{"id":5654,"date":"2017-11-21T04:48:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T12:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=5654"},"modified":"2018-02-22T11:03:52","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T19:03:52","slug":"ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary-by-m-r-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary-by-m-r-james","title":{"rendered":"Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"M.<\/p>\n

All this time a growing feeling of discomfort had been creeping over him\u2014nervous reaction, perhaps, after the delight of his discovery. Whatever it was, it resulted in a conviction that there was someone behind him, and that he was far more comfortable with his back to the wall.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I read Ghost Stories of an Antiquary<\/em><\/a> over the course of this past year as part of the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge<\/a>. Each week I would draw a card from a deck of playing cards, and if it turned up spades, then I knew I was in for another creepy story from M.R. James. The Kindle edition I read from Open Road Media contained both the eight tales from\u00a0Ghost Stories of an Antiquary<\/em>\u00a0(1904) and the seven tales from\u00a0More Ghost Stories <\/em>(1911).<\/p>\n

\"Ghost

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James, Open Road Media Kindle Edition<\/p><\/div>\n

Each and every story in this anthology was top-notch. James is a master of atmosphere, setting his tales in churchyards, labyrinths, and spooky old mansions. Many of the stories revolved around antique manuscripts or objects. According to the Wikipedia entry for M.R. James<\/a>, he “perfected a method of story-telling which has since become known as Jamesian,” and which includes the following elements:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. a characterful setting in an English village, seaside town or country estate; an ancient town in France, Denmark or Sweden; or a venerable abbey or university<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. a nondescript and rather naive gentleman-scholar as protagonist (often of a reserved nature)<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. the discovery of an old book or other antiquarian object that somehow unlocks, calls down the wrath, or at least attracts the unwelcome attention of a supernatural menace, usually from beyond the grave<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    That describes this collection perfectly.<\/p>\n

    Below is the list of stories I read, along with their assigned card for the Deal Me In Challenge and the date I finished each one. Coincidentally, two of the stories appeared in Alfred Hitchcock anthologies I was reading for the Deal Me In Challenge, which also gives you some idea of their quality and content. Don’t pass this collection up. I especially recommend the Open Road Kindle edition, which is only 99 cents, and which has excellent formatting. You can also find these stories available online for free at Project Gutenberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Ghost Stories of an Antiquary<\/em><\/a> by M.R. James
    \nFirst edition<\/em> London: Edwin Arnold, 1904 and 1911
    \nKindle edition<\/em> Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller, 2015
    \nPrint length: 220 pages<\/p>\n

    From the 2017 Deal Me In Challenge<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    A\u2660 \u201cCanon Alberic\u2019s Scrap-Book\u201d \u2013\u00a0Finished 11\/12\/2017<\/strong>
    \n2\u2660 \u201cLost Hearts\u201d-\u00a0Finished 2\/27\/2017<\/strong>
    \n3\u2660 \u201cThe Mezzotint\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Finished 7\/25\/2017<\/strong>
    \n4\u2660 \u201cNumber 13\u201d \u2013\u00a0Finished 9\/17\/2017<\/strong>
    \n5\u2660 \u201cCount Magnus\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Finished 2\/5\/2017<\/strong>
    \n6\u2660 \u201cOh, Whistle, and I\u2019ll Come to You, My Lad\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Finished 6\/18\/2017<\/strong>
    \n7\u2660 \u201cThe Treasure of Abbot Thomas\u201d \u2013\u00a0Finished 2\/19\/2017<\/strong>
    \n8\u2660 \u201cA School Story\u201d \u2013\u00a0Finished 11\/19\/2017<\/strong>
    \n9\u2660 \u201cThe Rose Garden\u201d \u2013\u00a0Finished 7\/2\/2017<\/strong>
    \n10\u2660 \u201cThe Tractate Middoth\u201d \u2013\u00a0Finished 10\/29\/2017<\/strong>
    \nJ\u2660 \u201cThe Stalls of Barchester Cathedral\u201d \u2013\u00a0Finished 3\/13\/2017<\/strong>
    \nQ\u2660 \u201cMartin\u2019s Close\u201d \u2013\u00a0Finished 3\/19\/2017<\/strong>
    \nK\u2660 \u201cMr. Humphreys and His Inheritance\u201d \u2013\u00a0Finished 11\/5\/2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

    6\u2666<\/span>\u00a0\u201cThe Ash Tree\u201d by M. R. James (From\u00a0Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories for Late at Night<\/em>)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Finished 8\/6\/2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

    10\u2665<\/span>\u00a0\u201cCasting the Runes\u201d by M.R. James (From\u00a0Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories They Wouldn\u2019t Let Me Do on TV<\/em>)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Finished 3\/26\/2017<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    All this time a growing feeling of discomfort had been creeping over him\u2014nervous reaction, perhaps, after the delight of his discovery. Whatever it was, it resulted in a conviction that there was someone behind him, and that he was far more comfortable with his back to the wall. I read Ghost Stories of an Antiquary over the course of this past year as part of the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge. Each week I would draw a card from a deck of playing cards, and if it...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Book Review: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James #dealmein2017 #ghoststories","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1057,5],"tags":[36,842,881,882,990,989,122],"class_list":["post-5654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-books","tag-book-recommendations","tag-book-reviews","tag-deal-me-in-2017","tag-deal-me-in-short-story-challenge","tag-ghost-stories","tag-m-r-james","tag-short-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/James_Whistle.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-1tc","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5654"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5683,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5654\/revisions\/5683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}