Hauntography

22
Dec 09

HAUNTOGRAPHY: The Treasure of Abbot Thomas

• FT + The Brown Wedge • //// • 6 comments • 3,869 views

You probably want to read The Treasure of Abbot Thomas before you read this.

In M R James’s universe everyone who matters is fluent in Latin. It’s not so for the modern reader – or at least this modern reader – and there’s an interesting gap left between the Latin that he so liberally scatters throughout his stories, and the translations we read.

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas begins with some big chunks of Latin, which our antiquarian protagonist – Mr Somerton – gets straight down to translating. What he ends up with isn’t immediately clear to him, either, but he follows up the clues within and is lured into a hunt for buried treasure, departing to parts foreign, and for now out of our sight.

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