| "Canon Alberic's Scrap-book" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by M.R. James | |
 Illustration by James McBryde | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror short story |
| Publication | |
| Publication date | 1895 |
"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" is a horror story by British writer M. R. James, which was written in 1892 or 1893 and first published in 1895 in the National Review.[1] It is his earliest known horror story, and the first (along with "Lost Hearts") to be read aloud to the "Chitchat Society" at Cambridge, where many of his stories made their public debut.[1] It was subsequently included in his first short story collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), though the malevolent entity is a demon rather than a ghost.
Some have considered James' later story "An Episode of Cathedral History" (first published in The Cambridge Review in 1914 and later included in the 1919 collection A Thin Ghost and Others) to be a sequel or companion piece, as it features a similar creature, obliquely suggested to be the mate of the one encountered in "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book".[2]
- ^ a b Jones, Darryl (2011). "Explanatory Notes". Collected Ghost Stories by M. R. James. Oxford: Oxford University Press. P. 421. ISBN 978-019-956884-0
- ^ Jones, Darryl (2011). "Explanatory Notes". Collected Ghost Stories by M. R. James. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 452."'Cathedral History's' demon is female (as opposed to its male counterpart in 'Canon Alberic')."ISBN 978-019-956884-0