M. R. James (1) (1862–1936)

The 1984 Penguin Complete Edition of M R James' Ghost Stories includes all four published collections (1904, 1911, 1919 and 1925) with a very few rather weak appended items as well as a very short but informative Preface by the great man himself. This particular edition appears now to be out of print.

However, all these stories - seminal in the development of a particular type of detailed and scholarly horror tale that keeps threatening to prefigure the Lovecraftian but never quite makes the show more leap - are easily available and cheap online or elsewhere.

A complete works is never going to be completely masterful but the majority of stories are in that category with excellent tales appearing in all collections. Above all, we are attracted to the stories' atmosphere - introverted scholarly men facing uncanny discomfort and downright horror.

Sometimes introverted scholarly men are the bringers of horror through malice but here is one common denominator - the educated rational man out of his depth when his eagerness for knowledge results in the uncovering of something dark and malign invested in what he seeks.

But it is not modern 'cosmic' horror. The prevailing evil is much closer to the medieval and early modern fear of devils and the Devil, of something evil lurking in the natural, in the occult buried in something from the past and above all the dark power of text (which Lovecraft does develop further).

Hidden deeper is a very old fear of knowledge itself, of what it might uncover. This may be very much the anxiety of the cloistered academic in an era that was still coming to terms with both Darwin and serious Biblical criticism. The stories may be a late nineteenth century scholar's shadow side.

There is so much intelligent criticism available that not much can be usefully added by me. I can recommend the relevant passages in Merlin Coverley's relatively recent 'Hauntology' (reviewed here on Goodreads by myself) as an excellent starting point.

All I can do is suggest that anyone interested in the Gothic, in horror, in the weird tale, in the ghost story and, indeed, in Edwardian culture needs to have the James tales in his or her library as well as make the effort to dig out some of the excellent BBC and other TV and film adaptations.

If I had to recommend just one story to give a flavour of the man's work, I would be hard put to it to choose between 'Lost Hearts', 'Oh, Whistle and I'll Come To You, My Lad', 'The Tractate Middoth', 'Casting the Runes' and 'A Warning to the Curious'.

Just those central five stories give you pagan child murder, malice that oozes around a magical text, a slip of paper whose possession means death and damnation and two similar hauntings from the past in which artefacts bring terror on the Anglian coast. James is strong on old artefacts that bring terror. show less

Christmas Ghost Stories: Classic Victorian Tales for Cold Winter Nights
Rating: 4.5 / 5

This is an exceptionally well-curated and well-framed collection. I enjoyed it far more than I expected, and I read it quickly—one of those books where the momentum sneaks up on you.

Wells’s introduction does real work, not just scene-setting. It clearly explains why Christmas became a season for ghost stories: long nights, enforced domestic closeness, cold, ritual, memory, and the tension between show more comfort and unease. That framing carries through the whole book. Each story is preceded by its own introduction, and those are just as valuable—brief but intelligent discussions of the author, the historical moment, and what kind of horror you’re about to encounter.

What I appreciated most is the range Wells highlights without flattening it. There’s domestic horror, where the threat is inside the home and the family structure itself. There’s horror of the unseen, horror of the half-seen, and horror that relies on implication rather than spectacle. There’s even room for a lighter, almost comic piece—something to relieve the pressure so the evening doesn’t become relentlessly grim. That balance feels very true to how these stories were originally told and consumed.

The standout for me was The Nurse’s Story, which remains one of the most chilling Christmas ghost stories ever written, precisely because the person in danger is a lonely child rather than a reckless adult. The collection as a whole reinforces how often Victorian ghost stories are about neglect, moral coldness, and quiet failures of care, rather than monsters.

The only story that did not work for me was The Brown Hand. The problem isn’t the premise—it’s the ending. After setting up a haunting rooted in colonial exploitation and bodily violation, the resolution feels evasive. The ghost is effectively tricked, which undermines the story’s own moral argument. Instead of reckoning, the narrative opts for reassurance, and that sits badly alongside the book’s broader themes about consequence and responsibility.

That single misfire aside, this is an excellent anthology. Wells respects the reader, trusts the material, and gives just enough context to deepen the experience without explaining the fear away. It’s thoughtful, unsettling, and very satisfying to read in winter, when darkness comes early and the house feels a little too quiet.

Highly recommended for readers who like their ghost stories intelligent, historically grounded, and morally sharp. show less

Based on the classic M. R. James ghost story “Casting the Runes”, Jacques Tourneur’s "Night of the Demon" is one of the all-time great British horror films. The film begins with an American psychologist John Holden (Dana Andrews) visiting a London symposium aimed at exposing the fraudulent nature of the occult with a particular focus on cult leader Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis). When symposium leader, Henry Harrington (Maurice Denham) dies in mysterious circumstances his niece show more Joanna (Peggy Cummins) tries to convince Holden that Karswell killed Harrington via a runic curse. She persuades Holden to look at a mysterious old tome and they visit Karswell at his country estate. Both Karswell and his mother warn Holden off, but his analytical scientific mind is not willing to hear any warnings. When he begins to suffer strange aural and visual hallucinations and discovers a mysterious runic parchment slipped to him by Karswell, Holden begins to realise that he is in real danger and has to contrive a way to pass the runes back to Karswell before the appointed hour.

"Night of the Demon" is a brilliantly effective film, full of stunning photography and superb visual touches from master director Jacques Tourneur of "Cat People" (1942) and "I Walked With a Zombie" (1943) fame. The brilliance of the film is all the more impressive given the massive disagreements between producer Hal E. Chester and Tourneur and writer Charles Bennett. Both Tourneur and Bennett wanted the focus to be ambiguous and psychologically based, but Bennett was adamant that a literal monster or demon required to be shown. Chester got his way and a demon was inserted into the film and it features heavily at the climax. Personally I would have preferred the film without the literal demon being shown, but it does not distract from the overall impact of the film – the demon, based visually on traditional demonic woodcuts has it's own strangely chilling quality. Where the film stands out, however, is in the unsettling psychological aspects where it is never clear whether events are real or not; whether they have a rational or demonic explanation. Tourneur avoids simple scares and instead concentrates on developing an atmosphere of dread and unease which begins to blur reality. The film is full of individually creepy sequences: a bleak, ancient Stonehenge with an overlying doom-laden narration; Holden being "pursued" through the woods; a children's party that descends into stormy chaos; a cat that takes on a demonic aspect; a séance that runs out of control. Even empty corridors take on a strangely sinister aspect, which is symbolic of the overall stunning production design – Karswell's oddly designed country house and its strange geometry and spiral staircases being possibly the epitome of beautiful but disquieting design. The high contrast monochrome photography by cinematographer Ed Scaife is stunning and cleverly adds to the disquieting feel developed by Tourneur. All these elements appear overlaid by Freudian analytics with the demon offering huge potential for metaphorical interpretation. Dana Andrews’s portrayal of John Holden in particular appears a textbook case of a hyper-rational character, unwilling or unable to see beyond the surface. His stubborn grasp on one and only one rationalist explanation of life and reality makes him a cold and smug character. His unwillingness to countenance any other explanations for his plight places him in huge danger and its only when he admits his fears and doubts that he finds a way to fight Karswell – indeed going beneath the surface veneer was the only way he could battle his own demons. Niall MacGinnis is excellent as Karswell, a smoothly genial warlock who is warm, intelligent, articulate and likeable – MacGinnis brilliantly portraying the warm and seductive qualities of evil. Peggy Cummins is also very good as an intelligent and proactive young woman determined to find her way to the truth. "Night of the Demon" is a brilliant film – the powerfully suspenseful direction, the doomy narrative feel of unease, the superb individual set pieces, the stylish black and white photography and the excellent all round performances make this a masterpiece of both horror and British cinema. show less

A brief and idiosyncratic survey of manuscript studies, written in James' very characteristically delightful style. A representative passage: "This little episode is one that demonstrates, in a rather pleasant way, the value of the study of handwritings and of the inscriptions written by scribes; the light it throws on the history of scholarship is unexpected, and is worth having" (p. 18).

James offers up brief summaries of manuscript production and then tracks various large manuscript show more libraries through their various dispersions and meanderings. He offers up some hints (many still useful) for identifying manuscripts based on their inscriptions or distinctive shelfmarks, and surveys surviving medieval libraries in England. Near the close of the book James offers a brief section on early English manuscript collectors: Richard de Bury ("I am inclined to think that he was a humbug"), John Tiptoft, and later Cotton, Parker, Bale, and Dee.

James' ultimate section is worth quoting at length, as it still holds quite true, and not just about manuscripts: "The moral is: Be inquisitive. See books for yourself; do not trust that the cataloguer has told you everything. I am a cataloguer myself, and I know that, try as he may, a worker of that class cannot hope to know or to see every detail that is of importance. The creature is human, and on some days his mind is less alert than on others. ... But in spite of the imperfections of cataloguers, catalogues must be used, and they must be read and not only referred to."

A delightful little book. show less