Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance
| "Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by M.R. James | |
 "Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance" was published in More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1911 | |
 Text available at Wikisource | |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| Publication | |
| Published in | More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary |
| Publisher | Edward Arnold |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Publication date | 1911 |
"Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance" is a ghost story by English writer M. R. James, included in his 1911 collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.
Plot summary
[edit]Mr. Humphreys has recently inherited an estate in Wilsthorpe, Eastern England. There he learns about the mysterious death of his uncle, the previous owner, and the history of the strange maze and temple situated beside his new home.[1]
Publication
[edit]"Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance" was first published in More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1911. In 1931, it was collected in James' book The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James. It has since been anthologised many times.
Reception
[edit]Jane Mainley-Piddock writes "Gothic modernist tropes are plentiful in James's later work, for example in the inheritance of madness through a defective bloodline in 'Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance', in which the nephew of a solitary academic inherits a decaying mansion, with a maze at its centre" and "The protagonist of the tale inherits a maze from his great uncle, which figuratively binds him to the expectations of his decaying bloodline. This inversion of the sunny pastoral, infected by the strain of madness passed down by inheritance, is another mark of gothic modernism."[2]
Adaptations
[edit]The story was adapted for television as part of the ITV Schools educational strand in 1976.[3] This production is available on DVD as an extra on the Network DVD of the 1979 ITV Playhouse production of Casting the Runes.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ James, M. R. (1993). Collected Ghost Stories. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. pp. 176–197. ISBN 1853260533.
- ^ Mainley-Piddock, Jane (January 2017). "PhD Thesis – A Jungian and Historical Reading of M R James's Ghost Stories" (PDF). Aberystwyth University. pp. 213, 222. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2024. Retrieved 8 May 2025.
- ^ "Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance". 21 June 1976. Archived from the original on 12 February 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2015 – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ "Network ON AIR > Casting the Runes (M.R. James)". Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
External links
[edit]
The full text of Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance at Wikisource- An omnibus collection of James's short fiction at Standard Ebooks
- Full text of "Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance"
- "Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- A Podcast to the Curious: Episode 15 – Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance
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