Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M.R. James
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The Ghost Story Press issued Two Ghost Stories: A Centenary in 1993, which included facsimile reproductions of the original manuscripts of “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book” and “Lost Hearts.” Limited to 200 numbered copies, the book was edited by Barbara and Christopher Roden, with an Introduction by Michael Cox and an Afterword by Rosemary Pardoe.
Selected by Ramsey Campbell and published by The British Library in 2001, Meddling with Ghosts: Stories in the Tradition of M.R. James was a tribute anthology containing stories by the author’s precursors, contemporaries and successors, along with a useful Bibliography of “The James Gang” by Rosemary Pardoe.
By far the most impressive volume ever produced of the author’s work was A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings of M.R. James, published by Canada’s Ash-Tree Press the same year. Edited once again by the Rodens, this hefty (more than 650 pages) compilation contained annotated versions of all James’ stories and fragments, plus various prefaces and articles. Steve Duffy contributed an Introduction, there was a memoir by S.G. Lubbock, along with a Select Bibliography and a checklist of James on film, radio and television. Boasting thirty-three illustrations and cover art by Paul Lowe, the book was limited to just 1,000 copies and sold for $75.00. It quickly went out of print, and copies nowadays command £300 upward.
In 2004, Rosemary Pardoe published Occult Sciences, which featured the first-ever publication of the text of a long talk given by James on February 5, 1881. Tales from Lectoure (2006), also from Pardoe, contained the first publication of an even longer talk given by the author on a strange series of 19th-century folk and supernatural tales from south-west France, and included James’ translations of six of the stories.
Available as a print-on-demand volume from Hippocampus Press in 2007, Warnings to the Curious: A Sheaf of Criticism on M.R. James collected twenty-eight essays on the ghost story author, coedited by S.T. Joshi and Rosemary Pardoe.
In 2012—coincidentally the 150th anniversary of the author’s birth—Britain’s Royal Mail issued a commemorative M.R. James stamp as part of its “Britons of Distinction” set, which also featured architects Sir Basil Spence and Augustus Pugin, composer Frederick Delius, textile designer Mary (May) Morris, inventor Thomas Newcomen, opera singer Kathleen Ferrier, mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, social reformer Joan Mary Fry, and World War II secret agent Odette Sansom Hallowes.
The First Class stamp featured a photo of the “Cambridge academic and author of chilling ghost stories” from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
M.R. James’ antiquarian ghost stories—despite their somewhat archaic language and dry protagonists—are as popular today as when they were first published, more than eighty years ago.
When asked about his approach to writing this kind of fiction, the author self-deprecatorily replied: “There is no receipt for success in this form of fiction more than in any other. The public, as Dr. Johnson said, are the ultimate judges: if they are pleased, it is well; if not, it is no use to tell them why they ought to have been pleased.”
Given the enduring popularity of Dr. James’ ghostly tales, I think that we can safely assume that the public is still very pleased indeed.
Stephen Jones
London, England
September, 2011
MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES (1862–1936) was Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and Eton. Most of his ghost stories were occasional pieces, written for friends or college magazines, and were collected in Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925). Widely regarded as one of the finest authors of supernatural fiction in the English language, James is credited as the originator of the “antiquarian ghost story,” replacing the Gothic horrors of the previous century with more contemporary settings for his subtle hauntings. Many of his stories were originally written as Christmas entertainments and were read aloud by the author to selected gatherings of friends.
STEPHEN JONES is one of Britain’s most acclaimed anthologists of horror and dark fantasy. He has more than 115 books to his credit and has won numerous awards. You can visit his website at www.stephenjoneseditor.com
LES EDWARDS is an award-winning artist who has established himself as a stalwart of the British fantasy, horror and science fiction illustration scene in a career spanning more than thirty-five years. You can visit his website at www.lesedwards.com
† We now know that these leaves did contain a considerable fragment of that work, if not of that actual copy of it.
† He died that summer; his daughter married, and settled at St. Papoul. She never understood the circumstances of her father’s “obsession.”
† The Dispute of Solomon with a demon of the night. Drawn by Alberic de Mauléon. Versicle. O Lord, make haste to help me. Psalm. Whoso dwelleth (xci.).
Saint Bertrand, who puttest devils to flight, pray for me most unhappy. I saw it first on the night of Dec. 12, 1694: soon I shall see it for the last time. I have sinned and suffered, and have more to suffer yet. Dec. 29, 1701.
The “Gallia Christiana” gives the date of the Canon’s death as December 31, 1701, “in bed, of a sudden seizure.” Details of this kind are not common in the great work of the Sammarthani.
† Mr. Rogers was wrong, vide Dombey and Son, chapter xii.
† An account of the Premonstratensian abbey of Steinfeld, in the Eiffel, with lives of the Abbots, published at Cologne in 1712 by Christian Albert Erhard, a resident in the district. The epithet Norbertinum is due to the fact that St. Norbert was founder of the Premonstratensian Order.
† There is a place for gold where it is hidden.
†† They have on their raiment a writing which no man knoweth.
††† Upon one stone are seven eyes.
† Keep that which is committed to thee.
† Apparently the ichneumon fly (Ophion obscurum), and not the true sawfly, is meant.
† by William Frend de Morgan (1907)