You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
megbatsbooks 's review for:
Ghost Stories
by M.R. James
One of my favourite authors, M. R. James, is sometimes described as the writer of the “antiquarian horror.”
If you open a collection of his stories, you enter the world of old manuscripts found in even older churches (or the other way round), sarcophagi hiding nightmarish secrets, ancient wells, bloody rituals, antique paintings with objects and figures that seem to move around, children missing in mysterious circumstances, sinister Latin incantations, haunted rooms, ciphers and codes in ancient languages, nervous breakdowns for inexplicable reasons, maps with mysterious inscriptions, cursed treasures with baleful guardians, menacing sculptures discovered in old church pulpits… and so many other delectable tropes.
I personally bask in the mood created by the evocative writing; it makes you feel like you can almost smell the old books and manuscripts, almost see the dust dancing in the slanting sunbeam coming through a stained-glass window of a church, almost feel something ominous behind you as you peruse an old book of Canon Alberic. I can’t even say which stories in this book are my favourites, because I simply love them all and this collection is a frequent re-read.
Don’t be misled though – these stories are not cute or cosy. There is menacing evil in every single one of them and that is what makes them deliciously creepy.
M. R. James is also an author of the best description of a book lover’s entertainment I have ever come across:
"Those who spend the greater part of their time in reading or writing books are, of course, apt to take rather particular notice of accumulations of books when they come across them. They will not pass a stall, a shop, or even a bedroom-shelf without reading some title, and if they find themselves in an unfamiliar library, no host need trouble himself further about their entertainment. The putting of dispersed sets of volumes together, or the turning right way up of those which the dusting housemaid has left in an apoplectic condition, appeals to them as one of the lesser Works of Mercy."
M R James, "A Neighbour's Landmark"
If you open a collection of his stories, you enter the world of old manuscripts found in even older churches (or the other way round), sarcophagi hiding nightmarish secrets, ancient wells, bloody rituals, antique paintings with objects and figures that seem to move around, children missing in mysterious circumstances, sinister Latin incantations, haunted rooms, ciphers and codes in ancient languages, nervous breakdowns for inexplicable reasons, maps with mysterious inscriptions, cursed treasures with baleful guardians, menacing sculptures discovered in old church pulpits… and so many other delectable tropes.
I personally bask in the mood created by the evocative writing; it makes you feel like you can almost smell the old books and manuscripts, almost see the dust dancing in the slanting sunbeam coming through a stained-glass window of a church, almost feel something ominous behind you as you peruse an old book of Canon Alberic. I can’t even say which stories in this book are my favourites, because I simply love them all and this collection is a frequent re-read.
Don’t be misled though – these stories are not cute or cosy. There is menacing evil in every single one of them and that is what makes them deliciously creepy.
M. R. James is also an author of the best description of a book lover’s entertainment I have ever come across:
"Those who spend the greater part of their time in reading or writing books are, of course, apt to take rather particular notice of accumulations of books when they come across them. They will not pass a stall, a shop, or even a bedroom-shelf without reading some title, and if they find themselves in an unfamiliar library, no host need trouble himself further about their entertainment. The putting of dispersed sets of volumes together, or the turning right way up of those which the dusting housemaid has left in an apoplectic condition, appeals to them as one of the lesser Works of Mercy."
M R James, "A Neighbour's Landmark"