- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd; New edition edition (Nov 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1853268399
- ISBN-13: 978-1853268397
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 912,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Collected Ghost Stories
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Product Description
Product Description
The tail piece "Stories I have tried to write " accompanies 30 classic tales of their genre set against convincing backgrounds to afflict chilling terror on the reader.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's surprising how many of these 30 short stories of ghosts, demons and other infernal trouble-makers seem familiar. I recognised over a dozen of them. "Casting the Runes" was the biggest surprise. It's just 18 pages long and easily recognisable as the original story that one of my favourite films from childhood (which I've been trying to get hold of on DVD for ages - my old video copy of it having worn out) is based upon. The film is called "Night of the Demon" (1957). Several of these stories have been read on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Digital Radio 7 recently and others have been made into films for television. The film of "A View from a Hill" (a mere 7 pages long in this book) was shown on one of the BBC channels only a week or so ago. The films are all excellent, but they can't improve on James's writing. It's hard to put a finger on what is so terrifying about his spooks. Some of them crawl. Anyone opening a door or turning on a light and seeing some strange, cadaverous looking thing crawling down a corridor towards them should certainly scream or faint. Some are hairy with long finger nails. After living through the hairy 60s and 70s, hair holds no fear for me - but those finger nails are a different matter. Some are more along the lines of animated skeletons held together by scraps of mouldering flesh and others are toad-like. I wonder James didn't give himself nightmares -- perhaps he did. You really need to give your imagination free-rein to properly experience the delightful tingle of fear M R James was hoping to generate for his audience. These tales are almost entirely goreless. Readers who prefer the blood and guts sort of horror probably won't enjoy this book. There are no rabid psychos leaping about with veins and gizzards dripping from their teeth. This collection is far more subtle and interesting than that.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mr James was born in 1862. He was the son of a clergyman. He became a biblical scholar and vice-chancellor of Cambridge University. So you might expect from his life and his writing style that his stories are sedate things that the Victorian reader could read without too much upset. They would be free of troubling undertones, macabre inages, they would be comforting.
You'd be dreadfully wrong. The first story in this collection is Lost Hearts, a brutal and twisted story of scholarly detatchment, unethical experiments and gory murder. Going through the book we discover other classics showing just how physically and mentally violent James' imagination could be. There's the desperate attempt to shake the curse in Casting the Runes, the deadening claustrophobia of The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, and the final story, Wailing Well, stuns the reader by beginning as a comedy and ending so blackly that few Hollywood horror films, shall we say, would dare to film it as written.
This is not sedate. It has an undeniable power that lingers after the book has been shut. I would actually put it above Lovecraft. There are weak points, it must be said; several times stories don't seem to get going before they end, creating a sense of anticlimax. But this does not detract from the achievements made in the other stories, and it's not going to stop me giving the collection five stars.
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having seen the short season of MR James classics on television at Christmas, I decided to keep the tradition of ghostly readings on Christmas Eve, I decided to buy this book and was not dissapointed,scared more likely.
It has to be said that out of the 30 or stories that are included, I was left a trifle dissapointed with perhaps about ten, but overall the content of the other stories were chilling and disturbing.
Reading these short tales whilst alone with just the sound of a ticking clock really takes you back to the time when most of the stories are told (1850's). Three stand out tales are 'Two Hearts,Whistle and I'll come to you and the atmospheric A Warning to the curious' are not for the faint hearted. In summary, I would decribe most of these stories as 'chilling classics from a bygone age' Enjoy
It has to be said that out of the 30 or stories that are included, I was left a trifle dissapointed with perhaps about ten, but overall the content of the other stories were chilling and disturbing.
Reading these short tales whilst alone with just the sound of a ticking clock really takes you back to the time when most of the stories are told (1850's). Three stand out tales are 'Two Hearts,Whistle and I'll come to you and the atmospheric A Warning to the curious' are not for the faint hearted. In summary, I would decribe most of these stories as 'chilling classics from a bygone age' Enjoy
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Classic ghost stories. Shame about the cover!
Classic ghost stories from academic M R James that have stood the test of time. Read Ruth Rendell's introduction in the Vintage Classics series if you can, she is a little more... Read more
Published 12 days ago by ichthus
Utterly wonderful.
Without doubt the undisputed master of tension, dread and suffocating fear. The creatures which lurk unseen in James' short stories are some of the most ghastly creations put to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Count Magnus
GHOST STORIES OF M R JAMES
ONE OF THE OLD MASTERS OF HORROR= WELL WRITTEN WITH ALWAYS THE ELEMENT OF OF THE UNEXPECTED. NOT LIKE THE BLOOD AND GORE OF MANY TODAY. I LOVED THE ERA FROM WHICH MR JAMES CAME.
Published 5 months ago by SHIRLEY
Galaxy Quest DVD
This film is a classic sci-fi spoof, Alan Rickman is such a brilliant comedy actor as is Sigourney Weaver.. Read more
Published 8 months ago by jan
Unfortunately rather badly dated
There are two ways you could approach this book: as a piece of classic literature or as a collection of scare-your-pants-off ghost stories. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Caterkiller
Timeless!
MR James wrote his stories a long time ago but their lasting quality just shows what a brilliant writer he was. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Nigel Strachan
The Master of Ghost Stories
An excellent tome of Ghost Stories from my favourite Writer of the genre - and very good value for money :)
Published 18 months ago by Ms. Sian A. O'flynn
Subtle but spooky
I recently had my first ghostly encounter with the illustrious M R James whose collection of creepy tales has been lingering on my shelves waiting to pounce for several years... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Lovely Treez
The Wailing Well and Others
I never forgot reading this tale from my youth-Quite terrible,the homicidal skeletons,and how they arise in the field,like grotesque spectral hunters... Read more
Published on 20 May 2010 by Ken Raus
The Rational and the Uncanny
Montague Rhodes James (1862 -1936) was in his lifetime a noted mediaeval historian and biblical scholar who became Provost of King's College, Cambridge and Headmaster of Eton... Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2010 by J C E Hitchcock
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