Casting the Runes cover art

Casting the Runes

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Casting the Runes

By: M. R. James
Narrated by: David Suchet
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £0.99

Buy Now for £0.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

The tale of a man who unwittingly angers a sorcerer, who is assumed by some Monty scholars to be based on the self-styled 'Great Beast,' occultist Aleister Crowley.

Montague Rhodes James was a noted British mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918) and of Eton College (1918–1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature.

One of James's most important achievements was to redefine the ghost story for the new century by dispensing with many of the formal Gothic trappings of his predecessors, and replacing them with more realistic contemporary settings.

'Montague Rhodes James has an intelligent and scientific knowledge of human nerves and feelings; and knows just how to apportion statement, imagery, and subtle suggestions in order to secure the best results with his readers.' HP Lovecraft.

Actor David Suchet is best known for his definitive portrayal of Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective created by the legendary mystery author Agatha Christie, in a number of international television productions. He narrates his story in Poirot and Me.

©1904 M. R. James (P)2013 Audible Ltd Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Horror Scary Fantasy Paranormal Haunted Ghost

Listeners also enjoyed...

 M. R. James: 'A Warning to the Curious' and 'Casting the Runes' cover art
M.R. James: The Complete Ghost Stories Collection cover art
The Ash Tree cover art
The Tractate Middoth cover art
More Ghost Stories cover art
Ghost Stories, Volume One cover art
The M. R. James BBC Radio Collection cover art
The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes cover art
Sherlock Holmes and the Seven Deadly Sins Murders cover art
The Tale of Halcyon Crane cover art
Sherlock Holmes: His Last Bow cover art
Green Tea cover art
Classic Starts® cover art
The Girl from the Well cover art
Dracula [Audible Edition] cover art
A Neighbour's Landmark cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I love David Suchet, but for this one I am really wanting a bit more of the sinister undertones. This is after all story of the supernatural, and I was expecting to feel a little but of bit of a thrill. Suchet delivers with class and poise but it's far too relaxed for the spooky matter at hand.
Coded allusion to The Great Beast drew me to this tale, but alas I found the narrative cinstructiion a bit '3rd person' and bitty . Compared to MRJ's other classic works (which I love) I just wasn't feeling this. Perhaps I'll go and seek out a BBC version (must be one out there) for better results.

too silky

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
David sachet is one best storytelling people around to date . Well done sir. x

Great storytelling. very well read. thank you sir

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
.....as are all of Mr Suchets readings of M.R. James. such a pity there aren't more.

Stunning performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
m r james at his best read superbly by David suchet. having read all of m r james ghost stories it is a real pleasure to listen to this rendition

classic ghost story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
David Suchet breathed as much life into this story as possible. Unfortunately, the story is rather slow and lacks tension or atmosphere. That’s a shame, because I liked the general idea, it was just let down in the telling.

Wonderful narration of an average story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
M.R. James' ghost stories are wonderfully atmospheric and creepy and David Suchet's narration brings them wonderfully (horribly!) to life. The characters are well defined with different voices / tones and when put together with D.S.'s lovely voice made the whole listening experience great. I will be listening to this again but I will also be hunting out more books/ stories narrated by David Suchet as his voice is lovely and his narration very skilful and engaging; even without seeing his expression, the feelings of the characters came through brilliantly. Loved it.

Excellent narration of a ghostly tale

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brilliant story , one of my favourite MRJ tales and beautifully read by the narrator

Excellent performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
First rate performance of a great ghost story.

I didn't think anyone could better Michael Hordern's readings of the ghost stories of M.R. James, but David Suchet has certainly done that with his readings for Audible. Brilliant stuff.

David Suchet is an exceptional reader

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great story, great narration, but personally I prefer Derek Jacobi. Also the music needs to be more eerie.

Derek Jacobi is more scary!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
clearly read with a good rendition of the various character voices, the build up to the story climax has a sinister undertone giving the fate the
leading character is trying to avoid.

Very entertaining version

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews