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My grandfather, my father’s father, attended Eton College before the Second World War, leaving there for Sandhurst when he was seventeen. During his time at school he got to know M. R. James, who was provost until his death in the summer of 1936. Grandfather was among the successive waves of boys that James introduced to the tingly delights of the ghost story, a genre in which the old master excelled, writing some of the best tales in the English language. He learned to love the ghost story from...
Some of these were truly excellent, others a little difficult to get through. Overall, though, exactly what I wanted to read this time of year.
Do you like ghost stories? What about churches? What about ghost stories where many of the characters work for a church (priests, archdeacons, sacristans, etc.), and that take place in or near a church, and that sometimes feature descriptions of church architecture? If you answered "hell yes" to all of these questions, you will probably enjoy Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by MR James.There are few real scares to be found here; I was only really scared once by a particular scene in the tit...
This review is for Count Magnus alone (although I fully intend to read the other stories at some point).Mr. James has not been called a ghost story-writing master for no reason. He is an expert at building the atmosphere and writing a story that delivers an eerie, creepy thrill to the reader. Although I wouldn't call this one of my favorite stories by him, he was quite successful with this tale about an ill-fated travel-writer who comes upon the mystery of a not-so nice Swedish nobleman with an
The revival of telling ghost stories at Christmas is great. Re-read and also listened to the wonderful Michael Hordern's reading of these classics: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...We are reading this and folklore/folk horror over at the One Cry in the Night group, open to anyone looking for a spooky read :)
I'm beginning to think that classic horror just isn't for me.
There are better, more "reasonably" annotated collections available now, which showcase the absolute genius of M.R. James. But at the time of its publication, this Penguin volume was the only one of its kind. The erudite and somewhat angry notes from Joshi had helped a lot in understanding some of the references.But the stories ruled!More powerful than the roar of some king-monster, the stories made crackle of page or drifting of a cloth so terrifying that keeping the lights on seemed a better o...
I’ve read a couple of M.R. James short stories before and enjoyed them, yet until I sat down and read a full collection of his work did I realise what a talented writer he actually was. You can really see the influence he’s had, Lovecraft for instance spoke of his fondness for his work and you can see parallels between their styles and the impact he's has had on horror literature in general. I absolutely loved this book, the stories are still creepy by today’s standards and the writing is beauti...
After re-reading my Collected Ghost Stories in honor of M.R. James' birthday, I realized a lot of things, not least that I was more enamored of (and more indebted to) M.R. James than I'd realized. So at once I sought out the Penguin editions which, though they contained more or less all the same stories as the Collected Ghost Stories, also contained various notes from James himself, as well as annotations and the like. I'd definitely say these were the definitive volumes, assuming that (like me)...
A collection of some truly atmospheric and well written antiquarian ghost tales. Like a good Victorian, I love ghost stories at the end of the year, nothing beats a good ghost story at Christmas! I started my ghost story season off with this book this year and am looking forward to the second volume. While a few stories were more average, the good ones here left me wishing they were longer. I can see why some of these have inspired shows and movies. Good stuff!
M.R. James is the man who put “scary” into “scary ghost stories” and as much as I hate to admit it, he was damn good at it. As the man who pioneered turning spooks and haunts into things that actually jumped out and got you, he helped to inspired H.P. Lovecraft’s more well-known macabre tales.There’s a lot that can be gleaned from James’ writing style, but I’ll leave that to authors more dedicated to horror writing than I am. What I took away from the collection Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stor...
A guy finds a mysterious object, upsets a sacred place, or angers a crazy person. Then bad, scary stuff happens. Eventually he dies. Or never speaks of the event again...The stories are good, but generally seem to follow the same plot, outlined above. Plus, its totally obvious that this is a late 19th/early20th century male author. The only women who show up are young maid servants or nagging wives...
These are classic ghost stories from the best ghost story writer of all time. Yes, the language is dated and you have to concentrate, but the tales are very spooky and certainly make you think. A book to read and to keep.
