Trece historias de fantasmas by M.R. James

A decent enough story, but definitely a lower-tier story for James.

Just as 'The Two Doctors' starts to get interesting, the story ends. Four stars and 'that's the way we do it'! The rest of the story is a bit predictable, but unique. The dream sequence in the story is particularly horrific, even by Jamesian standards, and weird in the extreme. Three stars.Īmong James' 'weirder' stories, 'The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance' features one of my favorite horror tropes: a Punch and Judy show. 'An Episode of Cathedral History' has its frisson, but it's a fairly stock story of what happens when you go about disturbing very old things. Still a good story, good enough for three stars. This is mostly because there is not a compelling connection between the haunter and the haunted.

James that my expectations for his stories are unreasonably high, but I found 'The Diary of Mister Poynter' to be fairly dull.

Maybe it's just my modern sensibilities or maybe I've read enough M.R. The last bit is a 'time bomb waiting to go off' ending, which I quite like. 'The Residence at Whitmnister' is an interesting tale of young men, now dead, dabbling where they ought not, then paying the price for eternity, and the effect on those left living in the wake of their uncovering of things that should have remained concealed from mortal eyes. good! James’ understated humor is commendable, and what do they say about humor and horror being complimentary? So very true. The last line of this mystery made me laugh out loud, which I don't normally do when reading. I took the story 'The Tractate Middoth' and used it as the backbone for a Casting the Runes RPG adventure I ran on Halloween day. 'The Rose Garden,' while a weak ghost story, is a strong piece of of psychogeography, or perhaps a very strong example of the liminal spaces in-between.

James puts his own twist at the end - after any other writer might have considered the story done - that brings it up a notch. Since the first several stories are collected in Antiquary, I shall forbear repeating myself. Mister James obviously made an impression on me the first time around. James while at an Oxfam in Oxford on vacation in 2019. So, it’s saying something that after reading Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, I still picked up the Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. I like to dabble, dip my toes here and there, and move on to something new. I’m no “completist” when it comes to reading.

Trece historias de fantasmas by M.R. James