Amph Montague Rhodes James

I've come across comments written by other authors that are so profound I don't think I could convey those opinions as thoughtfully of one, Montague Rhodes James, reigning master of ghost stories and the supernatural.

I'd like to share some of them.

Author Ruth Rendell on James and his tales of suspense:

"There are some authors one wishes one had never read in order to have the joy of reading them for the first time. For me, M. R. James is one of these...

James has a curious technique of withholding information in a way that allows a very free play to the reader's imagination as well as creating a peculiarly uneasy kind of suspense...

His stories begin quietly, often with a description of a place, a town or a country house or library, and his traveller to whom in a little while dreadful things will happen, is a scholarly person. There are - at first - no ghosts and no demons, only the a gradually increasing , indefinable, slow menace. And James's characters bring trouble upon themselves by such simple innocent actions, by being a little too curious, for instance, by merely examining an old manuscript or borrowing a certain book, by picking up an apparently harmless object on the beach...

It is quiet and comfortable in the museum, the hotel bedchamber or the set of rooms in the college. Of course one is quite alone with one's incunabula, a candle burning, a pipe of tobacco, the curtains drawn against the windy night. Possibly hung about one's neck is a crucifix inexplicably given one by a nervous serving maid. There is an inscription given in some dead language to be translated, works of reference to be consulted. Still, eventually the work is done, the illuminated page turned, and one happens to look up - but what is that in the corner of the room, in the shadows where the light from the candle cannot quite reach..."


The erroneous and misinformed
introduction author Michael Chabon wrote for the 2002 edition of Oxford World's Classic, Casting The Runes And Other Ghost Stories. As poor as it stands as a biography or bibliography, Chabon strikes gold when he draws comparisions between Lovecraft and James that are witty, revelent and funny.

Best volumes to seek,

Collected Ghost Stories (or alternatively titled The Collected Ghost Stories of M R James) by M R James. Various publishers. 31 short tales.

Casting The Runes And Other Ghost Stories by M R James (1999 Edition, still in print). Includes 21 short tales with annotations and other wealths of information by scholar Michael Cox.

A Pleasing Terror by M R James. The MRJ Bible. The definitive volume complete in itself includes annotations by Michael Cox. Out-of-Print. Prices have ranged between $250-$838 for this hardback's $75 retail coverprice.

Suggested reading, Casting The Runes.
And everything else.