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Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book
‘All this time a growing feeling of discomfort had been creeping over him—nervous reaction, perhaps, after the delight of his discovery. Whatever it was, it resulted in a conviction that there was someone behind him, and that he was far more comfortable with his back to the wall.’
Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book – M. R. James
The Story
Welcome to M. R. James month. Today it’s Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook, maybe not his scariest story but a fine example of the M. R. James ‘academic gets themselves into trouble on holiday’ sub-genre.
Verdict
*** 3 screaming nightmares out of 5.
Not frightening enough to give you nightmares, but spooky enough to double check that it really was a cat that just brushed against your ankle.
M. R. James bingo
A classic tale this one, lots of trouble, book abuse and ignoring the blindingly obvious. Pleasingly little golf.
- Ditching friends or offers of company on holiday
- Then getting into trouble on said holiday
- Book abuse
- Ignoring the blindingly obvious hints of others
GolfInterfering with an archaeological site- 19th century snobbery
The Story
(Some spoilers)
A Cambridge Academic on holiday — naturally, how else are they to get in trouble — abandons his friends to spend a wild day looking at a church in ’a decayed town on the spurs of the Pyrenees’. The local verger volunteers to show him around, possibly wondering who this odd man is.
The Englishman, who’s delightfully single minded when it comes to hanging out in large cold buildings, wonders why the verger looks rather jumpy ‘as if he were expecting every moment to find himself in the clutch of an enemy’. Is our Englishman worried — you know, as he’s alone in a foreign country in a big lonely building with this person? No, our lovely academic concludes the verger is a hen-pecked husband, because of the vast overwhelming body of no evidence at all.
Does he pay any attention to the creepy laughter high in the locked or the fact that the verger is terrified a? Nope, he concludes the verger is a monomaniac, based on that vast pile of no evidence at all.
Which makes the next bit a little odd, as the Englishman then agrees to toddle off to the verger’s house to view an old book. It turns out it’s a scrapbook that once belonged to the long dead Canon Alberic (name check), made of stolen cuttings from medieval manuscripts (Bingo – book abuse). At the back, they show the Englishman an old engraving of King Solomon facing a terrifying looking demonic creature. Not reading between the portentous lines, the Englishman purchases the book at a surprisingly low price. He even gets a free crucifix thrown in by the daughter of the house.
“The tone in which this and much more was said was unmistakably genuine, so that Dennistoun was reduced to profuse thanks, and submitted to have the chain put round his neck. It really seemed as if he had rendered the father and daughter some service which they hardly knew how to repay.”
Does he smell a giant demonic rat?
No, no, off he goes back to his hotel where he waits until dark to leaf through the scrapbook because he’s a nincompoop. As he examines the book, a feeling of disquiet comes over him. Not long after, he takes off the crucifix (sigh) and something very unpleasant comes to call.
No more spoilers, I don’t want the M.R James objects to come after me too.
History
This story was first published in 1894 in the National Review magazine. Years later in 1904, it was included in James’s anthology Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.
K.M. Cooke 