"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" is the first story in the first collection of ghost stories

Ghost story

A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, or an account of an experience, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them. Colloquially, the term can refer to any kind of scary story. In a narrower sense, the ghost story has...

 published by M. R. James

M. R. James

Montague Rhodes James, OM, MA, , who used the publication name M. R. James, was an English mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge and of Eton College . He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre...

, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is the title of M. R. James' first collection of ghost stories, published in 1904...

. The volume appeared in 1904, but "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" was written in 1894 and published soon afterwards in the National Review

National Review (London)

The National Review was founded in 1883 by the English writers Alfred Austin and William Courthope.It was launched as a platform for the views of the British Conservative Party, its masthead incorporating a quotation of the former Conservative Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli:Under editor Leopold...

.

The story has a detailed and realistic setting in the tiny decaying cathedral city of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges

Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges

Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. It is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France association.-History:...

, at the foot of the Pyrenees

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...

 in southern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. An English tourist spends a day photographing the interior of the cathedral and is encouraged by the sacristan

Sacristan

A sacristan is an officer who is charged with the care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents.In ancient times many duties of the sacristan were performed by the doorkeepers , later by the treasurers and mansionarii...

 to buy an unusual manuscript volume. This, he concludes, had been created long ago, by cutting up volumes in the old cathedral library, by canon Albéric de Mauléon (an imaginary character, said to be a collateral descendant of the real 16th century bishop Jean de Mauléon).

The story has inspired a musical composition by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was an English composer, music critic, pianist, and writer.-Biography:...

, St Bertrand de Comminges: "He Was Laughing in the Tower", first performed in 1985 by Yonty Solomon

Yonty Solomon

Jonathan " "Sir" Yonty" Solomon was a South African pianist who was soloist throughout the world with many of the most important symphony orchestras....

.

External links

• Full text of "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book"
• Helen Grant, "'He was laughing in the church': A Visit to St Bertrand de Comminges" in Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter no. 7 (2005).
• Works by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji