For me this is simply the best collection of horror stories. Yes, a bit tame by some 21st century standards, but read them on a Winter's afternoon, wind blowing outside and a muffled clock ticking in the next room. Perhaps a cup of tea or even a glass of sherry. Quite cosy,...hang on I think that was the front gate... ( )

I will doubtless court the wrath of James devotees by saying I was somewhat disappointed by this book.

Not that it was bad. Some of the stories (notably "'Oh Whistle and I'll come to you my lad'" and "Casting the Runes") are well known and justly so. I also find "The Mezzotint" agreeably creepy.

But tastes have changed and many of the stories, despite their excellent writing, have dated badly, seeming tame in comparison with today's more bloodthirsty writers. Almost nothing happens in many of them and in others I was left thinking "Huh?".

Maybe a reread in a few months time will yield more. We shall see ( )

Henry James once said that the most effective ghost stories are connected to everyday life at a thousand different points. M.R. James took this to heart; the most effective stories herein are those that take some normal, everyday occurance and find the terror lurking beneath the surface. The stories all begin rather pleasantly; there are polite conversations and new discoveries and some very funny turns of phrase. In some cases, there's a gradual buildup, a sense of menace that pervades the entire piece. In others, the horrific twist takes the characters by surprise. In all the stories, though, there's a real sense that this could happen to you.

James does a masterful job of combining the ordinary and the strange. In each of these stories, the characters find themselves involved in some normal occurance that is nonetheless outside the norm. Many of them spend time in hotels, buildings that are both profoundly normal and divorced from the norm. Others make exciting new purchases and bring objects both everyday and sinister into their homes.

A hotel room with three windows suddenly has only two. A picture changes slightly every time the viewer returns to it. An empty bed isn't. In each case, the reader can imagine just such a thing happening to them. The true terror behind the stories lies not in the tales themselve but in the way they spark the reader's imagination.

If you have any interest in ghost stories, you really ought to pick up any of James's collections. He's exerted a huge influence on many, if not all, of the ghost story writers who've come after him. COLLECTED GHOST STORIES contains almost all his stories, but diehards may wish to pick up the COMPLETE GHOST STORIES instead. Penguin also publishes a gorgeous little edition of selected stories entitled THE HAUNTED DOLL'S HOUSE.

(This review originally appeared in a slightly different form on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

A slightly expanded version of this review is posted on my blog:
http://jlshall.blogspot.com/2008/11/r...

This Penguin edition combines all four volumes of M.R. James’s ghost stories, first issued between 1904 and 1931. James said he wrote these stories intending to “put the reader into the position of saying to himself: ‘If I'm not careful, something of this kind may happen to me!’” And in that, I believe he was successful. These are all classic ghost tales – formulaic, to be sure (the settings and characters and basic plots can seem a bit repetitive when you read them all together like this), but still disturbing enough to make you squirm a bit in your comfy chair.

James also claimed not to have any use for “amiable” spirits. His ghosts are malevolent and vindictive and frightening. They are frequently amorphous, monstrous creations – seemingly conjured from ashes or leaves or dust, with few human characteristics about them. They have more in common with Lovecraft’s “nameless horrors” than they do with the ethereal or attractive spirits in some folk tales or modern gothic romances.

Most of these stories were new to me, although there were a few I had read before and one ("Casting the Runes" – probably his best-known tale) that I'd read several times over the years. And one of them ("Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad") has one of my favorite lines from all the ghost stories I’ve read (you should know that our protagonist is staying alone at a hotel, in a double-bedded room):

. . . the reader will hardly, perhaps, imagine how dreadful it was to him to see a figure suddenly sit up in what he had known was an empty bed.

Makes me shiver as I type. ( )

Rereading these stories still made me shake a bit. Antique and dated, but in the nicest sense. ( )