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Title: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M. R. James ISBN: 0-8095-9391-2 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: March, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.88 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Ghostly Tales from a Scholar of Medieval Manuscripts
Comment: Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), Vice-Chancellor at Cambridge, Director of the prestigious Fitzwilliam Museum, and later Provost of Eton, was possibly the world's greatest authority on medieval manuscripts. He is thought to have studied nearly twenty thousand documents. He also wrote ghost stories.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary was published in a limited edition in 1904 and reprinted nine times in the next decade. He subsequently published three other collections - More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious (1926). M. R. James greatly admired the supernatural fiction of J. Sheridan LeFanu and thought of himself as simply a follower in LeFanu's footsteps.
In the interesting introduction to this Dover edition E. F. Bleiler writes that the "evil that dieth not, but lieth in wait" is a common theme in these chilling stories. This evil that dieth not is best left undisturbed. The curious ones, those seekers of forgotten lore, often discover that knowledge comes at a high price. And the reader may find that sleep comes less easy.
I quite enjoyed this short collection and I am sure that it will appeal to any reader of Victorian ghost stories. A few may seem somewhat familiar as undoubtedly the tales of M. R. James have long served as a source of inspiration for later stories and screenplays.
The stories in this collection include 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, and The Treasure of Abbott Thomas.
Rating: 5
Summary: Truly scary stories
Comment: If you don't find "horror" fiction frightening, this is for you. These stories scare everyone. This edition also has a very charming cover.
Rating: 5
Summary: First collected stories of M. R. James
Comment: The ghost stories of M.R. James (MRJ) are widely considered to be the best supernatural literature ever written. "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" was his first collection of short stories to be published (Arnold 1904) and is a fine introduction to this chilling, scholarly author.
However, you might want to spend a bit more money and buy the "The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James." If you completely succumb to the refined but potent horror of this author's writings, only "A Pleasing Terror" (Ash Tree Press 2001) will then do. This book contains all of MRJ's supernatural literature, including story fragments that were never completed, biographies, bibliographies, commentary, and his fantasy novelette, "The Five Jars."
"Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" consists of the following stories:
"Canon Alberic's Scrap-book"--The original title for this story was 'A Curious Book,' and it is one of 'the' classical MRJ invocations of a scholar who unwittingly opens the wrong book and pays horribly for his misadventure. This story and the following "Lost Hearts" were originally read aloud at an 1897 meeting of the Cambridge Chitchat Society, a literary gathering which met for "the promotion of rational conversation."
"Lost Hearts"--This story is unusual for MRJ in that the ghosts participate in an actual physical assault on the villain who had murdered them. It is narrated in the third person by a little boy who is orphaned and goes to live with his elderly cousin at Aswarby Hall (an actual estate in Lincolnshire, now largely demolished). Slowly he begins to realize that there were two other children who had lived with his cousin before him.
"The Mezzotint"--A collector of topographical pictures purchases a mezzotint that shows a view of a manor-house from the early part of the eighteenth century. The picture slowly evolves through a story of murder and revenge from beyond the grave.
"The Ash-tree"--If your Bible falls open to the verse, "Thou shalt seek me in the morning, and I shall not be" do not, I repeat DO NOT sleep in Sir Matthew's old bedroom next to the ancient ash-tree. This story is a unique reworking of the "executed witch's revenge" theme.
"Number 13"--A scholar settles into a Danish hotel to research the town's ecclesiastical history and learns more than he ever wanted to know about a bishop who sold his soul to Satan.
"Count Magnus"--Another story (along with "Number 13") that may have had its origin in MRJ's trips to Scandinavia. Mr. Wraxall, the scholarly hero of this tale dooms himself by reading a forbidden treatise of alchemy and expressing a wish to meet its long-dead (or not so dead) Swedish author. This tale is definitely not for the faint-hearted, especially the scene in the mausoleum of Count Magnus, when the locks start popping off of the sarcophagus.
"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad"--A Professor takes a golfing vacation on England's East Coast, and agrees to take a look at the site of an ancient Templars' preceptory for an archeologically-inclined friend of his. He scratches around in the ruins and finds a whistle with a Mediaeval Latin inscription on it that can be translated (according to Jamesian scholar Jacqueline Simpson) as: "O thief, you will polish it, you will blow it twice, you will regret this, you will go mad." I think this is the first M. R. James story I ever read, and it terrified me. I can't remember how long I had to sleep with the lights on after reading it.
"The Treasure of Abbot Thomas"--Mr. Somerton deciphers a text from the medieval Latin 'Sertum Steinfeldense Norbertinum,' and an inscription in the painted-glass window of a private chapel, then goes on a treasure hunt to Germany. What he finds, and what throws its arms around his neck while he... All I will further state is that if you should happen upon a German well that has seven eyes carved on one of its stones, under no circumstances should you climb down into that well, most especially not after dark.
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Title: Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories (Oxford World's Classics) by M. R. James, Michael Cox ISBN: 0192837737 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Best Ghost Stories of J.S. Lefanu by Joseph Sheridan Lefanu ISBN: 0486204154 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 June, 1964 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood by Algernon Blackwood ISBN: 0486229777 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 June, 1973 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: 12 Classic Ghost Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) by John Grafton ISBN: 0486404307 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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Title: A Bottomless Grave and Other Victorian Tales of Horror (Dover Thrift Editions) by Hugh Lamb ISBN: 0486415902 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
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