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Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

M.R. James

Start date: October 1, 2016

Finish date: October 31, 2016

Discussion: Current Group Read

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Apr 07, 2017 Danielle The Book Huntress rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-horror, favorites, cursed-object, favorite-or-autobuy-author, ghost, books-about-books, nun-monk-minister, classics-for-beginners-group-read, ghost-story-collection

I first read MR James several years ago, and he still remains my favorite ghost story writer. This volume has a few of his best stories in it. MR James was an antiquarian (studied, translated and catalogued old books, particularly religious texts), so he knew all about dusty books, religious tomes, in particular, and old places with plenty of history and mystery, and that's evident in his stories. Some might not get the narration style, but many of these were invented for telling instead of read I first read MR James several years ago, and he still remains my favorite ghost story writer. This volume has a few of his best stories in it. MR James was an antiquarian (studied, translated and catalogued old books, particularly religious texts), so he knew all about dusty books, religious tomes, in particular, and old places with plenty of history and mystery, and that's evident in his stories. Some might not get the narration style, but many of these were invented for telling instead of reading. He had a circle of friends that would get together on cold winter nights and share ghost stories. I need friends like that. I like the fact that each has a nice build of tension and a dramatic conclusion.

Here are my thoughts about the stories in this book:

"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book"--This tells of a man's memory of a beastly creature that he captured in the back of a religious manuscript and that gave me a shudder.
"Lost Hearts"--Creepy story about child killer who gets his comeuppance
"The Mezzotint"--If a picture could be alive and tell us a story what would it look like? That's what this story is about. It's really chilling to think of, especially when it's showing something quite disturbing.
"The Ash-tree"--Yeah, that's pretty icky. Let's face it, insects and arachnids have an inherent creep factor. Combine that with a vengeful spirit in a tree and no sleep for me tonight.
"Number 13"--Imagine you stay in a hotel room and hear ungodly sounds from a room next door that doesn't exist, and something doesn't want you to find out if and what happened in that room. Yeah, creepy.
"Count Magnus"--I didn't quite get this one, but I felt it was a bit of a vampire story. My second least favorite.
"'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad''"--This was my first story by MR James that I read in an anthology and I was hooked. A ghost is basically stalking the narrator and even comes so far as to share the room with him. The tension in this story is great, right up to a thrilling conclusion.
"The Treasure of Abbot Thomas"--My least favorite. I had to make about four attempts to read this. It's just a bit too academic for me. It's about a word puzzle used to find an obscure treasure. The payoff really isn't that satisfying.

As I found out with the group read, MR James is not for everyone. He's a bit too fussy and antiquated for some modern readers. However, I love the old guy and I will always look forward to reading his ghost stories.

Overall rating: 4.25/5.0 stars.
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