M. R. James

Introduction

This blog accompanies the web-publication of fifteen ghost stories by M. R. James, to be uploaded one per week, starting today, March 7th, 2004. Here is the complete list (links and dates will be added as each is uploaded):

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904)

1. Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book (March 7, 2004)
2. Lost Hearts (March 14, 2004)
3. The Mezzotint (March 21, 2004)
4. The Ash-Tree (March 28, 2004)
5. Number 13 (April 27, 2004)
6. Count Magnus
7. ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’
8. The Treasure of Abbot Thomas

More Ghost Stories (1911)

1. A School Story
2. The Rose Garden
3. The Tractate Middoth
4. Casting the Runes
5. The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral
6. Martin’s Close
7. Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance

Stories will be uploaded weekly, usually very early on Sunday mornings, so “Lost Hearts” should be up shortly after midnight on March 14th.

I will have further remarks here on the project as a whole, but I thought it best to start by uploading the first story with a very few marginal notes and seeing what readers think of it. James’ brief preface, and information on his life and other works, will come later.

M. R. James wrote two more collections of ghost stories, and a few more that were included only in larger collections, but (a) some of the later ones are still in copyright, and the cutoff date is not entirely clear, and (b) the first two collections contain most of the best stories. I cannot promise to publish more than the first 15, but if there is sufficient demand . . . .

1. Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book

The story is now on-line here. Please place any general literary questions or answers you may have in the comments to this post. This should include the most interesting comments, on the story as a whole — verisimilitude, atmosphere, dramatic surprise, effectivness of literary and historical allusions, and anything else that comes under the general heading of literary criticism. Don’t be afraid to evaluate, as long as you can back up your evaluation. “This story sucks because I don’t like it” is not good enough. If that’s all you have to say, please keep it to yourself.

Please place any historical or geographical questions or comments you may have in these comments. I am looking for questions and answers on James’ settings in time and place. Here’s an example: The fifth story, “Number 13”, is set in Viborg, Denmark. Though I have not found anything so far in a brief Google session, I suspect that the Rigsarchiv of Viborg is a real place, that there are pictures of it on the web, and that not knowing Danish will be a real handicap in finding them. If I am right about the last, I’m hoping readers will be able to help me out.

Please post any linguistic or exegetical questions or answers you may have in these comments. What particular words or phrases need to be explained? This first story includes swatches of Latin, which James translates, and bits of French, which he does not. Other stories include the occasional bit of Danish and other languages I’ve forgotten for the moment. Marginal glosses will obviously help. This is also the place to explain obsolete English usage, and pictures (or links to them) may occasionally be appropriate. In one of his stories, James mentions a “Turk’s-head broom”: a picture of such a broom would obviously add a lot to a mere verbal description.

Finally, this comment-thread is reserved for typographical errors and formatting problems: misspelled words, missing accents, mismatched punctuation marks, bad HTML, and so on. I don't expect anyone except myself to actually read it.

Please try to post your comments in the right thread. And please be specific: I have numbered the paragraphs in each story for convenience of reference. (I should note that different editions paragraph James differently, and my numbers are not to be taken as in any way authoritative.)

2. Lost Hearts

I have uploaded the second story, ‘Lost Hearts’. As before, please place any general literary questions or answers you may have in the comments to this post, and save other comments for the next three posts. I have not yet posted any notes on the text, and plenty more or needed on “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book”.

As before, please place any historical or geographical questions or comments you may have here. Can someone more knowledgeable than I about English architecture come up with links to houses resembling the fictional Aswarby Hall?

As before, these comments are for linguistic and exegetical questions and answers.

Finally, this comment-thread is again reserved for typographical errors and formatting problems, either in the story or in this blog.

3. The Mezzotint

Here is the third story: ‘The Mezzotint’, with just a couple of explanatory notes so far. Place your literary comments here.

Place any historical or geographical questions or comments here.

Place linguistic and exegetical questions and answers in this comments.

As usual, this is the place to report typographical errors and formatting problems, either in the story or in this blog.

4. The Ash-Tree

Here is the fourth story: ‘The Ash-Tree’, with no explanatory notes so far. Place your literary comments here. I’ve always found it less interesting than the first three: am I missing something?

As before, place any historical or geographical questions or comments here.

As before, place linguistic and exegetical questions and answers in this comments.

Once again, report typographical errors and formatting problems here.