At first glance the pivotal scene has nothing sinister about it

February 14, 2024 4:04 AM

"A medievalist's mind can be bizarre to behold. If you had been drudging through a cartulary — a collection of charters copied into a single volume — for the last month, what would you choose to publish:

(a) its complete text, as the last word on the matter;
(b) a simpler calendar, as a guide to its contents;
(c) a ghost story?

If your name is M.R. James, the correct answer is the last one!"
posted by cupcakeninja (18 comments total)

I spent the fall in a Zoom reading group that read M.R. James's ghost stories (I think we made it to all of them?) and this line: "it was precisely James’ training that allowed him to write such brilliant stories," was definitely something that struck me when we were reading. Especially in something like "Martin's Close," where you can tell that he's spent time with trial reports from the reign of Charles II in a way that lets him bring that to life.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:04 AM on February 14 [3 favorites]

I love M.R. James; my Folio Society book of his ghost stories gets pulled out every October and December.
posted by Kitteh at 5:14 AM on February 14 [3 favorites]

I remember younger me being scared witless by MRJ's Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad. As a beach-comber, I am not the least comforted by "At the end of it the Colonel left the hotel door carrying a small object between his finger and thumb, which he cast as far into the sea as a very brawny arm could send it."
posted by BobTheScientist at 5:37 AM on February 14 [7 favorites]

I knew MR James and EL James were different people, but this thread has prompted the separate realisation that MR James and PD James are also different people.
posted by terretu at 5:46 AM on February 14 [3 favorites]

Canon Alberic's Scrapbook is my favorite; imagine my delight to learn that Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges is a real place! Why the tourism board doesn't capitalize on it I don't know.
posted by orrnyereg at 7:58 AM on February 14 [2 favorites]

In case anyone doesn't know, searching "M R James BBC" in YouTube yields many excellent adaptations of his stories. This one is particularly good.
posted by wittgenstein at 8:16 AM on February 14 [3 favorites]

If I may blow my own whistle on links Jamesian….
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:32 AM on February 14 [2 favorites]

Hit post too quickly. Among the many links, the podcast A Podcast for the Curious and the site Ghosts and Scholars are both great for the more detail-oriented and scholarly enthusiast.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:36 AM on February 14 [2 favorites]

Yes, Ghosts and Scholars (and Rosemary Pardoe specifically) was the main game in town for a long time on Jamesian scholarship. And to this day James’ tales aren’t as frequently studied by academics as some of his contemporaries.
posted by cupcakeninja at 8:45 AM on February 14 [1 favorite]

OK, one more. Podcaster Mark Nixon has been writing (and getting others to write) what he calls "gentle horror." While not all of the stories are specifically Jamesian, you might want to check out the anthology Shadows at the Door or the podcast by the same name for modern takes on the atmosphere and themes. The five or so Professor Troughton stories (the first three of which we collected as "Convinced Disbeliever" at the end of season 2) feature a very Jamesian academic who is slowly forced to reconsider his ghostly skepticism through a series of increasingly unpleasant encounters. If you follow audio drams, you will probably recognize the voice of David Ault, who is in an awful lot of shows these days. Episode running lengths are about half what your podcatcher will show, since each ends with a lengthy discussion between Nixon and Ault about the episode and its creation.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:57 AM on February 14 [6 favorites]

"'Oh Whistle...'" is great because it is simultaneously creepy as hell and a parody of Victorian ghost story conventions (as in, you can run down the list, from "bad things happen on vacation" to "professional men get in trouble if they're skeptics" to "for the love of God, do not steal things from graves" and see James poking fun at them--the protagonist mucking up his Latin especially calls for a facepalm). I'm also a huge fan of "Canon Alberic's Scrap-book." There's a lesser-known story that I teach sometimes, "The Haunted Dolls House," that gets in some good dark humor, particularly at the end.
posted by thomas j wise at 9:19 AM on February 14 [3 favorites]

"'Oh Whistle...'" is great because it is simultaneously creepy as hell and a parody of Victorian ghost story conventions (as in, you can run down the list, from "bad things happen on vacation" to "professional men get in trouble if they're skeptics" to "for the love of God, do not steal things from graves" and see James poking fun at them--the protagonist mucking up his Latin especially calls for a facepalm). I'm also a huge fan of "Canon Alberic's Scrap-book." There's a lesser-known story that I teach sometimes, "The Haunted Dolls House," that gets in some good dark humor, particularly at the end.

James can be very funny, I mentioned "Martin's Close" earlier, which I think has some funny bits, and the bit from "The Mezzotint" (an excellently creepy story) where he basically says "golfers can imagine what this conversation was about, but I'm not going to make you read about golf" always tickles me.

Just avoid the story with the talking owl.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:51 AM on February 14 [3 favorites]

I've always admired how tightly "A School Story" is constructed- it's only exactly what it needs to be and you can see the punchline coming a mile away but it still hits when it arrives.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:26 PM on February 14

What a great last line for TFA: ‘I spend all my time reading or writing crimes in the Museum. Nice life, isn’t it?’
posted by doctornemo at 3:16 PM on February 14 [1 favorite]

Jacques Tourneur directed a movie adaptation of "Casting the Runes" in 1957, Night of the Demon. People usually criticize the ending for revealing the monster, but I think the rest holds up very well.
posted by doctornemo at 3:19 PM on February 14 [1 favorite]

MR James is one of the greats. Such stories! Precise, deeply detailed antiquarian materials; gentle satires of academics; tiny, achingly precise drops of horror.

"Ash-Tree" is sometimes my favorite.
posted by doctornemo at 3:20 PM on February 14 [3 favorites]

He does mix quiet and gentle with some very nasty and chilling moments. “It was busy about the truckle-beds, but not for long.” is hair-raising in its economy.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:39 PM on February 14 [3 favorites]

And now we are in his bedroom, with the light out and the Squire in bed. The room is over the kitchen, and the night outside still and warm, so the window stands open.

There is very little light about the bedstead, but there is a strange movement there; it seems as if Sir Richard were moving his head rapidly to and fro with only the slightest possible sound. And now you would guess, so deceptive is the half-darkness, that he had several heads, round and brownish, which move back and forward, even as low as his chest. It is a horrible illusion. Is it nothing more? There! something drops off the bed with a soft plump, like a kitten, and is out of the window in a flash; another—four—and after that there is quiet again.

"Thou shalt seek me in the morning, and I shall not be."
posted by doctornemo at 7:26 AM on February 15 [1 favorite]