THE STONEGROUND GHOST TALES COMPILED FROM THE RECOLLECTIONS OF THE REVEREND ROLAND BATCHEL, VICAR OF THE PARISH. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd., 1912. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-187 [188: printer's imprint], original pictorial blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. A collection of nine ghost stories dedicated to Swain's longtime friend M. R. James. "... Swain's tales share many features with those of James' and draw on the friends' common interests and antiquarian studies. They are however rather milder in tone and regularly incorporate a playful humour not often found in James' work. The tales relate the adventures of a fictionalized version of the author, Mr Batchel, Rector of Stoneground parish. Although by today's standards, readers may find Swain's stories rather lacking in supernatural horrors, their subtle qualities become apparent on re-reading, and many find Mr Batchel one of the most enduring creations of English ghost fiction." - Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 468. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, p. 170. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-193. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1571. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 209. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 419. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 3-238. Bleiler (1978), p. 190. Reginald 13908. Just a touch of uniform tanning to endpapers and text block, else a fine copy in very good pictorial dust jacket (reproducing the binding design on blue gray paper stock) with 18 x 15 mm chip from bottom edge of spine panel and some tanning to same. A lovely copy of a book seldom found in the jacket. In a two-part cloth clamshell box. (#115041).
Price: $1,750.00
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