"The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" is a

ghost story A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature'' ...

by British writer

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, Medieval studies, medievalist scholar and provost (education), provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was List of ...

, originally published in 1910. It is included in his collection ''

More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary ''More Ghost Stories'' is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1911. Some later editions under the title ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' contain it and the earlier ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' in one ...

''.

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.

Adaptations

The story was adapted in 1971 for BBC's ''

A Ghost Story for Christmas ''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were directe ...

'' as ''

The Stalls of Barchester ''The Stalls of Barchester'' is the first of the BBC's ''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' strand, first broadcast on BBC 1 at 11.00pm on 24 December 1971. Based on the story " The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" from the 1911 collection ''More Ghost ...

''.

References

External links

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Full text of "The Stall of Barchester Cathedral"
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A Podcast to the Curious
Episode 13 - The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral Short stories by M. R. James 1910 short stories Short stories adapted into films Horror short stories Cathedrals in fiction {{1910s-horror-story-stub