Customer Reviews

Warning to the Curious and Other Stories By M.R. James Pb (Everyman Short Story Collection)

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I checked out the public library's copy of this repeatedly. The reference librarian first told me how good M.R. James was. I love the English-manor-house-genteel-misty-moor atmosphere. Makes me want to curl up in a huge wing chair by a dying fire with the water spaniel or the Persian cat asleep on the hearth rug, sipping a cup of steaming green tea- OOPS - no, that's Le Fanu, isn't it? No matter, these are wonderful stories that will stick with you. (I don't know about bad bindings or cheap paper or whatever the others are talking about. My paperback was easy to read.)

Like the works of other writers of popular short stories, the classic horror stories of M. R. James have been published in many overlapping collections. Similar titles often refer to very different collections and care must be taken if you are searching for specific tales.

The short story with the title - A Warning to the Curious - was first published in 1925. The following year M. R. James published this story, and seven more tales, under the same title, A Warning to the Curious. Furthermore, the book that I am reviewing - A Warning to the Curious and Other Stories (Phoenix Publishing, 1998) - includes not eight, but sixteen stories by M. R. James.

The sixteen stories include Canon Alberic's Scrap-book, Lost Hearts, The Mezzotint, The Ash-tree, Number 13, Count Magnus, The Treasure of Abbott Thomas, Casting the Runes, Mr. Humphrey and His Inheritance, The Residence at Whitminster, The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance, A Neighbor's Landmark, The Uncommon Prayer-Book, A View from a Hill, Wailing Wall, and, of course, A Warning to the Curious.

All these stories are quite good and many are capable of fostering disturbing dreams. The "evil that dieth not, but lieth in wait" is a common theme. Most readers quickly conclude that this evil that dieth not is best left undisturbed. The curious ones, those seekers of forgotten lore, often discover that knowledge comes at a high price.

For the reader new to M. R. James, I suggest that you first purchase an inexpensive collection, such as either this Phoenix edition or the Dover reprint edition titled Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (but not both as the Phoenix edition contains all but one of the stories in the Dover edition). Once you are familiar with M. R. James, you will probably want to invest in a more complete, more expensive edition of his works.

"A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories" (1925) is a very satisfying volume of M. R. James's (MRJ's) supernatural stories. However, it only contains six of his short stories. Instead of purchasing this volume, you might want to consider one of his more complete collections. Ash-Tree Press's "A Pleasing Terror" (2001), contains the complete and heavily annotated supernatural writings of MRJ, and no true Monty fan should be without it.

The next best collection, "Casting the Runes and Other Stories" edited by Michael Cox, contains most of MRJ's supernatural stories and is quite a bit cheaper than "A Pleasing Terror."

The following stories are included in "A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories":

"The Haunted Doll's House"--This story was written for the library of the Queen's Doll's House, and somewhat resembles MRJ's "The Mezzotint" from the earlier "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary." Mr. Dillet buys an unusual doll house in the Strawberry Gothic fashion from an acquaintance, and sets it up in his bedroom. "It was quite six feet long, including the Chapel or Oratory...and the stable on the right." The house is completely furnished and has several inhabitants, including "a gentleman and lady in blue satin and brocade, respectively...and a white haired old gentleman in a long linen night-dress and cap." When the house seems to come alive, it tells a ghastly tale of murder and revenge from beyond the grave.

"The Uncommon Prayer-book"-- Mr. Davidson strikes up a conversation with an old gentleman on a train and is invited to view a disused Chapel. MRJ engulfs his reader in quaint British dialects in this story of a prayer book that would not stay shut.

"A Neighbour's Landmark"-- A gentleman spends a wet August afternoon in his host's library and discovers an old pamphlet with two lines from a country song, "That which walks in Betton Wood/ Knows why it walks or why it cries." When the weather clears, he explores the part of his friend's property that used to be called 'Betton Wood.'

"A View from a Hill"--A pair of field-glasses made by an old and rather unlikeable watch-maker reveal peculiar landscape features, including a gibbet and something hanging from it. The young man who spots the gibbet decides to pay a visit to it, even though his friend assures him that it no longer exists.

"A Warning to the Curious"--A young man discovers the hiding place of an ancient crown of East Anglia and is haunted by his finding. As in many of MRJ's stories, curiosity is severely punished.

"An Evening's Entertainment"--A rather tongue-in-cheek tale as told by MRJ through the auspices of an old grandmother, who is trying to persuade her young grandchildren to stay away from the "little lane that goes up past Collin's cottage." There is a gigantic figure of a man cut into a hill next to the lane, and once the body of a young man was found hanging from an oak nearby. His breast was quite bare and "the bone of it was split through from the top downwards with an axe!" After Grandma's gruesome goings-on, the children are afraid to be sent to bed without a light.