There has been much written about Montague Rhodes James that needs no repetition here. To those who know anything of the literature of the supernatural his name and work stands on the highest tier in the Pantheon of the greatest writers of the genre. James brought his horrors to his readers genteelly wrapped in the fine prose of an academic often describing the apparently logical lives and worlds of fictional nondescript academics and antiquarians. Brilliantly, his menaces creep into the safe lives of unsuspecting, undynamic personalities-into the very fabric of the ordinary in notably commonplace scenarios. In this lies the James genius, for he understood well that it is the subtle menace of approaching horror that builds the most terror and that what we all fear most, born out of our primeval fear of darkness, is the unknown and the unfathomable. James' ghosts rarely come shrieking out of a closet. They hint at their presence, they unsettle and then they approach with dreadful inexorability. Among those who know the genre of supernatural fiction well many regard M. R. James as its finest exponent. For those who are yet to experience his delicious chills this volume will be a revelation and an abiding pleasure.
This special Leonaur edition of all the M. R. James supernatural and weird fiction completed and published in his lifetime contains the enduringly popular 'Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book, ' 'Lost Hearts' and 'The Ash-Tree' as well as less familiar gems such as 'The Tractate Middoth' and 'Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance.' In all, a feast of thirty-four small masterpieces including James' strange novella for younger readers 'The Five Jars.' Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket-ideal for collectors or as a special gift to be forever treasured.