Montague Rhodes James (1862–1936)

You know what you're getting with M R James - spooky things from the past where if you dig too hard they'll kill you - but this really does feel just like ringing the changes on the same basic theme. The first story in this collection even has an author's note at the end saying "It will be said, perhaps, and not unjustly, that this is no more than a variation on a former story of mine called The Mezzotint. I can only hope that there is enough of variation in the setting to make the repetition of the motif tolerable.", which kind of sums it up. To be clear it's enjoyable enough! I expected basically this stuff. But it definitely feels like a step down in quality. Everyone is an antiquarian wandering about the countryside and staying at country houses. The spookiest story - A Warning to the Curious - feels quite similar to Count Magnus. But overall it's really hard to pick between these stories. I enjoyed it enough because I do really like his style but there's nothing special in these ones.

(Note that this is rating the stories from the original publication, the editions are a bit weird here. List copied from wikipedia:

"The Haunted Dolls' House"
"The Uncommon Prayer-Book"
"A Neighbour's Landmark"
"A View from a Hill"
"A Warning to the Curious"
"An Evening's Entertainment")… (more)

Reread because I forgot I read it and only realised when I got to the story about the unmarked crypt in the cathedral, haha. It's understandable because although *enjoyable* and a few are pretty captivating outside of particular images they're not particularly memorable stories. Each story has 1 image which you'll come away remembering, with the rest of the story building atmosphere. The aforementioned "An Episode of Cathedral History" is probably the best because it goes into the most detail and the Two Doctors is the worst because it feels pretty insubstantial but they're all enjoyable enough. I found the hair monster in the diary of Mr Poynter kind of funny rather than scary, tbh. Although still enjoyably creepy. It's interesting how indirect the supernatural experience is - it's always reported through the experiences of other characters, usually second hand at that, and although the supernatural is obviously important to all the plots usually it's made to feel almost secondary to the events scaffolding it that provide the context.… (more)

I have been long looking forward to this volume, which I backed on Unbound and have been saving for a rainy day. It collects the unpublished letters of M.R. James, and gives entirely satisfactory transcriptions of the letters. Unfortunately the editorial apparatus leaves a bit to be desired: the headings for each letter tend to repeat the salutation rather than giving the name of the recipient, which would be more useful; sometimes it is not evident to whom the letters are addressed. There are inconsistencies in the formatting of names and dates and such in the notes, which is off-putting. And the notes would have worked better as footnotes rather than being placed at the end of each letter; they would have taken up less space and improved the formatting of the book. There is also some odd repetition of some material in the notes where it is not necessary, and some lack of repetition or cross-referencing or explanation where it might have been useful. All rather quibbly I'm afraid, but there it is.

The letters themselves shed some light on James' family relationships and his work, with occasional commentary on vacations and cats; there is not much here for the fan of his stories. But I didn't expect there would be, particularly, so in that regard I was not disappointed. All this said, I'm quite glad the volume has been published and that we'll have it to refer to.… (more)

Ibi Cubavit Lamia
(There laid the screech owl)

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep?
(253)

But in another minute they were in the sitting-room of the house, a small, high chamber with a stone floor, full of moving shadows cast by a wood-fire that flickered on a great hearth.
(4)

I can only just manage to tell you now the bare outline of the experience. I was conscious of a most horrible smell of mould, and of a cold kind of face pressed against my own, and moving slowly over it, and of several - I don't know how many - legs or arms or tentacles or something clinging to my body.
(95)

He never saw much of what was around him, but he felt the scenes most vividly.
(107)

How clear Betton bell sounds tonight after the rain!; but instead images came to me of dusty beams and creeping spiders and savage owls up in the tower, and forgotten graves and their ugly contents below, and of flying Time and all it had taken out of my life.
(285)
… (more)