lieth in wait.
This edition reprints for the first time in recent years the four original illustrations that James McBride prepared while James was working on this, his first collection.