Book 49 - M. R. James "Ghost Stories"
May. 27th, 2014 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveM. R. James "Ghost Stories" (Vintage)
"It was a horrid, grotesque shape -- perhaps more like a toad than anything else, and there was a label by it inscribed with the two words, 'Despositum custodi." Maybe not exactly the type of ghost story you'd read around a campfire, holding a flashlight under your face, but really ideal for stormy autumn night.
My one recommendation is to space them out.
I read a few back-to-back over the course of a night, and they sort of blended together. They were still enjoyable, but to get the most out of them, it helps to perhaps read one story a night. My personal favorites were Casting the Runes, The Tractate Middoth (which reminded me a bit of a creepier, less zany version of The Golden Child), The Ashtree, and Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance.
The stories generally feature some poor luckless soul who accidentally and innocently unlocks a horrible, centuries old curse. M.R. James was a Cambridge academic and it is fully apparent -- the stories feature scholars, dusty old libraries, antique books and ancient texts, and incorporate archaeology, theology, and mythology. I had to look up several bits of untranslated Latin. I hope that isn't a deterrent. The stories are easy to read, but they do take for granted that the reader is intelligent and literate, or has access to google or a good Latin dictionary.
"It was a horrid, grotesque shape -- perhaps more like a toad than anything else, and there was a label by it inscribed with the two words, 'Despositum custodi." Maybe not exactly the type of ghost story you'd read around a campfire, holding a flashlight under your face, but really ideal for stormy autumn night.
My one recommendation is to space them out.
I read a few back-to-back over the course of a night, and they sort of blended together. They were still enjoyable, but to get the most out of them, it helps to perhaps read one story a night. My personal favorites were Casting the Runes, The Tractate Middoth (which reminded me a bit of a creepier, less zany version of The Golden Child), The Ashtree, and Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance.
The stories generally feature some poor luckless soul who accidentally and innocently unlocks a horrible, centuries old curse. M.R. James was a Cambridge academic and it is fully apparent -- the stories feature scholars, dusty old libraries, antique books and ancient texts, and incorporate archaeology, theology, and mythology. I had to look up several bits of untranslated Latin. I hope that isn't a deterrent. The stories are easy to read, but they do take for granted that the reader is intelligent and literate, or has access to google or a good Latin dictionary.
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Date: 2014-05-27 11:20 pm (UTC)Mmm...well that leaves me out then, lol!!
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Date: 2014-05-28 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-28 02:06 am (UTC)Poor luckless soul? Sounds like me. lol........
Hugs, Jon
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Date: 2014-05-28 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-28 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-28 05:49 am (UTC)You must spend a heck of a lot of time reading!
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Date: 2014-05-28 10:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-28 08:54 am (UTC)The Latin would not deter me - I would enjoy looking them up :)
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Date: 2014-05-28 12:56 pm (UTC)