More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

Rating:
Summary: still the master
Review: considering the first book (see my review there), in this book james goes a little bit more away from the traditional ghost story elements, using more imagination, and investing more in descriptions of things like gardens and houses, making the stories more of what you could call "interesting", but the horror is not as great, but james is still a master

Rating:
Summary: More Foreboding Tales by One of the Best
Review: It's really too bad that this Dover book has gone out of print; while the best introduction to the stories of M.R. James undoubtedly remains the first volume, "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary", this sequel nevertheless contains several characteristically disquieting tales.

The "ghost" designation is a bit misleading, as these stories seldom if ever involve ghosts in the conventional sense. The plots often proceed according to a rough pattern: an ancient entity - usually evil, and always real, never imagined - is invoked, whether deliberately or inadvertently. The entity then stalks a particular person for some time, causing increasing trepidation on the part of the victim as he gradually realizes that he is in deadly peril. It is in the description of this stalking that James is at his most harrowing, and he is very good at it indeed.

Despite this pattern, James is enough of a master at storytelling that one doesn't have the feeling he is simply writing the same story over and over. His scholarship and command of the language are evident throughout the book, and they lend a variety to the telling which would be absent in a lesser writer.

The stories in this volume (with some of my comments in parentheses) are:

- A School Story ("If you don't come to me, I'll come to you.")

- The Rose Garden

- The Tractate Middoth

- Casting the Runes (this was the basis of a quite good 1957 British film, "Curse of the Demon")

- The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral

- Martin's Close

- Mr. Humphries and His Inheritance (the inheritance being the home - complete with maze garden and temple - of an uncle he had never met. But what was the meaning of the elaborately engraved copper globe at the center of the maze, and why had his uncle kept the garden gate padlocked all those years? Mr. Humphries is curious to find out, and so he does...)

In short, not to be missed by fans of the first volume, nor by anyone who likes a good scary tale well told.

Rating:
Summary: More Foreboding Tales by One of the Best
Review: It's really too bad that this Dover book has gone out of print; while the best introduction to the stories of M.R. James undoubtedly remains the first volume, "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary", this sequel nevertheless contains several characteristically disquieting tales.

The "ghost" designation is a bit misleading, as these stories seldom if ever involve ghosts in the conventional sense. The plots often proceed according to a rough pattern: an ancient entity - usually evil, and always real, never imagined - is invoked, whether deliberately or inadvertently. The entity then stalks a particular person for some time, causing increasing trepidation on the part of the victim as he gradually realizes that he is in deadly peril. It is in the description of this stalking that James is at his most harrowing, and he is very good at it indeed.

Despite this pattern, James is enough of a master at storytelling that one doesn't have the feeling he is simply writing the same story over and over. His scholarship and command of the language are evident throughout the book, and they lend a variety to the telling which would be absent in a lesser writer.

The stories in this volume (with some of my comments in parentheses) are:

- A School Story ("If you don't come to me, I'll come to you.")

- The Rose Garden

- The Tractate Middoth

- Casting the Runes (this was the basis of a quite good 1957 British film, "Curse of the Demon")

- The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral

- Martin's Close

- Mr. Humphries and His Inheritance (the inheritance being the home - complete with maze garden and temple - of an uncle he had never met. But what was the meaning of the elaborately engraved copper globe at the center of the maze, and why had his uncle kept the garden gate padlocked all those years? Mr. Humphries is curious to find out, and so he does...)

In short, not to be missed by fans of the first volume, nor by anyone who likes a good scary tale well told.

Rating:
Summary: "Penetrans Ad Interior Mortis"
Review: The ghost stories of M.R. James (MRJ) are widely considered to be the best supernatural literature ever written. "More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" was his second collection of short stories to be published (1911) and includes seven tales of the supernatural.

However, you might want to spend a bit more money and buy the "The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James." If you completely succumb to the refined but potent horror of this author's writings, only "A Pleasing Terror" (Ash Tree Press 2001) will then do. The latter book contains all of MRJ's supernatural literature, including story fragments that were never completed, biographies, bibliographies, commentary, and his fantasy novelette, "The Five Jars."

"More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" consists of the following stories, plus a brief preface by the author:

"A School Story"--MRJ was a dean at King's College, Cambridge and he supposedly wrote this story to entertain the King's College Choir. I believe it is one of his shortest complete stories and it contains several ideas for further tales of the supernatural which were never followed up by MRJ himself. In this tale two middle-aged men are reminiscing about ghosts at boys' schools, and one relates a story of a schoolboy's revenge on a murderous master.

"The Rose Garden"--Features one of MRJ's less sympathetic female characters. The overbearing Mrs. Anstruther gets her supernatural comeuppance when she insists upon the removal of an old oak post in the rose garden.

"The Tractate Middoth"--The young Mr. Garrett is asked to find a copy of the "Tractate Middoth" in a "certain famous library" and stumbles upon a cobwebby mystery. Find yourself a quiet, unpopulated corner in the stacks of an old library and see if you can read this story without looking behind you. This is MRJ at his antiquarian best.

"Casting the Runes"--One of MRJ's most collected stories along with "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad." The villain of tale is sometimes assumed to be based on the self-styled 'Great Beast,' occultist Aleister Crowley. He and MRJ might have crossed paths at Cambridge University although there seems to be no proof that the scholarly Dean ever met the so-called 'wickedest man in the world.' At any rate, this is a tale of a man who unwittingly angers a sorcerer.

"The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral"--This story begins with the obituary of the Venerable John Benwell Haynes, Archdeacon of Sowerbridge and Rector of Pickhill and Candley. He succeeded to his position upon the rather mysterious demise of Archdeacon Pulteney in 1810, but does not find much enjoyment in his new job. In fact, the archideacon's stall with its carvings of a cat, the King of Hell, and Death becomes a particularly haunting spot for the new prelate.

"Martin's Close"--The bit of land referred to in the story's title is "one of the smallest enclosures you are likely to see." It consists of a pond that is hedged all around with no gate or entrance. The tale of its haunting is told primarily through a court record from the time of Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, he of the infamous 'Bloody Assize' that followed the Monmouth Rebellion. In spite of this rather awkward structure, it is a very frightening tale of supernatural revenge.

"Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance"--Once installed as the new master of his deceased uncle's estate, Mr. Humphreys discovers the plan to an overgrown maze on his property. He decides to investigate the old landscaping feature, which was erected by one of his most notorious ancestors. Mr. Humphreys also discovers a set of stone blocks that were once part of the maze. He reconstructs the inscription on them to read: "Penetrans Ad Interior Mortis."

Rating:
Summary: "Penetrans Ad Interior Mortis"
Review: The ghost stories of M.R. James (MRJ) are widely considered to be the best supernatural literature ever written. "More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" was his second collection of short stories to be published (1911) and includes seven tales of the supernatural.

However, you might want to spend a bit more money and buy the "The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James." If you completely succumb to the refined but potent horror of this author's writings, only "A Pleasing Terror" (Ash Tree Press 2001) will then do. The latter book contains all of MRJ's supernatural literature, including story fragments that were never completed, biographies, bibliographies, commentary, and his fantasy novelette, "The Five Jars."

"More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" consists of the following stories, plus a brief preface by the author:

"A School Story"--MRJ was a dean at King's College, Cambridge and he supposedly wrote this story to entertain the King's College Choir. I believe it is one of his shortest complete stories and it contains several ideas for further tales of the supernatural which were never followed up by MRJ himself. In this tale two middle-aged men are reminiscing about ghosts at boys' schools, and one relates a story of a schoolboy's revenge on a murderous master.

"The Rose Garden"--Features one of MRJ's less sympathetic female characters. The overbearing Mrs. Anstruther gets her supernatural comeuppance when she insists upon the removal of an old oak post in the rose garden.

"The Tractate Middoth"--The young Mr. Garrett is asked to find a copy of the "Tractate Middoth" in a "certain famous library" and stumbles upon a cobwebby mystery. Find yourself a quiet, unpopulated corner in the stacks of an old library and see if you can read this story without looking behind you. This is MRJ at his antiquarian best.

"Casting the Runes"--One of MRJ's most collected stories along with "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad." The villain of tale is sometimes assumed to be based on the self-styled 'Great Beast,' occultist Aleister Crowley. He and MRJ might have crossed paths at Cambridge University although there seems to be no proof that the scholarly Dean ever met the so-called 'wickedest man in the world.' At any rate, this is a tale of a man who unwittingly angers a sorcerer.

"The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral"--This story begins with the obituary of the Venerable John Benwell Haynes, Archdeacon of Sowerbridge and Rector of Pickhill and Candley. He succeeded to his position upon the rather mysterious demise of Archdeacon Pulteney in 1810, but does not find much enjoyment in his new job. In fact, the archideacon's stall with its carvings of a cat, the King of Hell, and Death becomes a particularly haunting spot for the new prelate.

"Martin's Close"--The bit of land referred to in the story's title is "one of the smallest enclosures you are likely to see." It consists of a pond that is hedged all around with no gate or entrance. The tale of its haunting is told primarily through a court record from the time of Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, he of the infamous 'Bloody Assize' that followed the Monmouth Rebellion. In spite of this rather awkward structure, it is a very frightening tale of supernatural revenge.

"Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance"--Once installed as the new master of his deceased uncle's estate, Mr. Humphreys discovers the plan to an overgrown maze on his property. He decides to investigate the old landscaping feature, which was erected by one of his most notorious ancestors. Mr. Humphreys also discovers a set of stone blocks that were once part of the maze. He reconstructs the inscription on them to read: "Penetrans Ad Interior Mortis."