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Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M.R. James [Hardcover]

M.R. James (Author), Stephen Jones (Editor), Les Edwards (Illustrator)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 26 April 2012

Montague Rhodes James - M. R. James - was an English academic and provost of King's College and Eton. He started writing ghost stories to entertain his friends... one hundred and fifty years after his birth he is now revered as the father of the modern English ghost story.

This gorgeous hardback collection contains all thirty-five of M.R. James's highly acclaimed ghost stories, including the classics: 'Oh Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' and 'Canon Alberic's Scrapbook'. As well as a foreword by Clark Ashton Smith and an extended Afterword by Stephen Jones the book is gloriously illustrated by award-winning artist Les Edwards, who has provided a frontispiece and a dozen full-page illustrations, as well as many small pictures throughout the text.

Like Gollancz's Black Books (Necronomicon and Conan), this is a wonderful book that should be part of every reader's personal library.

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 600 pages
  • Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books (26 April 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0857388045
  • ISBN-13: 978-0857388049
  • Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 15.6 x 5.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 191,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

'There are some authors one wishes one had never read so that one might have the joy of reading them for the first time. For me, M.R. James is one of these' Ruth Rendell.

'It's about time such an important and entertaining body of work was given the care and attention it deserves' SFF World.

About the Author

Montague Rhodes James, OM, MA (August 1862-June 1936) published as M.R. James, was an English mediaeval scholar, provost first of King's College, Cambridge, then of Eton College. He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are widely acknowledged as the finest in English literature.

Stephen Jones edited and provided the Afterwords for Necronomicon and Eldritch Tales by H.P. Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard's The Complete Conan and Conan's Brethren. He is Britain's premier anthologist of horror and dark fantasy. He lives in London. His website can be found at www.stephenjoneseditor.com.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Nicely produced 4 Oct 2012
By downkiddie TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This impressive, weighty and nicely produced volume collects all of M.R. James's ghost stories, including obscure and unfinished ones. The quality of M.R. James's ghost story writing is well known and extends to many of the rarer and lesser-known stories included here but not in most of the other collections.

As my fellow reviewer points out, some of the stories have been amended punctuation-wise. The editor Stephen Jones argues this is to appeal more to modern readers by removing some of the more long-winded and antiquarian sentence constructions. Whilst I take his point I'm not sure I agree; this isn't Chaucer, it was written in the 20th century and it's hardly difficult to follow. Nevertheless, Jones has produced a very impressive collection.

Another minor niggle is the use of italics and a typewriter-style font for the elements of the stories where quotations and excerpts are used, which is not an improvement as it's simply not as comfortable to read them. That said, the book as a whole is beautifully produced and a joy to read, and illustrated here and there with wonderfully atmospheric illustrations.

As one would expect all the stories from the various editions of the collected Ghost Stories are here, together with the novella "The Five Jars" and the fragments that never became full stories. Some of these, such as "John Humphreys" and "Marcilly-le-Hayer" are as atmospheric and chilling as the better known greats. Unfortunately some of them have bits missing, and no attempt has been made to fill in the gaps or reconstruct what might be. That said, nobody would agree on what these should be so it's probably for the best.

Jones presents an impressive postscript in the form of publication and dramatisation history of all things Jamesian. He runs through the various TV adaptations, presents a nice selection of posters for the film "Night of the Demon" and suggests further Jamesian reading. Regarding the material actually written by the master, all of the stories here can be found in the legendary Ash Tree Press publication A Pleasing Terror, now cheaply available on Kindle, with the exception of the enjoyable poem "Living Night". Nevertheless, this looks and feels like the lovely book that it is and no doubt even those who have much of this already will want to add it to their libraries.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars What Would MRJ Say? 26 July 2012
By Sandy Robertson
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a handsomely bound (leather?) book containing all the ghost stories by the master of the form, including rarities and extra material on tv adaptations etc. But, as editor Jones admits, he will tick off a lot of purists with his re-punctuating these classics for a modern audience. Nothing's cut, but changing antique phrasing like "to-day" into "today" detracts from the flavour of the language. And rendering one tale almost entirely in italics, however justified in context, makes it a pain to read. Classic material, handsome book, big mistake.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive M.R.James collection 26 Dec 2012
By J. Bulman
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Collections of M.R.James' ghost stories, both complete and incomplete, are legion. This is not surprising, as to most connoisseurs he is one of, if not the greatest exponent of the genre. As a long-term fan, I can only say that for me this is the ultimate and only collection. It includes everything James ever wrote on the subject, and includes at the end a review of all the published works, including film and television adaptations.
The Editor, Stephen Jones, in his Introduction admits to making some minor punctuation modifications to the stories, to compensate for the fact that James intended his stories to be narrated rather than written down. To me, the result is definitely rewarding; the stories flow well although not a word is lost.
The book contains a relatively small number of very good illustrations by Les Edwards. Usually, I find the illustrations in M.R. James collections to be a big disappointment , in that they inevitably fail to convey the sheer horror of the scenes they are suppose to be depicting, and are frequently merely laughable. These, while still not ideal, are certainly better than most, in my opinion.
An added bonus, to a long-standing book-lover like me is that this is one of the most beautifully bound and presented volumes (by Jo Fletcher Books) I have come across in many years.
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