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guarinous's review against another edition
5.0
I knew I had to request this handsome new edition of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary as soon as I saw it, even though I've read it a few times before. M.R. James was a true master of the ghost story and his characters and settings did much to move the genre beyond the stereotypical chain rattling of some of the early days. With narrators that are generally some sort of skeptical scholar forced into a strange situation through the discovery of a lost object, James was the master of the sort of slow burn horror that has now come into vogue in many of our most popular shows, cinema, and literature.
This would already be a heavyweight collection if it only had stories such as "The Mezzotint", "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book," and "Lost Hearts", but it also contains one of the definitive ghost stories in the canon, "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad." Ergo, I can't rate this anything less than five stars.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press**
This would already be a heavyweight collection if it only had stories such as "The Mezzotint", "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book," and "Lost Hearts", but it also contains one of the definitive ghost stories in the canon, "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad." Ergo, I can't rate this anything less than five stars.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press**
guarinous's review against another edition
5.0
I knew I had to request this handsome new edition of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary as soon as I saw it, even though I've read it a few times before. M.R. James was a true master of the ghost story and his characters and settings did much to move the genre beyond the stereotypical chain rattling of some of the early days. With narrators that are generally some sort of skeptical scholar forced into a strange situation through the discovery of a lost object, James was the master of the sort of slow burn horror that has now come into vogue in many of our most popular shows, cinema, and literature.
This would already be a heavyweight collection if it only had stories such as "The Mezzotint", "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book," and "Lost Hearts", but it also contains one of the definitive ghost stories in the canon, "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad." Ergo, I can't rate this anything less than five stars.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press**
This would already be a heavyweight collection if it only had stories such as "The Mezzotint", "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book," and "Lost Hearts", but it also contains one of the definitive ghost stories in the canon, "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad." Ergo, I can't rate this anything less than five stars.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press**
qalminator's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyable collection, overall. Nothing particularly startling or frightening, at least to a modern audience, but I rather liked the rambling style of telling the tales. The titular "Antiquary" serves as narrator, but is not a direct participant in any of the stories (...except maybe in The Mezzotint... need to go back and look at that one), but rather is told the stories second or third-hand. James uses this to good effect to frame the stories in ways that would be trickier to make work with direct narration.
CW: Assumptions of British supremacy over pretty much everyone; "papists" are used as a generic catchall for anything evil (much like "satanists" were in the 1980's); very very few female characters; occasional racist assumptions (mild compared to Lovecraft, but still noticeable in a few places).
I picked up the text for free, and the audiobook for $2.99 (text seems to still be free as of this writing, but the whispersync audiobook has gone up). The narrator is quite good, though Audible reports his name as "David; Stephen Timson; Critchlow", which, particularly with the semicolon, seems a bit odd. ...and I found results for David Timson, as well as Stephen Critchlow, but I don't remember the narrator changing during the recording. Maybe the introduction had a different voice? Odd.
Random thoughts:
I can't help but think that Lovecraft might have picked up his unfortunate tendency toward narrators distant from the action from James, but James made it work, and Lovecraft rarely did.
Johnny Sims of the Magnus Archives has named MR James as one of his influences, and several details struck me here as having made it into the show in slightly altered form.
Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book - Enjoyably creepy tale, with an unfortunately rushed ending. And, now that I think of it, that book would definitely be a Leitner in the Magnus Archives, and.
Lost Hearts - Fairly obvious what was coming, but still an enjoyable ride to get there.
The Mezzotint - Enjoyable creepy idea, but disappointing payoff.
The Ash-tree - The beginning of this rambled enough that I started losing the thread, but it was quite good once it got going. This one, in particular, has some Magnus Archive echoes, and I wonder if it was the inspiration for the link between the Web and the Desolation.
Number 13 - Another that ends too abruptly, but has some very tense moments, and is quite well-crafted otherwise.
Count Magnus - Oddly dreamlike story. One has the impression that the observer was the one undoing the locks, unconsciously. Almost certainly the inspiration for the infamous locked coffin in The Magnus Archives, and Sims has noted this story as the inspiration for the series name, as well.
'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' - Another with a really big build-up, but a rather unsatisfying payoff at the end.
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas - Nice tale of a treasure hunt gone wrong, but I can't help but wonder... Now, given the genre, something would have gone horribly wrong with that plan, but it's bizarre that no one even considered it.
CW: Assumptions of British supremacy over pretty much everyone; "papists" are used as a generic catchall for anything evil (much like "satanists" were in the 1980's); very very few female characters; occasional racist assumptions (mild compared to Lovecraft, but still noticeable in a few places).
I picked up the text for free, and the audiobook for $2.99 (text seems to still be free as of this writing, but the whispersync audiobook has gone up). The narrator is quite good, though Audible reports his name as "David; Stephen Timson; Critchlow", which, particularly with the semicolon, seems a bit odd. ...and I found results for David Timson, as well as Stephen Critchlow, but I don't remember the narrator changing during the recording. Maybe the introduction had a different voice? Odd.
Random thoughts:
I can't help but think that Lovecraft might have picked up his unfortunate tendency toward narrators distant from the action from James, but James made it work, and Lovecraft rarely did.
Johnny Sims of the Magnus Archives has named MR James as one of his influences, and several details struck me here as having made it into the show in slightly altered form.
Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book - Enjoyably creepy tale, with an unfortunately rushed ending. And, now that I think of it, that book would definitely be a Leitner in the Magnus Archives, and
Spoiler
not so easily damagedLost Hearts - Fairly obvious what was coming, but still an enjoyable ride to get there.
The Mezzotint - Enjoyable creepy idea, but disappointing payoff.
The Ash-tree - The beginning of this rambled enough that I started losing the thread, but it was quite good once it got going. This one, in particular, has some Magnus Archive echoes, and I wonder if it was the inspiration for the link between the Web and the Desolation.
Number 13 - Another that ends too abruptly, but has some very tense moments, and is quite well-crafted otherwise.
Spoiler
Are they sure the museum where they sent the box isn't going to start sprouting its own Room 13? Did anyone even consider this??Count Magnus - Oddly dreamlike story. One has the impression that the observer was the one undoing the locks, unconsciously. Almost certainly the inspiration for the infamous locked coffin in The Magnus Archives, and Sims has noted this story as the inspiration for the series name, as well.
'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' - Another with a really big build-up, but a rather unsatisfying payoff at the end.
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas - Nice tale of a treasure hunt gone wrong, but I can't help but wonder...
Spoiler
Why not go get the treasure in daylight, then put the stone back?tomfairfax's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
jenn756's review against another edition
4.0
A collection of ghost stories, which ideally should be read on cold winters nights over Christmas. They are, as the titles suggest, stories where a scholar investigating local history gets more than he bargained for. They are set mainly in England but also in Denmark and Scandanavia. The Victorian era was a golden time for ghost stories - must have been all those isolated creaky country houses and forbidding housekeepers, and M R James is recommended as the foremost writer of the genre.
hadders88's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
monsterful_alex's review against another edition
3.0
I rediscovered my love of ghost stories and I decided to go back to the classics with M R James. Each story has its own little twist, but the ‘horror’ lies in the atmospheric creepiness unique in each story. James has a knack for giving the reader just enough information of the uncanny to create an eerie world, describing monsters just enough to raise goosebumps, but leaving much unknown still, so that the mystery continues even after you’ve finished each story.
matthewcutchen's review against another edition
5.0
Officially a M. R. James fanboy now.
James uses the “ghost story” as a vehicle to go into some much stranger and more interesting directions than I could ever have expected.
Favs were The Mezzotint, The Ash-tree, and Number 13.
James uses the “ghost story” as a vehicle to go into some much stranger and more interesting directions than I could ever have expected.
Favs were The Mezzotint, The Ash-tree, and Number 13.
fachrinaa's review against another edition
5.0
M. R. James’s stories can be formulaic at times – A professor or scholar of some kind finds a mysterious artefact, meddles with it, and unleashes a demonic entity which ends up haunting him. The stories are straightforward horror; no is-it-a-ghost-or-is-the-narrator-mad complexity here.
I wouldn’t call his stories scary. The more appropriate word, I feel, is unnerving. The entities are described, yes, but never thoroughly. The faces, and the exact nature of the entities, are often left unexplained. What we get instead is the characters’ reaction. As their repulsion grows, so does ours.
A charming feature of James’s stories is the dry humour that runs through them. A prime example of this is ‘Oh Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ (which, if you only read one James’s story, read this).
Before the stories are published, James usually told them to pupils and colleagues on Christmas night (as per old British tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas, apparently). It’s a tradition that should be revived, I think – so we can all gather round in a room on a dark cold night and listen to James’s stories, and tell ourselves that the persistent chill comes from the howling wind.
I wouldn’t call his stories scary. The more appropriate word, I feel, is unnerving. The entities are described, yes, but never thoroughly. The faces, and the exact nature of the entities, are often left unexplained. What we get instead is the characters’ reaction. As their repulsion grows, so does ours.
A charming feature of James’s stories is the dry humour that runs through them. A prime example of this is ‘Oh Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ (which, if you only read one James’s story, read this).
Before the stories are published, James usually told them to pupils and colleagues on Christmas night (as per old British tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas, apparently). It’s a tradition that should be revived, I think – so we can all gather round in a room on a dark cold night and listen to James’s stories, and tell ourselves that the persistent chill comes from the howling wind.