{"product_id":"2026100007793-secondhand-montague-rhodes-james","title":"Montague Rhodes James","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCondition: Very Good. Jacket: Very good, no tears. Page Condition: Good. Markings: Name penned on fep. Binding condition: slightly shaky, no loose pages. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFew figures in the world of English letters occupy as singular a place as M.R. James — medieval scholar, Cambridge don, and the undisputed master of the ghost story — whose life is brought into full and fascinating relief in Richard William Pfaff's authoritative biography. Pfaff chronicles the remarkable dual career of a man who produced landmark scholarship on illuminated manuscripts and biblical apocrypha while simultaneously terrifying generations of readers with his coolly understated tales of supernatural dread. The biography situates James firmly within the rich intellectual culture of late Victorian and Edwardian England, detailing his decades at King's College, Cambridge, and later as Provost of Eton, where his extraordinary gifts as a scholar and raconteur flourished in equal measure.\n\nPfaff brings meticulous archival research to bear on his subject, presenting a portrait that is both scrupulously scholarly and deeply human, illuminating the connections between James's antiquarian passions and the eerie, object-haunted worlds of his fiction. This is essential reading not only for devotees of classic supernatural fiction but for anyone captivated by the intersection of academic life and creative imagination in the British tradition — leaving the reader to wonder just how much of the darkness in those celebrated tales was drawn from the shadows of the library stacks.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130618847451,"sku":"2026100007793-SECONDHAND","price":125.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/06f7259d-e023-4c2e-926b-a2a2a04471ab.png?v=1786587587","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100007793-secondhand-montague-rhodes-james","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}