The Mezzotint

The Mezzotint
The Mezzotint
by M.R. James
	Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Country	England
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror
Publication date	1904

"The Mezzotint" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his first collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904).

Plot summary[]

Mr. Williams, the curator of a university art museum (implied to be Oxford) receives a mezzotint from an art dealer. The very disturbing engraving changes each time Mr. Williams and the colleagues he enlists look at it. In the end, it is suggested that the nighttime engraving depicts a vengeful poacher named Gawdy, returning from the grave to kidnap and murder the infant heir of a Mr. Arthur Francis. Gawdy had been hanged for shooting a gamekeeper while poaching on Francis' land.^[1]

Television adaptation[]

"The Mezzotint" has been adapted for television, written and directed by Mark Gatiss, as part of the A Ghost Story for Christmas series. The drama was made by Can Do Productions and Adorable Media for BBC Television and was broadcast on Christmas Eve 2021. Filming was completed in February 2021.^[2]

As with most adaptations in the series, additional material was created which diverged from the story. A subplot was added tying Mr. Williams’s family to the events depicted in the mezzotint, leading to the appearance of a gory apparition. Changes were also made to conform to contemporary expectations, including the addition of female characters and a subplot involving a debate over whether or not the college should grant degrees to women, and the character of Nesbit being of South Asian descent.

References[]

^ James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. pp. 20–29. ISBN 1853260533.
^ "The Mezzotint, a ghost story for Christmas from M. R. James and Mark Gatiss, is announced". BBC Media Centre. 22 February 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.

External links[]

The full text of The Mezzotint at Wikisource
An omnibus collectino of James's short fiction at Standard Ebooks
Full text of "The Mezzotint"
A Podcast to the Curious: Episode 3 - The Mezzotint

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[1] James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. pp. 20–29. ISBN 1853260533.

[2] "The Mezzotint, a ghost story for Christmas from M. R. James and Mark Gatiss, is announced". BBC Media Centre. 22 February 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.

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v t Works by M. R. James
Short stories	"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" "Lost Hearts" "The Mezzotint" "The Ash-tree" "Number 13" "Count Magnus" "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" "A School Story" "The Rose Garden" "The Tractate Middoth" "Casting the Runes" "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" "Martin's Close" "Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" "A Warning to the Curious"
Collections	Ghost Stories of an Antiquary More Ghost Stories A Thin Ghost and Others A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James
Adaptations	Night of the Demon A Ghost Story for Christmas