The Haunted Library: Tales of Cursed Books and Forbidden Shelves

by Tanya Kirk (Editor)

A manuscript on loan delivers doom to its seeker. An uncanny tome enthrals its reader to a course of evil. Welcome to the Haunted Library, a collection of cursed tales steeped in the arcane secrets and dark psychic traces to be found in the stacks and shelves of libraries, museums and other treasure troves of hidden knowledge. First published by the British Library in 2016, this expanded edition features several new stories and an updated introduction by Tanya Kirk, now ensconced in the realm of Jamesian terrors as librarian at St John’s College, Cambridge.

Contents:
The Devil's Manuscript (1895) by S. Levett-Yeats
The Tractate Middoth (1911) by M.R. James
The Whisperers (1912) by Algernon Blackwood
Fingers of a Hand (1920) by H.D. Everett
Mr. Tallent's Ghost (1926) by Mary Webb
The Book (1930) by Margaret Irwin
The Library (1933) by Hester Holland
Midnight Express (1935) by Alfred Noyes
Herodes Redivivus (1949) by A.N.L. Munby
W.S. (1952) by L.P. Hartley
What Shadows we Pursue (1953) by Russell Kirk
The Work of Evil (1963) by William Croft Dickinson
Revenant as Typewriter (1978) by Penelope Lively
The Advent Visitor (2020) by C.J. Faraday

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Classics, Ghosts, Anthologies, Ghost Stories, Fiction

251 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2025

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
A Tales of the Weird collection about libraries and books, selected by Tanya Kirk who is a librarian at St John’s College in Cambridge. There are stories by S Levett Yeats, M R James, Algernon Blackwood, H D Everett, Mary Webb, Margaret Irwin, Hester Holland, Alfred Noyes, L P Hartley, A N L Munby, Russell Kirk, William Croft Dickinson, Penelope Lively and C J Faraday. The introduction is good and the whole collection is one of the better ones in this series. The stories vary in date from 1895 to 2020. This is an updated version of a 2016 collection curated by the same author.
There is one of M R James’s more well-known stories and a quote in the introduction by actor Christopher Lee illustrates their power:
“He writes his stories so that we might feel just as if we were reading a newspaper, and his characters seemed at first impression to be the kind you could meet on any street. Then by dint of one phrase or sentence a very different picture would emerge from such an apparently normal situation. To me, that is the very essence of terror.”
There are a couple more stories in the Jamesian tradition and a particularly good one by C J Faraday, written in 2020. She is also a fellow of St John’s College. The Mary Webb story is a rather light-hearted pastiche and is also very effective. There is also humour in Penelope Lively’s contribution when a very snobbish woman buys what turns out to be a haunted typewriter and starts to take on traits of the previous owner who was very loud and gauche. Hartley’s story concerns a writer who starts to realise on of his nastier creations may be alive. The structure of this story is unusual and works well. There are a couple of stories about evil books and evil booksellers. I’ll end this with a quote from M R James on writing ghost stories:
“On the whole (though not a few instances might be quoted against me) I think that a setting so modern that the ordinary reader can judge of its naturalness for himself is preferable to anything antique. For some degree of actuality is the charm of the best ghost stories: not a very insistent actuality, but one strong enough to allow the reader to identify himself with the patient: while it is almost inevitable that the reader of an antique story should fall into the position of the mere spectator.”

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. The Devil's Manuscript (1895)• S. Levett-Yeats ⭐⭐⭐
2.The Tractate Middoth (1911) •M. R. James
3.The Whisperers (1912)•Algernon Blackwood ⭐⭐⭐
4.Fingers of a Hand (1920)•H. D. Everett ⭐⭐⭐
5.Mr. Tallent's Ghost (1926)•Mary Webb⭐⭐
6.The Book (1930)•Margaret Irwin ⭐⭐⭐
7.The Library (1933)• Hester Holland ⭐⭐⭐
8.Midnight Express (1935)•Alfred Noyes ⭐⭐
9.Herodes Redivivus (1949)•A. N. L. Munby ⭐⭐⭐⭐
10.W.S. (1952)•L.P. Hartley ⭐⭐
11.What Shadows we Pursue (1953)•Russell Kirk ⭐⭐⭐
12.The Work of Evil (1963)•William Croft Dickinson ⭐⭐⭐
13.Revenant as Typewriter (1978)• Penelope Lively ⭐⭐⭐
14.The Advent Visitor (2020)•C.J. Faraday ⭐⭐⭐

[p. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5☆

Those were well selected and managed to hold my attention well enough throughout. Quite a few were perfect to read at Christmas-time. I guess it just did not wow me as much as I had hoped.

Favourite stories: "The Tractate Middoth" by M. R. James, "Fingers of a Hand" by H. D. Everett, "Mr Tallent's Ghost" by Mary Webb, "Herores Redivivus" by A. N. L. Munby, "The Advent Visitor" by C. J. Faraday

[Bethnoir · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag, but some good ones.

[Alex Sarll]

Another collection where I wonder how it took them so long to hit such an obvious theme when, and I'm sorry I always come back to this example, they did the spooky tattoo anthology years ago. Well, turns out The Haunted Library had already been done before the Tales Of The Weird imprint was even established, but now returns, like the revenant in one of its own stories, strangely changed (a couple of stories since used in other collections have been swapped out, is what I mean, but that sounds much less cool). I had my own eerie library experience on the day I borrowed it: looking down the table of contents, I saw a story from exactly 100 years ago called Mr Tallent's Ghost, while en route to see a ghost-themed band who have a song called Mr Talent! Although as it turned out, that particular tale was more comic than chilling, concerning the unquiet spirit of a writer determined that his work should see posthumous publication despite being spectacularly awful. It's let down by an implausible cop-out ending, but otherwise very entertaining.

One other story also flirts with comedy, Penelope Lively's Revenant As Typewriter, which ingeniously flips the usual dynamic and has a stuffy female academic haunted or maybe more possessed by the previous inhabitant of her house, and finding herself becoming brassy and – the horror – common! It's so expertly attuned to the 1970s British class system that I'd love to know whether it makes more than the broadest kind of sense to a foreign reader, or even a younger Brit, but to those of us who remember the edges of that world, if only from TV repeats, it's surprisingly powerful, such that I can even forgive it slightly stretching the theme. That's the penultimate entry; the last is by CJ Faraday, born in the nineties, which always slightly unsettles me in these collections, and not in the way I'm after. But she doesn't write like a young whippersnapper, leaning into the Jamesian classics with a quiet college over Christmas, making me miss Cambridge, and snow. Monty himself is here too, and of course I've read The Tractate Middoth before (in fact, I think it was the first of his I did). But you couldn't do the topic without him, really, and it's still great. Algernon Blackwood and LP Hartley are the only other big names represented, the latter providing one of the few duds; an author being haunted by his characters is already a bit hack, but this one is so painfully slow to twig that, or anything else! Otherwise, it's largely forgotten names (ANL Munby, Hester Holland, Russell Kirk...) but quality chills, often wrestling with the inevitable corollary of loving books: if we accept and praise their power and draw, doesn't that mean we must also admit that just as the right book can open up a life, so can the wrong one do terrible, even terminal things to the unlucky reader? Margaret Irwin's The Book is particularly good on this, a respectable householder in a reading slump suddenly finding all the classics and current hits on his shelf aren't hitting the spot (for reasons convincingly laid out, even when unfair)...but one mysterious volume is all too compelling.

[Leila Anani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent anthology in the BL Tales of the weird series, this one centred around cursed & forbidden books. While the stories are a bit similar due to the niche subject, there are some really good ones here and shows that there's more academics horror than the stories of M.R. James (represented here with The Tracate Middoth).

The stand-outs for me are:

Penelope Lively's Revenant as Typewriter - where a snobbish academic gets haunted by a lowbrow ghost.

Hester Holland's The Library - I love the living building trope and found this one quite chilling - great for fans of things like Burnt Offerings.

Russell Kirk's 'What Shadows we pursue' - I got shades of the Collyer brothers story here as our book dealer navigates the hoards of books.

Also worth a mention: L.P Hartley's W.S - a fun tale where an author's character comes to life and Mary Webb's Mr. Tallent's Ghost - for its totally unexpected twist ending.

It's not my favourite of these anthologies, but there aren't any bad stories in this one. Thumbs up.

[Annabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, I thoroughly enjoyed this Tales of the Weird collection and it was definitely in part due to the breadth of stories chosen for the anthology. The Haunted Library was a brilliant choice of topic and really interesting since I never realised that 'horror/supernatural etc.' tales could be based so heavily around academia and books. The concept allowed for some very unsettling tales within this collection and one of my favourites was 'Mr Tallent's Hand' by Margaret Irwin. Furthermore, as well as a variety of interpretations of the concept of cursed books it was lovely to have a nice time range of short stories spanning from 1890s up to one from 2020.

100% recommend this book to anyone- especially to avid readers and bookworms- along with any other Tales of the Weird book since there's such a mix of topics.

[Michael John Paul McManus · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, classic stories from the British Library of the Weird shelves. The Haunted Library: Tales of Cursed Books and Forbidden Shelves was full of short stories that i had not read before, so it was a nice surprise. Edited by Tanya Kirk, each story made you think and gave you a number of chills along the way. Excellent. 10/10.

[Lee Bridges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable collection of short stories complete with enough commentary and context to lead you off down plenty of other rabbit holes. I particularly enjoyed The Devil's Manuscript, The Library and What Shadows We Pursue.

[Ben Crozier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent selection. I particularly enjoyed Herodes Redivivus, the Library by Hester Holland and the Book by Margaret Irwin all really unsettling. Dock one point for a pastiche of a ghost story by Mary Webb called Tallent's Ghost.

[ThymeOperator · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories in this collection were rather unoriginal and uninteresting, even in the time when they were written. But some were fantastic. Thoughts on each individual story are in my progress updates below.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cracking stuff, though I'm a little biased. These collections are always hit and miss, but there is a higher hit ratio in this one. Good and musty.