Lost Hearts
| "Lost Hearts" | |
|---|---|
|
| |
| Author | M.R. James |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror short story |
"Lost Hearts" is a ghost story by M. R. James, found in his 1904 book Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.
Synopsis
The tale tells the story of Stephen Elliott, a young orphan boy, who is sent to stay with his much older cousin, Mr Abney, at a remote country mansion. His cousin is a reclusive alchemist obsessed with making himself immortal. Stephen is repeatedly troubled by visions of a young gypsy girl and a traveling Italian boy with their hearts missing.
Adaptations
| "Lost Hearts" | |
|---|---|
| A Ghost Story for Christmas episode | |
|
Title screen, depicting the fog in which the carriage carrying young Stephen arrives | |
| Episode no. |
Season 1 Episode 3 |
| Directed by | Lawrence Gordon Clark |
| Written by |
M. R. James (story) Robin Chapman (adaptation) |
| Original air date | 25 December 1973 |
| Episode chronology | |
The story was first adapted for television by ABC and broadcast by ITV on March 5, 1966 as an episode of the Mystery and Imagination series. However, no archive recordings of this episode are known to exist.
Lost Hearts was adapted by Robin Chapman in 1973 as part of the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas strand, directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. The shortest of the adaptations, it was first broadcast on Christmas Day 1973 at 11:35 pm.[1] It starred Simon Gipps-Kent as Stephen and Joseph O'Conor as the cousin. The adaptation is noted for the distinctive hurdy-gurdy music that accompanies appearances of the two ghostly children. Ralph Vaughan Williams's English Folk Song Suite is also featured.
References
- ↑ "Lost Hearts". British Film Institute Database. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
External links
The full text of Lost Hearts at Wikisource
Lost Hearts public domain audiobook at LibriVox- Lost Hearts at the Internet Movie Database
- Ghost Stories at the BFI's Screenonline