Thoughts on M R James ghost stories
Feb. 26th, 2007 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joysilence posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
darkling_talesLJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY pgmcc)
I recently finished reading the Wordsworth Classics’, “Collected Ghost Stories” by M.R. James. I enjoyed the read and have several thoughts, both on the stories and on M.R. James.
James has been described repeatedly as “the best ghost-story writer England has ever produced”. According to the Introduction to the collection this description was bestowed by Michael Sadleir. I do not have the breadth of reading to vouch for the authenticity of this claim, but given Sadleir died in 1957, his assessment is likely to have excluded more recent writers of ghost-stories. I would, however, be surprised if what I have read in my little paperback is the best of ghost stories produced by writers from England.
As I stated above, I enjoyed the M.R. James stories, but they did not frighten me. They did not have me quivering with fear or wondering what that fleeting shadow at the edge of my vision might be.
I do not put this down to my personal bravado, or to a lack of skill on the part of James. To assess James’ stories we must consider when they were written, and how the writer intended them to be delivered.
James’ ghost stories were intended to be read to small groups, gathered round a blazing fire in the one heated room in a household. The ideal listeners were to face a cold, dark walk home, or a lonely, candle or lamp lit excursion to their bedroom upstairs, along landings, and past the images of ancestors adorning the walls.
James was of the well-to-do of his time and he was educated in Eton and King’s College. He would have been well aware of the mode of life in country houses and, being the son of a clergyman, the style of life in a vicarage.
It was his peers that were the intended audience for his stories and in that context they would have been terrifying. They would have made the walk home, or the journey to bed a nightmare in itself.
The intended audience would also explain the writer’s phonetic representation of the dialects of the local country folk. The local country folk were not intended to be entertained by these stories. It was the landed gentry and the gentle folk that were to be amused and titillated by these tales of the strange and mystic.
There is little or no gore in James’ story and most of the fearful of the ghostly happenings can be avoided by avoiding a place, throwing away an artefact, or putting things back where they belong. In only a few of his stories do we have death at the hands of a spectre or demon. I believe James did not want to terrify his audience too much, so he didn’t have too many nasty things happen to any core characters. James’ fiction is ghost stories for gentle-folk.
So what did I enjoy about the stories?
I think the primary thing was the time capsule nature of the stories. It gave me a glimpse into the world of the late 19th and early 20th century, both in terms of the content of the stories and their tone and language.
What did I not like about the stories?
There were a few elements such as the way that people easily accepted that something weird existed. There were few sceptics.
Also, the social standing of the characters was reprehensible. In “Rats”, he is talking about an Inn and writes, “the landlord and his wife had been in service and could make a visitor comfortable”. What does this tell us about the social structure of the day?
Yes, James was from another age, and of a social strata that still exists, but finds if difficult to get good staff, and to pay the death duties on the family home (and its 1,000 acre estate).
The terror of his stories has been chased away by the arrival of the electric light bulb and rural electrification. These stories can only scare during a black-out, but they are still a pleasant read.
I want to read Joshi's comments on James. I know he wasn't too impressed.
I now want to read the Blackwood and Machen stories I have. (And the Aickman and Ligotti)
By the way, thanks tojoysilence's comments I have managed to track down some Sarban and have them on the read-soon pile.
pgmcc)I recently finished reading the Wordsworth Classics’, “Collected Ghost Stories” by M.R. James. I enjoyed the read and have several thoughts, both on the stories and on M.R. James.
James has been described repeatedly as “the best ghost-story writer England has ever produced”. According to the Introduction to the collection this description was bestowed by Michael Sadleir. I do not have the breadth of reading to vouch for the authenticity of this claim, but given Sadleir died in 1957, his assessment is likely to have excluded more recent writers of ghost-stories. I would, however, be surprised if what I have read in my little paperback is the best of ghost stories produced by writers from England.
As I stated above, I enjoyed the M.R. James stories, but they did not frighten me. They did not have me quivering with fear or wondering what that fleeting shadow at the edge of my vision might be.
I do not put this down to my personal bravado, or to a lack of skill on the part of James. To assess James’ stories we must consider when they were written, and how the writer intended them to be delivered.
James’ ghost stories were intended to be read to small groups, gathered round a blazing fire in the one heated room in a household. The ideal listeners were to face a cold, dark walk home, or a lonely, candle or lamp lit excursion to their bedroom upstairs, along landings, and past the images of ancestors adorning the walls.
James was of the well-to-do of his time and he was educated in Eton and King’s College. He would have been well aware of the mode of life in country houses and, being the son of a clergyman, the style of life in a vicarage.
It was his peers that were the intended audience for his stories and in that context they would have been terrifying. They would have made the walk home, or the journey to bed a nightmare in itself.
The intended audience would also explain the writer’s phonetic representation of the dialects of the local country folk. The local country folk were not intended to be entertained by these stories. It was the landed gentry and the gentle folk that were to be amused and titillated by these tales of the strange and mystic.
There is little or no gore in James’ story and most of the fearful of the ghostly happenings can be avoided by avoiding a place, throwing away an artefact, or putting things back where they belong. In only a few of his stories do we have death at the hands of a spectre or demon. I believe James did not want to terrify his audience too much, so he didn’t have too many nasty things happen to any core characters. James’ fiction is ghost stories for gentle-folk.
So what did I enjoy about the stories?
I think the primary thing was the time capsule nature of the stories. It gave me a glimpse into the world of the late 19th and early 20th century, both in terms of the content of the stories and their tone and language.
What did I not like about the stories?
There were a few elements such as the way that people easily accepted that something weird existed. There were few sceptics.
Also, the social standing of the characters was reprehensible. In “Rats”, he is talking about an Inn and writes, “the landlord and his wife had been in service and could make a visitor comfortable”. What does this tell us about the social structure of the day?
Yes, James was from another age, and of a social strata that still exists, but finds if difficult to get good staff, and to pay the death duties on the family home (and its 1,000 acre estate).
The terror of his stories has been chased away by the arrival of the electric light bulb and rural electrification. These stories can only scare during a black-out, but they are still a pleasant read.
I want to read Joshi's comments on James. I know he wasn't too impressed.
I now want to read the Blackwood and Machen stories I have. (And the Aickman and Ligotti)
By the way, thanks to
joysilence's comments I have managed to track down some Sarban and have them on the read-soon pile.
