Customer Reviews

Ghost stories of M. R. James

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I think a good ghost story is very hard to write. M.R. James makes it look easy. There are others that lay claim to the title of the Father of ghost stories, J. Sheridan LeFanu and L.P. Hartley to name but two. It is James, however, that will forever hold that title.

His are generally stories that evoke life in the 20 years either side of 1900 romantically. They tend to be stories around Cathedrals or in Scholars houses or in and around Schools where the schoolboy is sometimes included.

The reason why these stories are so good is that James judges and recreates exactly the correct amount of romance in each story that parallels the romantic notion of the ghost in every person's mind.

If I had a complaint, it would be that M.R. James' obvious intelligence (He was a professor at Cambridge University for many years) is a little too much for some. It could just be that the language of the times are different and today some words are no longer in everyday use or the style of speech has changed.

These are very minor concerns, however. The upshot is that M.R. James is and always will be the Master and this complete collection of his works is the perfect collection of ghost stories, never to be improved upon.

This is a quite nice hardcover with 15 of M.R.James' supernatural tales; they are most often referred to as "ghost stories", but some of them have creepy elements other than ghosts, as well. If you enjoy older, civilized literature (but by no means "archaic") you will enjoy these tales...I was first steered toward M.R.James by a peculiar fellow named H.P.Lovecraft in his essential "Supernatural Horror In Literature" essay, so that gives one an idea of James' flavour. Quite dry (but not to the point of lifelessness, there is often wry wit or even sentimentality on display) story-telling, with much emphasis on architecture and setting (much like the Master HPL himself). Quite a few out-dated turns of phrase are employed, but nothing completely baffling for the modern reader (in fact, some stories use Latin phrases that are usually actually TRANSLATED for the reader, which is very handy in comparison to those authors who simply assumed we all know Latin). I would say that James is more concise than Lovecraft (but isn't as able to really creep the reader out with such effectiveness), and especially more than Poe. The stories are mostly quite interesting, straying from predictible ghostly formulae, and do produce plenty of shudders and looking-over-of-shoulders. They range from 6 to 18 pages long, with the bulk of these being 10 pages. The stories are selected by Michael Cox (who also provides a rather scholarly THIRTY PAGE intro, complete with some nifty photos). The book features, throughout, nice ethereal sketches and drawings by Rosalind Caldecott. These illustrations are wispy and spectral for the most part, but only a very few actually portray anything supernatural or creepy...mostly buildings and landscapes. They suit the stories well, especially James' penchant for describing settings. But, perhaps here is THE most helpful part of this review, a list of the stories:
1)Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book
2)Lost Hearts
3)The Mezzotint
4)The Ash-Tree
5)Number 13
6)"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad"
7)The Tractate Middoth
8)The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral
9)Martin's Close
10)Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance
11)The Residence at Whitminster
12)A Neighbour's Landmark
13)A View From a Hill
14)A Warning to the Curious
15)A Vignette
There are a series of (I believe) 3 books, edited by noted and worthy scholar S.T.Joshi that are purported to include all of James' creepy stories (including "Casting the Runes" which was the basis for the excellent film "Night/Curse of the Demon", which is a good indicator of how James' stories are...if you liked that film, you'll like his stories; if you didn't like the film, you may still like the stories!) The collection reviewed here is a nice taster, and will give you an idea of whether or not to collect all his stories.

Set from around the 1880s to 1early 20th century, these ghost stories are more subtle in the horror and more polished in the scene set, and the detective work involved in solving the mystery.
Many of them were written to be told as Christmas Eve enterntainments read to gatherings of friends.
The horror usually comes at the end and precisely because of the scene set is what makes the stories memorable in their own way.
Set usually in a country or seaside town, or an abbey or old university or library, often in England, but sometimes in Scandinavia or France, the stories usually involve a rather dull, rather naive scholar-gentleman who picks up some item ( a book or painting etc) such as in Canon's Scrap Book, The Mezzotint and Number 13, which awakens angry and malevolent spirits.
Or else the narrator-protagonist tells of a story he has heard from a secondary source in a place where he is staying weather on work or vacation such as Lost Hearts or Martin's Close.
Sometimes the horror of the discovery of the supernatural being is enough to chill the reader, sometimes the spirits involved, as in the Ash-Tree or Lost Hearts result in the death of the victim of their revenge.
An interesting read which requires some concentration not to lose the plot, good reading for the lover of older supernatural fiction.
Always told in a scholarly and carefully descriptive way.