M R James is for me an acquired taste. I first read a Penguin paperback of collected stories when I was young and wasn’t impressed. I think it was the slowness of the development, as I saw it at the time. The impatience of youth wants to get to “the meat” of the thing at once. With re-reading in later life, I’ve come to appreciate the steady pace and I’ve come to see that the “slowness” I perceived at first, was made up of text that is full of tiny suggestions, hints and clues as to what is to come. And this is a necessary technique, required if the “meat” is to render its savour to the fullest. James climbs inside his reader’s skull and caresses the psyche in an extremely subtle way, which, if you will allow him, involves you in the creation of the story. You are drawn into a settled and comfortable world of staid gentlemen and scholars, a cosy world of droll humour and secure predictability. He lulls you into a tranquil, undisturbed dream, only slightly troubled by the half-made discovery, the vague suspicion that something uncanny (and often wicked) this way comes. James hides his rocks under cushions. When he has you thoroughly involved and at your most somnambulant, it is only then that the inexplicable suddenly rears its head, usually byway of a few powerful images that change the dream to nightmare. By that stage, of course, your own imagination supplies far more graphic impact than a thousand words of description could.
Of course, the modern reader may demand an explanation of the inexplicable. This is to approach James in a fundamentally flawed way, a way unconducive to enjoyment of his work. James writes ghost stories. In his tales, the existence of ghosts is not to be doubted, and it’s also beyond dispute that ghosts cannot always be explained, or fully explained. The mystery of their manifestations is part of their appeal to James and he assumes a similar understanding in his reader. If you are unable to suspend your modern disbelief as regards the existence of such entities, you really waste your own time in reading such tales. You must, in other words, be willing to allow yourself to be possessed by James. Only if you are willing to allow James to convince you for a few seconds that something utterly impossible could gain a momentary indisputable reality, will you perceive his skill and enjoy the shiver of horror that the upsetting of all our preconceptions can bring. If you are willing, then the shiver that comes is far more profound than any gory mayhem, for this is a universal terror, the darkness that undermines the known and hints at the mystery that can never be known or understood or comprehended. It is the deep and abiding shout against the darkness.
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Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 February 2011
Top reviews from other countries
- Alan Dale DanielReviewed in the United States on 26 April 2016
The Best Ghost Stories
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LanthaniumReviewed in Germany on 26 June 2015
Sehr gruselige Geschichten
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase - Catarina LouiseReviewed in Brazil on 28 February 2019
Short but impactful! A great choice for those starting into horror and want to keep it simple.
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