Voices of the Ghost III: Wicked Wraiths

M. R. James · Henry James

Jan 2008 · Freshwater Seas · Narrated by Robert Bethune and Susie Berneis

About this audiobook

Here are two terrifying and sobering stories of ghosts who will stop at nothing!
"The Romance of Certain Old Clothes"
Which did she really want: her sister's husband, or her sister's trousseau? Will her desires cost her her life? In this story by the American master Henry James, a woman loses her heart to a man, but then loses that man to her sister. When her sister dies, she finally marries him, and her sister's trousseau comes to her as well - along with a spirit of jealous envy, even of the dead, that leads her to a terrible confrontation. The mastery of human psychology that marked all of Henry James' work plays out in this mystery of the human heart, a mystery that even goes beyond the grave.
"Lost Hearts"
In this M. R. James story, three children learn that a classical scholar's love of the past has led him into a terrible and bloody delusion. His bloody fixation on hermetic lore, which seems to promise eternal life, leads two of them to their deaths, but not to the end of their existence. That does not come, if it comes at all, until the third child falls into the scholar's power.
Hearing Voices? Don't miss the rest of the Voices of the Ghost series!

About the author

M. R. James was born in Goodnestone, Kent, England on August 1, 1862. He was an English mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905-1918) and of Eton College (1918-1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. He began writing his ghost stories as an entertainment for his friends; he would read these stories each year at Christmas to his colleagues at King's College. The earliest of these tales include Canon Alberic's Scrap-book and Lost Hearts, both of which were later collected in his first anthology of supernatural fiction, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904). Perhaps his single greatest story is the profoundly disturbing Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad (1904). He died on June 12, 1936. Henry James, American novelist and literary critic, was born in 1843 in New York City. Psychologist-philosopher William James was his brother. By the age of 18, he had lived in France, England, Switzerland, Germany, and New England. In 1876, he moved to London, having decided to live abroad permanently. James was a prolific writer; his writings include 22 novels, 113 tales, 15 plays, approximately 10 books of criticism, and 7 travel books. His best-known works include Daisy Miller, The Turn of the Screw, The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, and The American Scene. His works of fiction are elegant and articulate looks at Victorian society; while primarily set in genteel society, James subtlely explores class issues, sexual repression, and psychological distress. Henry James died in 1916 in London. The James Memorial Stone in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, commemorates him.