[Ghost Stories] (By: M. R. James) [published: October, 2011]

by M.R. James

Paperback

About the author

Montague Rhodes James, who used the publication name M.R. James, was a noted English mediaeval scholar & provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–18) & of Eton College (1918–36). He's best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. One of James' most important achievements was to redefine the ghost story for the new century by dispensing with many of the formal Gothic trappings of his predecessors, replacing them with more realistic contemporary settings.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

M.R.^James

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the original dark academia! As a librarian who studied Medieval history, these stories were exactly my niche, given that most of the characters (not unlike M.R. James himself) are archivists, librarians, curators and palaeographers of some kind. These stories give you tales of witchcraft, cursed Anglo-Saxon crowns, medieval manuscripts inscribed with foreboding passages of Latin, haunted mazes and paranormal paintings -- even an appearance of a classic sheet ghost is made scary by James!

If you are a fan of Shirley Jackson or Susan Hill I cannot recommend this collection enough. I even wonder if these two giants of telling ghost stories were influenced by James. I especially saw resemblance between The Mezzotint from this collection and Hill's The Man in the Picture, and between Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance and Jackson's The Sundial.

My favourite stories were The Mezzotint, The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, Count Magnus, Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance and 'Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad.' But I can honestly say while I preferred some more than others, I enjoyed all the stories of this collection and I was left feeling uneasy more than just a few times.

The perfect collection of Gothic horror and dark academia (in the most original sense) to keep you creeped out over Halloween -- or whenever you feel like getting spooked really!