Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book

"Canon Alberic's Scrap-book"
Illustration by James McBryde
Author	M.R. James
Country	England
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror short story

"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" is the first story in the first collection of ghost stories published by M. R. James, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. The volume appeared in 1904, but "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" was written in 1894 and published soon afterwards in the National Review.

Synopsis

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 in the back of the book is a key to the story's suspenseful arc.

Adaptations

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.^[1]

References

↑ "Un troisième disque Sorabji par Michael Habermann" (PDF).

External links

The full text of Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book at Wikisource
Media related to Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book at Wikimedia Commons
Full text of "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book"
Helen Grant, "'He was laughing in the church': A Visit to St Bertrand de Comminges" in Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter no. 7 (2005).
Works by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

Works by M. R. James

Short stories	"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" "Lost Hearts" "The Mezzotint" "The Ash-tree" " Number 13" "Count Magnus" "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" "A School Story" " The Rose Garden" "The Tractate Middoth" "Casting the Runes" "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" "Martin's Close" "Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" "A View from a Hill" "A Warning to the Curious"

Collections	Ghost Stories of an Antiquary More Ghost Stories A Thin Ghost and Others A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James

Adaptations	Night of the Demon A Ghost Story for Christmas

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