In any thoughtful consideration of supernatural horror of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries, the great tradition of English ghost tales is represented foremost by Montague Rhodes James and his Collected Ghost Stories. I was long aware of the name but my introduction to his work came from the BBC's production of "Number 13," part of M.R. James' Ghost Stories for Christmas short series starring Christopher Lee as James reading an adaptation of the tale.
I was hooked.
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Collected Ghost Stories by M. R. James is a collection of short tales originally published between 1904 and 1931. These 30 (31st is a commentary by James on his stories) tales are presented, for the most part, in the order in which they were previously published. This edition was published in 2007 by Wordsworth Editions and is part of the Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural series. A fine series of reprints and collections which, as I have stated in previous posts, I wholeheartedly endorse.
The General Editor of the Wordsworth's Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural series is David Stuart Davies, a noted expert on Sherlock Holmes. Davies also wrote the Introduction to this volume.
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M. R. James circa 1900.
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Montague Rhodes James was born in August 1862, the son of a vicar. M. R. James attended Eton College as a boy. Following Eton, James went on to study at King's College, Cambridge where he became a distinguished medievalist, scholar and antiquarian, publishing extensively on these topics. Later, he would return to Eton as Provost from 1918 until his death in 1936.
A few highlights of his professional career include:
- 1894 to 1908 – Director of Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
- 1905 to 1918 – Provost of King's College, Cambridge
- 1913 to 1915 – Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University
- 1918 to 1936 – Provost of Eton College.
Montague Rhodes James passed away in June 1936 at Eton.
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M. R. James began writing ghost stories as a distraction from his academic work and as entertainment for his friends and colleagues. In October 1893, he first offered to read one of his supernatural stories to his colleagues at King's. The tale presented was an early version of "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook." This event became the first of many such gatherings. It is unknown when the custom of James narrating one of his supernatural stories at Christmas time began. It was well-established, though, by 1903 when he gave his audience the terrifying "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad".
In the introduction to this volume, David Stuart Davies related an account of one of these gatherings by Oliffe Richmond, an attendee at an early Christmas reading. He described briefly the event in his unpublished memoirs:
Monty disappeared into his bedroom. We sat and waited in the candlelight . . . Monty emerged from his bedroom, manuscript in hand, at last, blew out all the candles but one, by which he seated himself. He then began to read, with more confidence than anyone else could have mustered, his well-nigh illegible script in the dim light.[i]
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One of the more common traits, or themes, running throughout much of James' supernatural tales is " . . . in general, James's tales are set in the halls of academia, ancient abbeys or the lonely, isolated locales of his beloved East Coast . . ."[ii] In these stories, the protagonist is, more often than not, if not an academic in actuality, certainly of a scholarly bent.
During his lifetime, James published four collections of his supernatural tales.
- Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904)
- More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911)
- A Thin Ghost and Others (1919)
- A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925)
The present work, originally published in 1931, is a combination of the above four plus a few more stories that completed the list of his supernatural fiction with the exception of " . . . three which were published in magazines after this collection had appeared . . . They are ‘The Experiment’ (1931), ‘The Malice of Inanimate Objects’ (1933) and ‘A Vignette’ (1936)."[iii]
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Below is a listing of the stories contained in this collection, together with a few comments and observations which I thought pertinent.
List of tales in this collection:
From Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904)
- "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" – Reminiscent of the Japanese "The Ring." A scrapbook's lawful owner is haunted by a supernatural thing.
- "Lost Hearts" – A cruel relative to a recent orphan, dark rites and the vengeance of the dead.
- "The Mezzotint" – Goings on in a university museum concerning a mysterious work of art with a terror to tell.
- "The Ash Tree" – A witch has many means to exact revenge on a squire's heirs. I really hate spiders.
- "Number 13" – A scholarly sort is staying in room number 12.
- "Count Magnus" – For a travel-writer, curiosity or "over-inquisitiveness" is not always an admirable trait.
- "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" – A professor disapproves of talk of ghosts. Until, while on holiday, he encounters one.
- "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" – Buried treasure is sometimes buried for a good reason.
From More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911)
- "A School Story" – Boys like to tell each other made-up ghost stories. But what if they are true?
- "The Rose Garden" – In digging up the soil for a new rose garden, be mindful of what might be disturbed.
- "The Tractate Middoth" – A young librarian finds himself part of a mystery involving a possible haunted book and ownership of a great estate.
- "Casting the Runes" – Some folks take professional criticism personally. Especially demon worshippers. This story was the basis for the 1957 Hammer horror film, Night of the Demon (UK) or Curse of the Demon (USA).
- "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" – Evil is visited upon he who committed evil deed.
- "Martin's Close" – A centuries-old transcript of a murder trial reveals that the murderer is tormented by the murdered.
- "Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" – Sometimes a legacy from an unknown relative is not a good thing.
From A Thin Ghost and Others (1919)
- "The Residence at Whitminster" – The narrator states that this tale is gathered from journals and letters. While innocence can be corrupted, wickedness lingers (as those who come after find out).
- "The Diary of Mr Poynter" – The chance find of an old diary coupled with a nagging aunt leads to adventures with fabric swatches and paranormal hair. Oh, well. It's only money.
- "An Episode of Cathedral History" – Sometimes modernizing an old cathedral is really not the best idea.
- "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance" – An epistolary tale of a missing relative and a travelling Punch and Judy show which may have nothing to do with the mystery.
- "Two Doctors" – A found manuscript tale of a partial collection of interviews regarding an investigation into the mysterious death of a doctor.
From A Warning to the Curious, and Other Ghost Stories (1925)
- "The Haunted Dolls' House" – A haunted doll house that at one a.m. each night relates a tale of murder.
- "The Uncommon Prayer-Book" – A forgotten chapel. Several mysterious prayer books are stolen. The thief pays a heavy price.
- "A Neighbour's Landmark" – A supposedly haunted former woodland from long ago may be haunted still. Though by whom or by what, no one knows.
- "A View from a Hill" – A set of necromantic binoculars can really aid an archaeologist to dig in the most advantageous spots.
- "A Warning to the Curious" – A cautionary tale. Some buried treasures are best left buried. And some transgressions can not be forgiven.
- "An Evening's Entertainment" – A grandmother relates a cautionary tale to her grandchildren just before bedtime.
From The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James (1931)
- "There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard" – A tale of grave robbing set within another tale.
- "Rats" – A locked room in a picturesque inn is an irresistible lure to the curious, much to his regret.
- "After Dark in the Playing Fields" – Owls and sprites and other things, oh my!
- "Wailing Well" – The moral of this story - Pay heed to the admonitions of your elders. They know of what they speak.
- "Stories I Have Tried to Write" – Snippets and ideas of tales that the author was unable to develop into full stories.
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The impact that M. R. James has upon the field of horror fiction is felt even today. One of my favorite contemporary horror writers is a gentleman named Michael Whitehouse. Later this year he is planning to release Ghost Stories of a Contemporary as a kind of homage to James, Whitehouse's favorite author.
Mark Gatiss, most commonly known for his role as Mycroft on the BBC series Sherlock, is a life-long horror enthusiast and has starred in several horror documentaries. On December 25, 2013, the BBC aired a new documentary by Gatiss called M. R. James: Ghost Writer. Both the program and Gatiss explore "the work of James and look at how his work still inspires contemporary horror today."[iv]
Acclaimed weird fantasist Clark Ashton Smith of California wrote an article in consideration of M. R. James' The Collected Ghost Stories (1931). Initially published as "The Weird Works of M.R. James" in The Fantasy Fan dated February 1934. This piece, among many salient points, reinforced the idea of the unsurpassed status of James in the genre of supernatural horror fiction. I heartily commend this article to your reading. A link is provided to an online version of a 1973 reprint. (here)
Until I began the background research for this post, I had not realized that, for years now, I already possessed examples of James' scholarly writing. In the 4-volume Encyclopaedia Biblica, James is recorded in the list of contributors; though, there was no way to isolate what articles James wrote. In both Volume 1 (1899) and volume 2 (1903), James was indicated as "Litt. D., Fellow & Dean of King's College."
I had read several of M. R. James tales before reading this book and enjoyed them. Thus, it came as no surprise how much pleasure I received from this collection.
References
Print Resources
James, Montague Rhodes. Collected Ghost Stories. Wordsworth Editions: Hertfordshire, 2007.
Digital Resources
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Online Resources
Kraft, Robert. "Bibliography of the Scholarly and Other Writings of M. R. James (1862-1936)," Directory of Materials Relating to the Montague Rhodes James Project(s). 2004, accessed 28 April 2017. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak//publics/mrjames/MRJBIBL.htm
James, M.R., “Collected Ghost Stories,” A Thin Ghost, accessed April 25, 2017, http://www.thin-ghost.org/items/show/76
Lezard, Nicholas. "Collected Ghost Stories by MR James – review." The Guardian, 1 October 2013, accessed 25 April 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/01/collected-ghost-stories-mr-james-review
Martin, Tim. "Collected Ghost Stories by M R James: review." The Telegraph, 28 October 2011, accessed 24 April 2017. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8853072/Collected-Ghost-Stories-by-M-R-James-review.html
"M. R. James." Wikipedia, accessed 22 April 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._R._James
MR James: Ghost Writer. Youtube.com. 15 April 2014, accessed 25 April 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOGZ4WQT2vg
Sims, Liam. "The Ghostly World of M. R. James," Cambridge University Library Special Collections. 12 June 2015, accessed 28 April 2017. https://specialcollections.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=10334
Smith, Clark Ashton. "The Weird Works of M. R. James," Planets and Dimensions: Collected Essays: Criticism in the Bibliography of Clark Ashton Smith, Wolfe, Charles K. (editor). Mirage Press. 1973. Accessed 27 April 2017. http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/bibliography/publications/criticism/136/planets-and-dimensions%3A-collected-essays-%28hb%29
Smith, Clark Ashton. "The Weird Works of M. R. James," The Fantasy Fan: The Fan's Own Magazine, Hornig, Charles D. (editor). February 1934. Volume 1, Number 6. Accessed 27 April 2017. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46616/46616-h/46616-h.htm
Stewart, Helen. "M. R. James and the Tradition of Christmas Ghost Stories." BBC Arts & Culture. 23 December 2013, accessed 26 April 2017. http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/0/25496655
"The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James." Wikipedia, accessed 24 April 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collected_Ghost_Stories_of_M._R._James
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[i] Page viii.
[ii] Page vii.
[iii] Pages ix.
[iv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Gatiss
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