Book Review: Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James

Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James

M. R. James was an academic at King's College, Cambridge, over the turn of the twentieth century. While he was a serious scholar, one of his hobbies was telling ghost stories at Christmas time. He's an acknowledge master of the genre and his stories have been adapted for both movies and television. This collection of fifteen stories includes a few short pieces by James in the appendix.

The stories are delightfully spooky. James's down-to-earth writing style helps to ground the uneasy situation in which the characters find themselves. A bit of humor goes a long way in heightening the contrast between the mundane realities of life and the supernatural intrusions that disrupt those realities. A lot of these people stumble into their problems or inherit something that on the surface seems desirable but has a lot of cost attached to it. My favorite stories here were "Number 13," "Casting the Runes," and "'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad.'"

The appendix has a short essay on the stock elements of a ghost stories with some humorous asides. There's also an early comic tale of being trapped in King's College Chapel with the stained glass windows coming to life and introductions to some of the collected volumes of his works.

Highly recommended--these make great Halloween reading or Christmas Eve telling, if you have that British-style Christmas eve.