3.75 stars

"If you don't come to me, I'll come to you."

Writing about ghost stories when summer is approaching feels... strange. Especially because ghost stories were traditionally a Christmas thing. At least there's a full moon right now, so maybe this is appropriate after all!

The appeal of James's disquieting stories is in the transition from an ordinary, almost mundane and often academic world into supernatural. The sense of normalcy is interrupted by hair-raising scenes with mysterious figures, and James knows just the right parts where to let the reader's imagination do its work.

My favorites vary according to my mood. This time the ones I liked the most were "The Mezzotint", "Count Magnus", "Wailing Well", "Rats", and "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad". There was also a scene that for some reason freaked me out completely: a man touches a head of hair when there shouldn't be anyone else in the room. I just can't for the life of me remember which story it was.

Recommended to consume with a warm drink in hand and ideally in front of a crackling fire. If the latter is not possible, curled up inside a nest of blankets is a good substitute. There are also loads of adaptations, both old and new (some of them available on YouTube!).

The first 8 stories are brilliant (Ghost Stories of an Antiquary).
The next set of stories are very good (More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary).
The last set of stories are ok. The stories start to become uninteresting or stale.

Individual ratings:
Canon Alberic's Scrapbook - 3.5 stars
Lost Hearts - 2 stars
The Mezzotint - 3 stars
The Ash-Tree - 3 stars
Number 13 - 3.5 stars
Count Magnus - 2 stars
'Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad' - 2.5 stars
The Treasure of Abbot Thomas - 3.75 stars
A School Story - 4 stars
The Rose Garden - 3 stars
The Tractate Middoth - 3.75 stars
Casting the Runes - 3.5 stars
The Stalls of Barchester - 4 stars
Martin's Close - 4 stars
Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance - 4 stars

Ratings averaged to 3.5/5 stars

Truthfully, this book was a whole lot better than I expected. Unfamiliar with the work of M.R. James, I imagined it much like the writing of Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, or one of his other contemporaries. In fact, often unlike the work of those named above, these stories are well-crafted, accessible, and bear multiple readings surprisingly well.
This collection features the stories compiled in two of his early collections, Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary, which generally depict the author, slightly altered in personality but recognisable nonetheless, discovering some dark secret hidden in an old house, an abandoned ruin, or simply a household item. Despite the formulaic pattern of storytelling employed in this anthology, the stories are both enjoyable and sufficiently chilling to withstand centuries of social change. At times almost suggestive of H.P. Lovecraft in their scale, the tales reproduced here follow James' development as a writer, an Eton professor telling A School Story to Cambridge don producing technical descriptions of the university's stained-glass windows on a Night in King's College chapel to the literary and historical authority he shows himself to be in texts such as The Tractate Middoth and Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance.

It's impossible to talk about M.R. James without addressing his importance in the history of horror fiction. His signature still continues to touch contemporary horror if only through secondary influences. Rightly, he should be lauded for the work he did. But, when approaching his stories, there is such an overwhelming level of perfectionism that he has set for himself. A need to define everything with absolute accuracy. As a reader theres a certain level of cutting through the skin and fat to get to the meat that can be exhausting.

Between the detailed cataloging of church manuscripts, and intense concentration on the local history, he focuses on the mundane minutia detailing antiquated conflicts and vague stirrings. It can be overwhelming to have to bear yet another unloading of latin phrases.

He's so caught up in accuracy of this space, that as an example, after a page long paragraph unloading a ton of details, because he can't just skip forward to where the information might be pertinent, he'll write a paragraph like the following:
"It is not necessary to tell in further detail the steps by which Henry Harrington and Dunning were brought together."

And then the next paragraphs literally starts like this:
"The next scene that does require to be narrated is a conversation that took place between the two."

He frequently can't cut to the action anywhere. And even when he does get to a conversation that has to preface any information with an elaborate dance before divulging anything, like this quote:
‘That is final to my mind. Now I must explain further. From something he said, I feel sure that my brother John was beginning to believe—very much against his will—that Karswell was at the bottom of his trouble. I want to tell you what seems to me to have a bearing on the situation."

To this protestant author, it's clear that papists, Jewish mysticism the otherness of thing like Scandinavian or French culture were a bit unsettling for such a traditionalist. So they lay the foundations to the spookiness that in todays society just aren't inherently frightening.

BUT, when you do blow the dust off of most these, underneath are delightful gems. I particularly enjoyed "The Mezzotint," "The Ash-tree," "Number 13," "Count Magnus," "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad,'" & "Casting the Runes." With "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas," & "A School Story" both charming me. The rest of the stories had some great moment in them as well, but either didn't deliver or were burdened by his style. Then there are the stinkers: "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" & "Martin's Close."

The biggest issue for me is the frequent second hand removal of the reader from the protagonists. Their stories are usually told through other narrators by way of some found letter in yet another abby. So too often, you go through the whole rigamarole of the set-up just to get to a narrator to start the story. Because of this, his stories feel better to me in memory than in reading them. As he creates so many haunting moments.

I'd read a couple of these stories already when I cracked open this collection, and I was pleased to read them again. On whole, I a super happy I revisited James, but it's hard for me not to point a guiding finger to the snappier, livelier, ghost stories of James' contemporary F. Marion Crawford.

What a fiendishly delicious delight, all in practically a pocket-sized little edition with a slim satin ribbon to mark your progress. The whole experience of reading these marvelously mendacious morsels is distinctly retro. No matter where you find yourself, a few sentences in you are deliciously transported - back in time and place - and pulled down a sweet little rabbit hole which invariably takes a polite yet decided turn for the terrifying. You may start out enjoying tea in the rectory, or looking out over a placid meadow or a windswept beach, but somehow you will end up sweating and craning your head over your own shoulder.

You will love every moment.

Highly recommended for ghost story aficionados, antiquarians with a sly sense of humor, bored clergy in need of a change of pace, and literate snobs with a secret sense of their own invidious shortcomings.

I liked this collection,since I hadn't read a few of them before. It's a perfect collection for the autumn and winter chill.