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A School Story
Montague Rhodes James OM, MA, FBA (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936), who used the publication name M. R. James, was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre. James redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the formal Gothic clichés of his predecessors and using more realistic contemporary settings. However, James's protagonists and plots tend to reflect his own antiquarian interests. Accordingly, he is known as the originator of the "antiquarian ghost story". James was born in Goodnestone Parsonage, near Dover in Kent, England, although his parents had associations with Aldeburgh in Suffolk. From the age of three (1865) until 1909 his home, if not always his residence, was at the Rectory in Great Livermere, Suffolk. This had also been the childhood home of another eminent Suffolk antiquary, "Honest Tom" Martin (1696–1771) "of Palgrave." Several of his ghost stories are set in Suffolk, including "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" (Felixstowe), "A Warning to the Curious" (Aldeburgh), "Rats" and "A Vignette" (Great Livermere). He lived for many years, first as an undergraduate, then as a don and provost, at King's College, Cambridge, where he was also a member of the Pitt Club. The university provides settings for several of his tales. Apart from medieval subjects, James studied the classics and appeared very successfully in a staging of Aristophanes' play The Birds, with music by Hubert Parry. His ability as an actor was also apparent when he read his new ghost stories to friends at Christmas time. In September 1873 he arrived as a boarder at Temple Grove School, one of the leading boys' preparatory schools of the day. James is best known for his ghost stories, but his work as a medievalist scholar was prodigious and remains highly respected in scholarly circles. Indeed, the success of his stories was founded on his antiquarian talents and knowledge. His discovery of a manuscript fragment led to excavations in the ruins of the abbey at Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk, in 1902, in which the graves of several twelfth-century abbots described by Jocelyn de Brakelond (a contemporary chronicler) were rediscovered, having been lost since the Dissolution. His 1917 edition of the Latin Lives of Saint Aethelberht, king and martyr (English Historical Review 32), remains authoritative. He catalogued many of the manuscript libraries of the Cambridge colleges. Among his other scholarly works, he wrote The Apocalypse in Art, which placed illuminated Apocalypse manuscripts into families. He also translated the New Testament Apocrypha and contributed to the Encyclopaedia Biblica (1903). His ability to wear his learning lightly is apparent in his Suffolk and Norfolk (Dent, 1930), in which a great deal of knowledge is presented in a popular and accessible form, and in Abbeys (Great Western Railway, 1925). James also achieved a great deal during his directorship of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (1893–1908). He managed to secure a large number of important paintings and manuscripts, including notable portraits by Titian. James was Provost of Eton College from 1918 to 1936. He died in 1936 and was buried in Eton town cemetery.
16 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1911
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About the author
M.R. James
1,526 books915 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 - 30 of 49 reviews
December 13, 2023
Story 13/72 from Black Water 1 (The Anthology of Fantastic Literature) read together with The Short Story Club
I read this less than a month and I do not remember anything. Not even after I re-read a few paragraphs. Not a good sign, especially for a ghost story.
I read this less than a month and I do not remember anything. Not even after I re-read a few paragraphs. Not a good sign, especially for a ghost story.
October 31, 2024
School stories
Short stories and novels set in English boarding schools were popular in the first half of the twentieth century. Monthly magazines, including The Strand, Pearson’s and The Captain, often featured them, including some of PG Wodehouse’s earliest pieces, and ones by many other authors who became famous.
This story was published in an anthology of ghost stories in 1911, but is set in 1870 and about thirty years later.
Layers
Two men are discussing their school days, school stories (The Strand and Pearson’s are mentioned), and ghost stories. They ponder the lack of proper ghost stories in schools and why they lack sequels. There is rather too much preamble for such a short story.
The core of the story happens at what I presume is a prep school (boys aged 7-13), and involves Latin lessons, though it explains and translates as much as you need to know. The new master has a curio on his watch chain and is spooked by something a pupil feels compelled to write:
“Si tu non veneris ad me, ego veniam ad te.”
Something happens and, yes, it’s a spooky story.
It’s made more interesting by a short “sequel”. Again, it’s not terribly surprising, but it’s unsettling, and reading it is an enjoyable way to spend a few minutes.
Image: Picture of an ancient Irish yew tree. In the British Isles, yew trees have been associated with death, as well as immortality, rebirth and magic, since before Celtic times. They are poisonous - and common in churchyards. (Source)
Girls’ boarding schools are different?
I was at a boarding school from age 11 to 18. I wrote about it in my review of Terms and Conditions, HERE. My boarding house was a large Victorian family home. We had no ghost stories of the place, but we did occasionally tell more generic ones after “lights out”.
I read a lot of Wodehouse at school (there wasn’t much else to do, other than read, which suited me), but my Wodehouse reviews on GR (HERE) don’t include any of his school stories. Perhaps I should remedy that, but I prefer Blandings, and Jeeves and Wooster.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
Short stories and novels set in English boarding schools were popular in the first half of the twentieth century. Monthly magazines, including The Strand, Pearson’s and The Captain, often featured them, including some of PG Wodehouse’s earliest pieces, and ones by many other authors who became famous.
This story was published in an anthology of ghost stories in 1911, but is set in 1870 and about thirty years later.
Layers
Two men are discussing their school days, school stories (The Strand and Pearson’s are mentioned), and ghost stories. They ponder the lack of proper ghost stories in schools and why they lack sequels. There is rather too much preamble for such a short story.
The core of the story happens at what I presume is a prep school (boys aged 7-13), and involves Latin lessons, though it explains and translates as much as you need to know. The new master has a curio on his watch chain and is spooked by something a pupil feels compelled to write:
“Si tu non veneris ad me, ego veniam ad te.”
Something happens and, yes, it’s a spooky story.
It’s made more interesting by a short “sequel”. Again, it’s not terribly surprising, but it’s unsettling, and reading it is an enjoyable way to spend a few minutes.
Image: Picture of an ancient Irish yew tree. In the British Isles, yew trees have been associated with death, as well as immortality, rebirth and magic, since before Celtic times. They are poisonous - and common in churchyards. (Source)
Girls’ boarding schools are different?
I was at a boarding school from age 11 to 18. I wrote about it in my review of Terms and Conditions, HERE. My boarding house was a large Victorian family home. We had no ghost stories of the place, but we did occasionally tell more generic ones after “lights out”.
I read a lot of Wodehouse at school (there wasn’t much else to do, other than read, which suited me), but my Wodehouse reviews on GR (HERE) don’t include any of his school stories. Perhaps I should remedy that, but I prefer Blandings, and Jeeves and Wooster.
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
August 16, 2019
This brief but effective M.R. James tale is unique, for it is not really a “haunted school” story at all. It is a "haunted class assignment" story--perhaps the only one I have ever read..
It begins with a couple of men in a “smoking room” discussing the “Folklore of Private Schools”: the passing-the-night-in-the-haunted-room story, the “crawling-man-with-eyeballs-hanging-on-his-cheeks” story, plus the man dead in bed with a horseshoe mark on his forehead, and the ghost who whispers “now we’re shut in for the night.” But then one of the men tells a story that happened to him personally, a story with a different, nastier, distinctly non-folkloric tale feel.
His story tells of a day when Mr. Samson, the new Latin master, gave his students an assignment: to wrote am original sentence using the verb “to remember” (meminī, third conjugation, defective). A boy named McLoed submits the following example: memento putei inter quatuor taxos (“remember the well among the four yew trees”). Sampson seems disturbed, and takes to his bed for a week.
After the master returns to class, though, things function normally again, until the day he orders each student to write an original sentence—a conditional sentence this time, in the form “if-then,” implying a future consequence. It is then that Samson receives a mysterious submission, one that is more than he bargained for.
A chilling little tale. Definitely recommended.
December 14, 2023
3★
" ‘You never can tell with little boys. They have a mythology of their own. There's a subject for you, by the way—The Folklore of Private Schools.”
Two men are talking about their private schools and the sorts of ghost stories people tell about them. One mentions a supposed ‘ghost’s footmark’ on a stair in his school and wonders why nobody has made up a story about it.
They compare a few more notes, talk about magazine stories and such. Then it gets personal.
“‘You never heard, did you, of a real ghost at a private school? I thought not; nobody has that ever I came across.’
‘From the way in which you said that, I gather that you have.
‘I really don't know; but this is what was in my mind. It happened at my private school thirty odd years ago, and I haven't any explanation of it.’”
From there, he recounts his experience in about 1870 or so at a boarding school which was a big old white house with enormous trees in the grounds in the Thames valley. There were 120-130 boys and a fair staff turnover. A new master arrived and was popular with the boys because he used to tell great stories from his many travels when they all went on walks.
He becomes the subject of the ghost story, which I enjoyed. If I had read this when I was a kid and before I’d seen The Twilight Zone and read other fantasies, I would have been more intrigued and possibly shocked. I could imagine a book club enjoying this as a side read.
It’s short and it’s free, so have a look!
https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/james-sch...
This is another from the GR Short Story Club Group.
The Short Story Club
" ‘You never can tell with little boys. They have a mythology of their own. There's a subject for you, by the way—The Folklore of Private Schools.”
Two men are talking about their private schools and the sorts of ghost stories people tell about them. One mentions a supposed ‘ghost’s footmark’ on a stair in his school and wonders why nobody has made up a story about it.
They compare a few more notes, talk about magazine stories and such. Then it gets personal.
“‘You never heard, did you, of a real ghost at a private school? I thought not; nobody has that ever I came across.’
‘From the way in which you said that, I gather that you have.
‘I really don't know; but this is what was in my mind. It happened at my private school thirty odd years ago, and I haven't any explanation of it.’”
From there, he recounts his experience in about 1870 or so at a boarding school which was a big old white house with enormous trees in the grounds in the Thames valley. There were 120-130 boys and a fair staff turnover. A new master arrived and was popular with the boys because he used to tell great stories from his many travels when they all went on walks.
He becomes the subject of the ghost story, which I enjoyed. If I had read this when I was a kid and before I’d seen The Twilight Zone and read other fantasies, I would have been more intrigued and possibly shocked. I could imagine a book club enjoying this as a side read.
It’s short and it’s free, so have a look!
https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/james-sch...
This is another from the GR Short Story Club Group.
The Short Story Club
August 12, 2024
The Short Story Club
I liked the story, maybe because I haven't had much experience reading ghost stories. Or maybe because of the contrast between the narrator's unemotional and prim tone and the hints and signs of the tragedy that was unfolding far from the place where the story was set.
I liked the story, maybe because I haven't had much experience reading ghost stories. Or maybe because of the contrast between the narrator's unemotional and prim tone and the hints and signs of the tragedy that was unfolding far from the place where the story was set.
December 9, 2023
A narrator tells his friend about a supernatural event that occurred when he was a young student. The ghost took revenge on a Latin teacher at a boy's boarding school. The teacher had a tragic, terrible secret in his past. The entertaining short story was first published in 1911 in "More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary."
December 21, 2023
This was a bit odd, but mostly because of its Edwardian sensibilities. There was a lot of preamble to the actual ghost story and it was more a sort of supernatural story than a ghost story (the ghost only appeared once). The narrator recounts the bare bones 3 other ghost stories he’s heard, which I wonder if James actually fleshed out in other stories? I feel like the “sequel” or epigraph of the main story was absolutely necessary for the whole thing to work and hang together.
Apparently, there are but 2 partial paragraphs of this story (the part of the preamble with the ghost story ideas) in the Black Water anthology that the Short Story Club is reading. Strange.
Apparently, there are but 2 partial paragraphs of this story (the part of the preamble with the ghost story ideas) in the Black Water anthology that the Short Story Club is reading. Strange.
September 4, 2018
If you ever wish to read a story where the old maxim of old sins casting long shadows come true, then read this one.
'Nuff said.
'Nuff said.
December 11, 2024
Another well, more Latin and a beckoning ghost. There is a sense of unease but certainly not his best work. I do like the change of direction with a school setting but James does like this usual tropes. An easy read
December 9, 2023
boys seldom allow that their schools possess any tolerable features
This short story, purportedly about ghosts or the inexplicable, is murky and fairly undeveloped. Perhaps the brevity is meant to obscure the lack of backstory and development.
However, it does evoke the flavour of those mysterious events which do occur and continue to haunt our memories.
This short story, purportedly about ghosts or the inexplicable, is murky and fairly undeveloped. Perhaps the brevity is meant to obscure the lack of backstory and development.
However, it does evoke the flavour of those mysterious events which do occur and continue to haunt our memories.
December 21, 2023
A School Story is a short story written by Montague Rhodes James in 1911 and is set in the mid-nineteenth Century. The discussion between former boarding school students turns to ghost stories, and one of the men has a tale that involves a fellow student’s work and their Latin Master: three successive, somewhat inexplicable incidents that occur before the man mysteriously disappears. The sequel adds a real chill to the tale.
June 2, 2025
perhaps i should be reading these on a rainy night with lot of wind to get spooked to atleast the fraction of the hype.
I like the writing style and the mysterious element of Latin in his stories. frankly I liked "Canon Alberic' Scrap book" by the same author better. Especially the medieval church vibes it gave.
I like the writing style and the mysterious element of Latin in his stories. frankly I liked "Canon Alberic' Scrap book" by the same author better. Especially the medieval church vibes it gave.
April 18, 2023
4.25⭐
The miscellaneous hauntings of boys' schools are described by reminiscing older men which is capped by one man with the story of Sampson, a Latin master at his boys' school. During Sampson's Latin class, a Scottish boy (presumably with Second Sight) after a dreamy episode, hands in a sentence which upsets the master: "Remember the well, among the yews." After a second episode a paper appears on the Latin master's desk that says: "If you won't come to me, I'll come to you." Afterwards that night the Scottish boy observes an extremely thin and wet figure appear outside Sampson's windowsill. Sampson is discovered missing the following day and never seen or heard of again. Years later in Ireland a gold piece with Sampson's initials is discovered with two skeletons in a well among the yew trees.
The miscellaneous hauntings of boys' schools are described by reminiscing older men which is capped by one man with the story of Sampson, a Latin master at his boys' school. During Sampson's Latin class, a Scottish boy (presumably with Second Sight) after a dreamy episode, hands in a sentence which upsets the master: "Remember the well, among the yews." After a second episode a paper appears on the Latin master's desk that says: "If you won't come to me, I'll come to you." Afterwards that night the Scottish boy observes an extremely thin and wet figure appear outside Sampson's windowsill. Sampson is discovered missing the following day and never seen or heard of again. Years later in Ireland a gold piece with Sampson's initials is discovered with two skeletons in a well among the yew trees.
December 31, 2023
A School Story - Classic Ghost Short Story
M.R. James
Read with the Short Story Club https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Week starting 11th Dec. 2023. - Story 15
from Black Water 1 (The Anthology of Fantastic Literature)
Read in English
M.R. James
Read with the Short Story Club https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Week starting 11th Dec. 2023. - Story 15
from Black Water 1 (The Anthology of Fantastic Literature)
Read in English
February 15, 2023
The scariest part of this was the Latin, and that wasn't even hard.
I liked the writing and want to read more of his works now, but very much wish this story was more fleshed out.
I liked the writing and want to read more of his works now, but very much wish this story was more fleshed out.
October 12, 2021
It starts out with two adults talking about students and their quaint ghost stories. But one of the adults has, possibly, a haunting tale of his own while he was at school. James is picturesque in his settings, so it's easy to capture in the mind's eye the locations, and the slow buildup of this short tale is excellent. It's creepy but not too gory. If you are looking for good spooky stories for grade school, this one would be a good tale to share- just enough shivers without too much fright.
February 14, 2019
Ghostly and entertaining story with a twist. Really good. 3 stars.
January 17, 2021
Fast moving, kept me engaged to the end, and it was a satisfying read. Can't quite decide between 4 or 5 stars.
October 31, 2022
not scary.
December 23, 2024
Genuinely gave me chills.
February 2, 2026
"The cycle of ghost stories" sums up most of the books I've been listening to/reading lately
October 13, 2018
Author Montague Rhodes James is regarded as the pioneer of horror fiction. ‘A School Story’, is one of his noteworthy works. The plot is unconventional and the ending is unexpected. Even such a short story was enough to give one the chills. The narration is different where the storytelling is in the third person but an unnamed protagonist describes the happenings most of the time. [ 561 more words ]
https://themysterymaker.com/category/...
https://themysterymaker.com/category/...
February 25, 2022
This was the first James story I ever read, and at the time this left an impression on me. I liked the concept of the mysterious message appearing to the teacher. And the ending - though I won't spoil it - is typical, yet no less chilling, for this kind of story. On reading it a second time, I was not as impressed. But it still proves a short and satisfying five pages.
June 6, 2019
This is a story about a couple of men talking, and one proclaiming that you never hear ghost stories affecting private schools, and the other man telling a story about what happened to him at his private school.
June 28, 2015
I've arranged my thoughts into a haiku:
"Horror is subtle,
But intrigue lays in details,
. . .Which could be richer."
"Horror is subtle,
But intrigue lays in details,
. . .Which could be richer."
November 11, 2019
Quite a little story. It’s very minimalist, even simplistic, yet delivers a rather chilling tale.
February 3, 2026
Mission 2026: Binge reviewing (and rereading on occasion) all previous Reads, I was too slothful to review, back when I read them’
Greatest Short Stories
What is it all about (spoiler free)
Set within the apparently safe, rule-bound world of an English school, this story begins innocently enough—with rumours, half-remembered anecdotes, and a faint sense that something once went terribly wrong. A missing figure from the past, an unsettling document, and whispers that refuse to stay buried slowly coalesce into a narrative of quiet dread. Nothing jumps out screaming. Instead, unease seeps in politely, like a well-mannered guest who refuses to leave.
Why is it among the greatest?
Because M.R. James was the undisputed master of the “restrained nightmare,” and ‘A School Story’ is a textbook example of his craft. He weaponises familiarity: classrooms, corridors, institutional routines. The horror doesn’t come from monsters but from implication, omission, and the dreadful power of suggestion. James trusts the reader’s imagination—and that imagination does the worst possible work. The story proves that terror does not need spectacle; it only needs patience and precision.
Why read it in the present time and thereafter?
Because systems we assume are safe—schools, traditions, institutions—often conceal suppressed histories and unresolved wrongs. In an era obsessed with exposure and archival truth, ‘A School Story’ feels eerily contemporary. It reminds us that the past is never really past, especially when it has been deliberately ignored.
Subtle, icy, and devastatingly effective, this is horror that whispers—and stays with you long after you close the book.
M.R. James understood one eternal truth: the quietest stories are often the most haunted.
Most recommended.
Greatest Short Stories
What is it all about (spoiler free)
Set within the apparently safe, rule-bound world of an English school, this story begins innocently enough—with rumours, half-remembered anecdotes, and a faint sense that something once went terribly wrong. A missing figure from the past, an unsettling document, and whispers that refuse to stay buried slowly coalesce into a narrative of quiet dread. Nothing jumps out screaming. Instead, unease seeps in politely, like a well-mannered guest who refuses to leave.
Why is it among the greatest?
Because M.R. James was the undisputed master of the “restrained nightmare,” and ‘A School Story’ is a textbook example of his craft. He weaponises familiarity: classrooms, corridors, institutional routines. The horror doesn’t come from monsters but from implication, omission, and the dreadful power of suggestion. James trusts the reader’s imagination—and that imagination does the worst possible work. The story proves that terror does not need spectacle; it only needs patience and precision.
Why read it in the present time and thereafter?
Because systems we assume are safe—schools, traditions, institutions—often conceal suppressed histories and unresolved wrongs. In an era obsessed with exposure and archival truth, ‘A School Story’ feels eerily contemporary. It reminds us that the past is never really past, especially when it has been deliberately ignored.
Subtle, icy, and devastatingly effective, this is horror that whispers—and stays with you long after you close the book.
M.R. James understood one eternal truth: the quietest stories are often the most haunted.
Most recommended.
October 22, 2025
Just listened to this on YouTube, while I had a bit of 'down-time'
I was keen to hear the voice of the late and great Sir Michael Hordern again and found a version he read of 'A School Story'.
This pretty average MR James story is given more umph by hearing it read by him.
That said, all the usual Jamesian elements are here - brevity of prose, Edwardian sensibilities, and disconcerting, unexplainable anecdotes leaving the audience to ponder their meaning.
Hordern was one of the first voices I fell 'in love' with as a kid when he played Gandalf in the BBC Radio's LOTR and he could have read a shampoo bottle label and I would have listened in rapt attention.
Hordern and James go hand in glove, in my opinion.
He also narrated Paddington Bear in the 70's on TV, too - what a virtuoso!:)
I was keen to hear the voice of the late and great Sir Michael Hordern again and found a version he read of 'A School Story'.
This pretty average MR James story is given more umph by hearing it read by him.
That said, all the usual Jamesian elements are here - brevity of prose, Edwardian sensibilities, and disconcerting, unexplainable anecdotes leaving the audience to ponder their meaning.
Hordern was one of the first voices I fell 'in love' with as a kid when he played Gandalf in the BBC Radio's LOTR and he could have read a shampoo bottle label and I would have listened in rapt attention.
Hordern and James go hand in glove, in my opinion.
He also narrated Paddington Bear in the 70's on TV, too - what a virtuoso!:)
December 21, 2023
First story in the Black Water Collection that didn't do much for me . Oddly the collection itself has only a few lines , and not even the opening lines from this story , although quite similar , so this was sourced via a useful link from The Short Story Book Club.
Its about a ghostly experience by children in a Victorian boarding school, recounted many years later by one old boy to a friend . The plot seems to hinge on knowledge of Latin , so I'm at a disadvantage and this may be why i was unengaged. That said it was a simple plot , pedestrian in its development only redeemed by the unresolved ending which offered no ready answers as to the relationship between the ghost and its victim .
Its about a ghostly experience by children in a Victorian boarding school, recounted many years later by one old boy to a friend . The plot seems to hinge on knowledge of Latin , so I'm at a disadvantage and this may be why i was unengaged. That said it was a simple plot , pedestrian in its development only redeemed by the unresolved ending which offered no ready answers as to the relationship between the ghost and its victim .
July 30, 2020
The MR James challenge continues abreast.
A short and perfectly formed creepy little tale. I would say ghost story, but I'm not sure this is a ghost story as such, although something that should be dead is indeed wandering around claiming what is theirs.
Wonderful as always and a fabulous little gem of a piece, a bit of a departure from the James usual style of antiquarians and cursed artifacts, but loses nothing from this. And with a creepy little ending.
On to the next one.
A short and perfectly formed creepy little tale. I would say ghost story, but I'm not sure this is a ghost story as such, although something that should be dead is indeed wandering around claiming what is theirs.
Wonderful as always and a fabulous little gem of a piece, a bit of a departure from the James usual style of antiquarians and cursed artifacts, but loses nothing from this. And with a creepy little ending.
On to the next one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews