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A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings
hardcover
712 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
34 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
About the author
M.R. James
1,520 books910 followersMontague 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
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
M.R.^James
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 22, 2015
Montague Rhodes James was born in 1862 and was the provost of Kings College Cambridge and Eton. A well respected scholar of medieval manuscripts and considered alongside Humphrey Wanley and Neil Ker to be one of the best manuscript scholars that Britain has ever produced. But better known outside medievalist circles for his excellent collection of short ghost stories. These stories were written for and told to a small gathering of friends and students over the Christmas period before James was encouraged to publish them and give them wider circulation. Originally published under the title of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, these tales are mostly set against a backdrop of academia with scholars searching for rare manuscripts and historical artefacts. Most of the charm of James's stories results from this real world setting that he constructs for his stories which he injects with a supernatural element. By the time of his death in 1936 James had completed a considerable body of work which included manuscript catalogues, translations of biblical apocrypha and four volumes of ghost stories.
This edition published by Ash Tree Press is limited to a thousand copies and is an attempt by the editors to provide a much needed scholarly edition of James's supernatural fiction, making A Pleasing Terror far more than just a simple edition of M. R. James's Ghost Stories. First of all, the texts of the stories are all annotated by the editors drawing on scholarship from the Ghosts and Scholars journal. The editors also make use of the original handwritten manuscripts that at times differ from the printed texts, these variant readings are given and explored in the footnotes. There's also a wealth of extra material included in the book that really does make this edition complete. This selection includes some unfinished stories, all the prefaces, criticism of Sheridan La Fanu and James's supernatural children's story The Five Jars. Prior to publication of this volume a small selection of these works had to be obtained by tracking down a copy of The M. R. James Book of The Supernatural. Also included is a selection of critical essays by modern scholars that are mostly taken from Ghosts and Scholars.
Preface by Christopher Roden and Barbara Roden; Introduction by Steve Duffy; A Memoir of Montague Rhodes James by S. G. Lubbock;
GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY: Preface; Canon Alberic's Scrap-book; Lost Hearts; The Mezzotint; The Ash-tree; Number 13; Count Magnus; 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'; The Treasure of Abbot Thomas;
MORE GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY: Preface; A School Story; The Rose Garden; The Tractate Middoth; Casting the Runes; The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral; Martin's Close; Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance;
A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS: Preface; The Residence at Whitminster; The Diary of Mr Poynter; An Episode of Cathedral History; The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance; Two Doctors;
A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS AND OTHER GHOST STORIES: Acknowledgments; The Haunted Dolls' House; The Uncommon Prayer-Book; A Neighbour's Landmark; A View from a Hill; A Warning to the Curious; An Evening's Entertainment;
OTHER GHOST STORIES: Preface to Collected Ghost Stories (1931); There was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard; Rats; After Dark in the Playing Fields; Wailing Well; The Experiment; The Malice of Inanimate Objects; A Vignette;
FRAGMENTS: The Fenstanton Witch; Marcilly-le-Hayer; John Humphreys; A Night in King's College Chapel; The Game of Bear; Speaker Lenthall's Tomb; Merfield House;
TWELVE MEDIEVAL GHOST-STORIES
ARTICLES: Stories I Have Tried to Write; Some Remarks on Ghost Stories; Ghosts—Treat Them Gently!; Ghost Story Competition; Introduction for Ghosts & Marvels; The Novels and Stories of J. Sheridan Le Fanu; MRJ's Prologue to Madam Crowl's Ghost; MRJ's Epilogue to Madam Crowl's Ghost; MRJ's Introduction to Uncle Silas; Letters: MRJ to Gwendolen McBryde; Letters to a Child;
THE FIVE JARS: MRJ's delightful supernatural novel for younger people;
AUDITOR AND IMPRESARIO: A spoof on Dr Faustus from the pages of The Cambridge Review
APPENDICES: I: James Wilson's Secret by Rosemary Pardoe and Jane Nicholls; II: The Black Pilgrimage by Rosemary Pardoe and Jane Nicholls; III: Irony and Horror: The Art of M. R. James by Samuel D. Russell; IV: Ghosts in Medieval Yorkshire by Jacqueline Simpson; V: An M. R. James Letter Introduced and annotated by Jack Adrian
M. R. JAMES: A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. R. JAMES ON FILM, RADIO, AND TELEVISION.
A Pleasing Terror annotates all of the stories written by M. R. James, and there are thirty-three illustrations by Paul Lowe.
This edition published by Ash Tree Press is limited to a thousand copies and is an attempt by the editors to provide a much needed scholarly edition of James's supernatural fiction, making A Pleasing Terror far more than just a simple edition of M. R. James's Ghost Stories. First of all, the texts of the stories are all annotated by the editors drawing on scholarship from the Ghosts and Scholars journal. The editors also make use of the original handwritten manuscripts that at times differ from the printed texts, these variant readings are given and explored in the footnotes. There's also a wealth of extra material included in the book that really does make this edition complete. This selection includes some unfinished stories, all the prefaces, criticism of Sheridan La Fanu and James's supernatural children's story The Five Jars. Prior to publication of this volume a small selection of these works had to be obtained by tracking down a copy of The M. R. James Book of The Supernatural. Also included is a selection of critical essays by modern scholars that are mostly taken from Ghosts and Scholars.
Preface by Christopher Roden and Barbara Roden; Introduction by Steve Duffy; A Memoir of Montague Rhodes James by S. G. Lubbock;
GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY: Preface; Canon Alberic's Scrap-book; Lost Hearts; The Mezzotint; The Ash-tree; Number 13; Count Magnus; 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'; The Treasure of Abbot Thomas;
MORE GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY: Preface; A School Story; The Rose Garden; The Tractate Middoth; Casting the Runes; The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral; Martin's Close; Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance;
A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS: Preface; The Residence at Whitminster; The Diary of Mr Poynter; An Episode of Cathedral History; The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance; Two Doctors;
A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS AND OTHER GHOST STORIES: Acknowledgments; The Haunted Dolls' House; The Uncommon Prayer-Book; A Neighbour's Landmark; A View from a Hill; A Warning to the Curious; An Evening's Entertainment;
OTHER GHOST STORIES: Preface to Collected Ghost Stories (1931); There was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard; Rats; After Dark in the Playing Fields; Wailing Well; The Experiment; The Malice of Inanimate Objects; A Vignette;
FRAGMENTS: The Fenstanton Witch; Marcilly-le-Hayer; John Humphreys; A Night in King's College Chapel; The Game of Bear; Speaker Lenthall's Tomb; Merfield House;
TWELVE MEDIEVAL GHOST-STORIES
ARTICLES: Stories I Have Tried to Write; Some Remarks on Ghost Stories; Ghosts—Treat Them Gently!; Ghost Story Competition; Introduction for Ghosts & Marvels; The Novels and Stories of J. Sheridan Le Fanu; MRJ's Prologue to Madam Crowl's Ghost; MRJ's Epilogue to Madam Crowl's Ghost; MRJ's Introduction to Uncle Silas; Letters: MRJ to Gwendolen McBryde; Letters to a Child;
THE FIVE JARS: MRJ's delightful supernatural novel for younger people;
AUDITOR AND IMPRESARIO: A spoof on Dr Faustus from the pages of The Cambridge Review
APPENDICES: I: James Wilson's Secret by Rosemary Pardoe and Jane Nicholls; II: The Black Pilgrimage by Rosemary Pardoe and Jane Nicholls; III: Irony and Horror: The Art of M. R. James by Samuel D. Russell; IV: Ghosts in Medieval Yorkshire by Jacqueline Simpson; V: An M. R. James Letter Introduced and annotated by Jack Adrian
M. R. JAMES: A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. R. JAMES ON FILM, RADIO, AND TELEVISION.
A Pleasing Terror annotates all of the stories written by M. R. James, and there are thirty-three illustrations by Paul Lowe.
June 14, 2012
More than just the Collected Stories, this volume has notes and material that have rarely seen print. Stories, scholarly pieces, letters, etc. If you like M.R. James you need to snag a copy of this from Ash Tree Press. I read the new epub ebook edition (it was previously a rare out of print volume) which I ordered directly from Ash Tree's website. (I think the Kindle edition is available from Amazon.) The volume is humonguous: over 900 pgs! Great reading for rainy afternoons!
December 15, 2012
I already own most of the works of M. R. James in multiple books, and in ebook form as well (they're all free on Gutenberg). Why did I buy this collection then? Because having already read most of the easily accessible stories, I wanted anything more I could get. The additional (and new to me) essays, prefaces, etc. in this book were just too tempting, especially since tracking them down individually would mean buying multiple books. Of course I'm the kind of person that, while reading an essay James wrote about ghost stories he recommends, took notes so I could then look up and read all of his suggestions. Eventually, since it's a long list.
I have to add here that I discovered this version of collected tales via the M. R. James podcast: A Podcast to the Curious. Well worth taking a look at, because the website itself often has links to various places with more information on each of the stories.
I'm still in the process of reading A Pleasing Terror because I couldn't make myself skip over the stories I was familiar with and go on to read the new content. Instead I found myself reading through everything and enjoying the stories all over again. The new content was worth it to me - especially an essay about James written by one of his colleagues/former student. It almost makes up for not being able to read Michael Cox's James biography that's out of print. (It sells for ridiculous prices, someone really needs to reissue it.)
Anyway, I'm still reading - 67% through so far. More when I finish, and a quote or two if I can remember where to look. (I'm bad about marking my place in ebooks.)
Added 9/16/2012
This is the kind of book I'd want to quote from to give a better idea of why I enjoy it. For instance, from Appendix IV: Ghosts in Medieval Yorkshire by Jacqueline Simpson:
"...English country legends as recorded in the nineteenth century include spectres quote as odd as these, alongside the more 'normal' white ladies and headless horsemen. In Cheshire, there was a ghostly pig with its back stuck all over with lighted candles, and also a headless duck; at Bagbury in Shropshire, a wicked squire 'came again' as a huge, roaring, skinless bull; a road in Crowborough (Sussex) was haunted by a spectral bag of soot which chased people."
I now want to track down more stories about that candle-studed pig. Not to mention the bag of soot.
9/18/2012
I think I should have been keeping a "parts to remember" list for this book all along, as I keep turning up fascinating little stories. In Appendix V: An M. R. James Letter, Introduced and Annotated by Jack Adrian, the essay begins with the discussion of book collecting, specifically by the essay's author and a friend of his, Nicholas Llewelyn Davies. The same Llewelyn Davies who, in a group of five brothers, provided J. M. Barrie with the inspiration for the Lost Boys and Peter Pan.
The author happens to pick up a collectable copy of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, and then he mentions it to Davies, who "said he couldn't be sure exactly but he rather thought all of his MRJ ghost story volumes were signed by MRJ himself. As a conversation-stopper. book-lover to book-lover, this was hard to beat." And it turns out that several of the Llewelyn Davies brothers had gone to Eton, and that's where they'd met MRJ. "Somewhere, he said, he had letters from MRJ. I pressed him to dig them out." - and thus we get to the promised letter. But the story leading up to it is interesting in itself.
Oh and the letter discusses H. P. Lovecraft and his essay Supernatural in Horror and Literature. This appendix is reminding me of a game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, only with M. R. James as the figure that everything eventually leads to (or from).
A bit later:
Finished, and now the list of M. R. James' Suggested Reads is even more daunting than it was when I was only 10% through the book. All for the good, of course, especially since a great deal of what James felt were good ghost stories are still available, and in public domain.
I did enjoy the early chapter, A Memoir of Montague Rhodes James, by S. G. Lubbock, who had known James from working with him at Eton, and had traveled with him abroad multiple times. This chapter allowed me a glimpse of James as he was known to colleagues and friends. A few quotes (% instead of page numbers because annoyingly that's all I have to work with) to leave you with:
(4%) "....He himself used to say that at his first children's party he 'burst into tears and requested to be led from the apartment;' this indeed happened at Burton hall, Sir Charles Bunbury's, when he was six years old, and he was easily comforted by being taken to the library and left there."
(4%) [In explaining M.R. James' "unshaken and unaltered" faith:]
"...In 1899 Will Stone, one of two who went with him on his first tour in Denmark, died; and when James McBryde died five years later, and a little group of sorely stricken friends met at King's, Monty said as we were talking of McB. that it was a relief to feel that Will would be there to meet him; and he said it as simply and unaffectedly as if James had gone to stay at some country house with people unknown to him and Will, already there, would meet him and put him at his ease."
(5%) "...But he would not merely impersonate particular individuals. ...Monty and his brother Herbert somehow transformed themselves into two village tradesmen. The characters, as they say at the beginning of novels, 'were purely fictitious;' Herbert was Johnson a butcher, and Monty was a grocer called Barker; and it must be understood that they were Barker and Johnson to each other and no one else. ...Barker would suggest to Johnson that he tampered with his weights, to be accused in turn of putting sand in his sugar. All this began in private school days, and was renewed whenever they met. ...[After the war has kept them apart:] They had not met for years, but they at once greeted each other as Barker and Johnson, as though they had never ceased to be neighbors and had not allowed their rivalry and mutual suspicions to slumber for a moment."
I have to add here that I discovered this version of collected tales via the M. R. James podcast: A Podcast to the Curious. Well worth taking a look at, because the website itself often has links to various places with more information on each of the stories.
I'm still in the process of reading A Pleasing Terror because I couldn't make myself skip over the stories I was familiar with and go on to read the new content. Instead I found myself reading through everything and enjoying the stories all over again. The new content was worth it to me - especially an essay about James written by one of his colleagues/former student. It almost makes up for not being able to read Michael Cox's James biography that's out of print. (It sells for ridiculous prices, someone really needs to reissue it.)
Anyway, I'm still reading - 67% through so far. More when I finish, and a quote or two if I can remember where to look. (I'm bad about marking my place in ebooks.)
Added 9/16/2012
This is the kind of book I'd want to quote from to give a better idea of why I enjoy it. For instance, from Appendix IV: Ghosts in Medieval Yorkshire by Jacqueline Simpson:
"...English country legends as recorded in the nineteenth century include spectres quote as odd as these, alongside the more 'normal' white ladies and headless horsemen. In Cheshire, there was a ghostly pig with its back stuck all over with lighted candles, and also a headless duck; at Bagbury in Shropshire, a wicked squire 'came again' as a huge, roaring, skinless bull; a road in Crowborough (Sussex) was haunted by a spectral bag of soot which chased people."
I now want to track down more stories about that candle-studed pig. Not to mention the bag of soot.
9/18/2012
I think I should have been keeping a "parts to remember" list for this book all along, as I keep turning up fascinating little stories. In Appendix V: An M. R. James Letter, Introduced and Annotated by Jack Adrian, the essay begins with the discussion of book collecting, specifically by the essay's author and a friend of his, Nicholas Llewelyn Davies. The same Llewelyn Davies who, in a group of five brothers, provided J. M. Barrie with the inspiration for the Lost Boys and Peter Pan.
The author happens to pick up a collectable copy of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, and then he mentions it to Davies, who "said he couldn't be sure exactly but he rather thought all of his MRJ ghost story volumes were signed by MRJ himself. As a conversation-stopper. book-lover to book-lover, this was hard to beat." And it turns out that several of the Llewelyn Davies brothers had gone to Eton, and that's where they'd met MRJ. "Somewhere, he said, he had letters from MRJ. I pressed him to dig them out." - and thus we get to the promised letter. But the story leading up to it is interesting in itself.
Oh and the letter discusses H. P. Lovecraft and his essay Supernatural in Horror and Literature. This appendix is reminding me of a game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, only with M. R. James as the figure that everything eventually leads to (or from).
A bit later:
Finished, and now the list of M. R. James' Suggested Reads is even more daunting than it was when I was only 10% through the book. All for the good, of course, especially since a great deal of what James felt were good ghost stories are still available, and in public domain.
I did enjoy the early chapter, A Memoir of Montague Rhodes James, by S. G. Lubbock, who had known James from working with him at Eton, and had traveled with him abroad multiple times. This chapter allowed me a glimpse of James as he was known to colleagues and friends. A few quotes (% instead of page numbers because annoyingly that's all I have to work with) to leave you with:
(4%) "....He himself used to say that at his first children's party he 'burst into tears and requested to be led from the apartment;' this indeed happened at Burton hall, Sir Charles Bunbury's, when he was six years old, and he was easily comforted by being taken to the library and left there."
(4%) [In explaining M.R. James' "unshaken and unaltered" faith:]
"...In 1899 Will Stone, one of two who went with him on his first tour in Denmark, died; and when James McBryde died five years later, and a little group of sorely stricken friends met at King's, Monty said as we were talking of McB. that it was a relief to feel that Will would be there to meet him; and he said it as simply and unaffectedly as if James had gone to stay at some country house with people unknown to him and Will, already there, would meet him and put him at his ease."
(5%) "...But he would not merely impersonate particular individuals. ...Monty and his brother Herbert somehow transformed themselves into two village tradesmen. The characters, as they say at the beginning of novels, 'were purely fictitious;' Herbert was Johnson a butcher, and Monty was a grocer called Barker; and it must be understood that they were Barker and Johnson to each other and no one else. ...Barker would suggest to Johnson that he tampered with his weights, to be accused in turn of putting sand in his sugar. All this began in private school days, and was renewed whenever they met. ...[After the war has kept them apart:] They had not met for years, but they at once greeted each other as Barker and Johnson, as though they had never ceased to be neighbors and had not allowed their rivalry and mutual suspicions to slumber for a moment."
October 16, 2020
An Essential Read
If you are an admirer of M.R.James and his ghost stories, then this is THE book to read. It's absolutely full of details pertaining to all the stories. Plus, it contains essays and features that cover all the aspects of James' life and works.
Also, it includes those stories and references which are not available in Oxford or Penguin editions.
Highly recommended.
If you are an admirer of M.R.James and his ghost stories, then this is THE book to read. It's absolutely full of details pertaining to all the stories. Plus, it contains essays and features that cover all the aspects of James' life and works.
Also, it includes those stories and references which are not available in Oxford or Penguin editions.
Highly recommended.
August 19, 2011
No me ha gustado mucho...
Los primeros relatos los encontré geniales, muy originales y a veces hasta aterradores, pero conforme avanzaba en el libro los relatos siguientes se volvieron más insípidos, vulgares y menos o nada aterradores.
Conclusión final: una recopilación que empieza magistralmente y acaba mal. Lo dejamos en un aprobado justito porqué así sale la media.
Espero que estos no sean todos los mejores relatos del autor...
Los que más me han gustado son:
- El número trece
- El fresno
- ¡Silba, y estaré junto a ti, amigo!
- El tesoro del abad Thomas
Los primeros relatos los encontré geniales, muy originales y a veces hasta aterradores, pero conforme avanzaba en el libro los relatos siguientes se volvieron más insípidos, vulgares y menos o nada aterradores.
Conclusión final: una recopilación que empieza magistralmente y acaba mal. Lo dejamos en un aprobado justito porqué así sale la media.
Espero que estos no sean todos los mejores relatos del autor...
Los que más me han gustado son:
- El número trece
- El fresno
- ¡Silba, y estaré junto a ti, amigo!
- El tesoro del abad Thomas
February 7, 2025
This is by far the best edition to get on kindle even if you have collected the free Gutenberg versions. The book includes everything I could want (and then some). All the ghost stories, notes, letters, a longer fantasy piece & some medieval ghost stories too. I knock off a star for the lazily constructed kindle table of contents for navigation (easily resolved but not resolved as of yet), and the illustrations could have been added for sake of completeness.
The Oxford print collection remains by go to version so far, but this kindle book is nice, as it allows me to carry the pleasing terror in my pant's pocket.
The Oxford print collection remains by go to version so far, but this kindle book is nice, as it allows me to carry the pleasing terror in my pant's pocket.
January 22, 2017
This is the sort of book that sts the model for other cllections. It gathers together everything that you would want in an M R James collection, is annotated, includes additional material, has had typos corrected. It can be used by a serious scholar on the subject.
My hope is that we will see similar collections from the publisher in the future. Say, a Seabury Quinn one? Hmm? Prithee? Hmm?
My hope is that we will see similar collections from the publisher in the future. Say, a Seabury Quinn one? Hmm? Prithee? Hmm?
December 29, 2025
I wish I still had my copy of this incomparable collection, considering the prices it now fetches in the second-hand market.
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