The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral

"The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral"
Short story by M.R. James
Country	England
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror
Publication
Publication date	1910

"The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, originally published in 1910. It is included in his collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.

Plot summary

Archdeacon Pultney of Barchester Cathedral dies mysteriously and the new Archdeacon Haynes takes his place. Haynes is very talented and performs the duties of his office with great zeal, however he is haunted by the carved figures in the stalls of Barchester Cathedral.[1]

Adaptations

The story was adapted in 1971 for BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas as The Stalls of Barchester.[2]

A dramatized narration of the story with Sir Christopher Lee as James was produced by BBC Scotland in 2000 as part of the series Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories For Christmas, adapted by Ronald Frame.[3]

References

1. James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. pp. 146–159. ISBN 1853260533.
2. "The Stalls of Barchester". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 August 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
3. "Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories for Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester". BBC. Retrieved 26 December 2024.

External links

• The full text of The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral at Wikisource
• An omnibus collection of James's short fiction at Standard Ebooks
• Full text of "The Stall of Barchester Cathedral"
• The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• A Podcast to the Curious: Episode 13 - The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral