The Book of Ghost Stories [Paperback]

M. R. James (Author), Peter Haining (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Stein & Day Paperback (August 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812880560
• ISBN-13: 978-0812880564
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #830,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely for M. R, James Fans, February 5, 2002

By 

Ann E. Nichols (Sierra Vista, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Book of Ghost Stories (Hardcover)

This book is more a companion book to the ghost stories. Some of writing you can also get in A PLEASING TERROR, the Ash Tree Press hefty book collecting M. R. James fiction and non-fection writings on the supernatural, but that doesn't have the illustrations you'll find here. There are reproductions of woodcuts and engravings of older supernatural works, illustrations of M.R. James and his works (including some of the illustrations for THE FIVE JARS), and photographs.

Personally, I enjoyed the way Dr. James verbally ripped apart the claim that a certain painting of the Annunciation was the work of a secret Satanist (yes, a picture of the painting is included). There's even a tribute by Christopher Lee. I found this book added to my enjoyment of M. R. James' work. I hope it will do the same for you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tribute to M. R. James & 2 of his less-collected stories, August 6, 2003

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Book of Ghost Stories (Paperback)

This book should have been called something like a 'Tribute to M.R. James.' Of the two actual stories by M.R. James that are contained within this book, "A Vignette" might be a childhood memory rather than a work of fiction. It has no plot and the setting very much resembles the rectory at Livermere Park where James grew up. The second, very brief story, "The Experiment" was first published "The Morning Post" in 1931 and was uncollected in James's lifetime.

The remainder of this beguilingly eccentric book is made up of tributes to M.R. James by the actor Christopher Lee among others, medieval ghost stories that were collected by M.R. James, his essays on ghost stories and Sheridan Le Fanu, his recollection of a dream about a ghost, and ghost stories that he himself liked, e.g. "The White and the Black" by Erckmann-Chatrian.

A host of black-and-white photographs and engravings pertaining (sometimes, very loosely) to M. R. James adorn this small book (my copy is a hard-bound paperback, if that is not a contradiction in terms). Many of them are reproductions of the original illustrations for his short stories but are alas, a bit too small and blurred to make out much detail. There are also photographs from various cinematic adaptations of James's stories, photographs of Victorian ghosts that were probably familiar to the Master, reproductions of pamphlets that he may have read, etc., etc.

In short, those of you who have already read the collected works of M.R. James might be charmed by this little tribute. If you have not yet read his stories, I recommend starting with an anthology such as "Ghost Stories of an Antiquarian" rather than this book.

For the true Jamesian fanatic, nothing but the Ash-Tree Press's "A Pleasing Terror" (2001), the complete and heavily annotated supernatural writings of M. R. James will suffice.