Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James

This volume collects M.R. James’ four collections of ghost stories, originally published between 1904 and 1924: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, A Thin Ghost and Others and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories. It collects all of James’ ghost stories except for three, published in magazines after 1924.

You know what’s funny? Even though I think of myself as a fan of Gothic fiction, I don’t remember hearing of M.R. James until earlier this year. I’m sure I must have come across his name before, but for some reason it didn’t register. But then Philip Pullman mentioned him, saying: “I don't believe in ghosts, but I'm frightened of them. They don't come any scarier than in these superb examples of the classic English ghost story.” After this, how could I resist?

In the introduction to this edition, David Stuart Davies says:

It is not James’s style to write long, gory, gruesome descriptive passages in order to achieve his aim of frightening the reader. Instead, he merely suggests the horror by a surprising or unnerving phrase, mentioning an unexpected or incongruous shadow or an eerie sound, and the reader’s imagination takes over, feeding on these hints in order to conjure up the full disturbing picture for himself. And our own individual constructions, personal to us, will be far more frightening than anything an author can create.

I really can’t think of a better way of summing up what happens in these stories. The horror is indeed in the details, in what remains unsaid, and that’s the main reason why they work so well. Of course, the wonderful writing and the late Victorian/Edwardian ambience were additional reasons why I found these stories so enjoyable. But more than any of this, what I found interesting about M.R. James’s ghost stories was how he contextualizes them, and how he makes use of knowledge and of time.

Let me explain: First of all, probably under the influence of this great post at Stella Matutina, I found myself paying special attention to context in these stories. More often than not, we have a first person narrator who addresses the reader directly. However, they are not the one who experiences the supernatural or eerie events. What they are doing is recording either a story they were told or a piece of information they came across somewhere, and they refrain from drawing conclusions about its sinister implications – it is the reader who is left to do so.

There are several reasons why this strategy works so well with these stories. Above all, this allows the stories to survive even though their main protagonist often doesn’t live past their encounter with the supernatural. And this brings me to knowledge – the point of M.R. James’ ghost stories is letting the reader know that the world is a little darker and a little stranger than we think it is, even in our moments of fear.

The stories often go like this: There was someone who messed with dark forces, and though they didn’t live to tell the tale, the tale is still being told. May it be a warning to us all. May it let us know that what lurks in the shadows is far worse than we dare imagine. In this sense, M.R. James reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft, whose stories are also often centred on this idea of knowledge of the strangeness of the world. (Though it would be the other way around, of course, as Lovecraft cited James as one of his influences. And I can see why.)

And then there’s time – what unleashes the horror is often a relic from the past, an old object, a manuscript, something found in a dusty library or among ruins or in a churchyard. This object was left undisturbed until some unknowingly arrogant person decided to lay claim to it. And inevitably they pay the price.

My one complaint is that these stories tend to follow a formula, which means it’s probably a better idea to dip into this book every now and again than to read it back to back. I know I wouldn’t have felt this way if I had read the individual volumes separately, though. And by this I don’t mean that the stories are all the same. I often feel the same with fairy tales: although I couldn’t love them more, after a while I need a break. This is the reason why most of my favourite stories (“Lost Hearts”, “The Ash Tree”, “A School Story”, and “A Warning to the Curious”, among others) are in the first half of the book.

So…although I couldn’t recommend M.R. James more highly, I think he's better enjoyed in small doses.

Other Blog Reviews:
Read Warbler
Stella Matutina ("Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad")
Stella Matutina (Collected Ghost Stories)

(Let me know if I missed yours.)