"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" is a horror story by British writer

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambrid ...

, which was written in 1894 and published the following year in the ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

''. It was included in his first short story collection, '' Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' of 1904.

Plot summary

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 The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

in southern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. 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 of King Solomon and a demon 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 Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (born Leon Dudley Sorabji; 14 August 1892 – 15 October 1988) was an English composer, music critic, pianist and writer whose music, written over a period of seventy years, ranges from sets of miniatures to wor ...

, ''St. Bertrand de Comminges: "He was laughing in the tower"'', first performed in 1985 by Yonty Solomon. In 2020, the story was adapted into a full-cast audio drama for the second season of '' Shadows at the Door: The Podcast''.

References

External links

* * *
Full text of "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book"
* Helen Grant,

in ''Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter'' no. 7 (2005).
Works by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
1894 short stories Horror short stories Church buildings in fiction Demons in written fiction Short stories by M. R. James Works originally published in National Review (London) {{1890s-horror-story-stub