M. R. James, was an English mediaeval scholar and provost of King’s College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre. James redefined the ghost story for the new century by abandoning many of the formal Gothic clichés of his predecessors and using more realistic contemporary settings. However, James’s protagonists and plots tend to reflect his own antiquarian interests. Accordingly, he is known as the originator of the “antiquarian ghost story”.
[from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_james]
————————————-
The goal of this site is to provide an easily accessible online resource for anyone with an interest in James and his works.
mrjames.org has no official connection to the estate of M. R. James or to any current copyright holder of his works.
I was introduced to the ‘Collected Ghost Stories’ at a young age by Lucy Boston with whom I would visit after writing to her with my admiration for the ‘Green Knowe’ stories.
On a visit to Cambridge during one of my visits she kindly bought a copy for me, and I have fond memories of reading M R James aloud to her after dinner at Hemingford Grey, sat by the huge inglenook fireplace whilest drinking china tea from ‘rice grain’ pattern tea bowls.
After reading the introduction to a well thumbed paperback version that I bought to travel with me, I noted that three more stories were written after the ‘Collection’ was published and therefor not included, these were published in various magazines at the time, the last one being written in the year of his death. Is there anywhere that I could find copies of these three ‘missing’ stories?
Hello Philip,
Thank you so much for your question.
The four tales not published in Collected Stories are
“The Experiment”
“The Malice of Inanimate Objects”
“A Vignette”
“The Fenstanton Witch”
I am not sure whether any are available online at this moment as there seems to have been a spate of removal of some of James’ later texts from certain websites. I shall do my best to post the tales on here when I can.
It sounds as if you had a perfect introduction to James’ works courtesy of Ms. Boston. What a wonderful setting and circumstance.
Just to add that all the stories mentioned above, bar The Fenstanton Witch, are now available to read for free via the READ page.
The most complete volume of M.R. James ghost stories published to date is ‘A Pleasing Terror: The Complete Supernatural Writings by M. R. James’, published by Ash Tree press, now available as an ebook.
It features all his ghost stories with annotations, including the stories you mention, as well as a selection of his essays on ghost stories and various other interesting stuff.
http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/eBooks.htm
Will,
Thanks so much for your reply. So pleased to have you here on the site.
A Pleasing Terror is, indeed, the most complete MRJ book available and is a must have for all Jamesians.