Father of the ghost story: M. R. James

Last year I forgot it was Halloween  until kids came to my door and I had nothing to give them.  So this year I'm hiding at my local bookstore sipping a pumpkin spice latte and writing a review about a very scary writer.  That's my trick to the kids and my treat to you. 

(Of course if I return home to find my house covered in toilet paper the trick will be on me.)

When we think of Victorian ghost writers we may think of Mary Shelly or Bram Stoker.  Last week I introduced you to a lesser known writer of the supernatural, Sheridan Le Fanu (for the review go here).  Today's post is about someone who was inspired by Le Fanu.

   Montague Rhodes James was considered the greatest scholar of medieval manuscripts of the English speaking world. He is known for his contributions to the study of Christian art and archeology.  He also is the father of what has come to be known as the ghost story.  As an avid antiquarian, his ghost stories  can trace their roots to medieval sources. For those of us who love reading medieval literature and culture this makes his stories especially enjoyable.

    I know there are less sensitives souls out there but I must confess that getting half way through James' Complete Ghost Stories I began having nightmares and threw the book away.  His stories are not filled with graphic violence or anything that defines the modern horror story.  They are simply the scariest tales I've ever read.

     There's the story of an evil man who has the ability to cast spells over people. The spell attaches a familiar spirit to that person.  In a weird turn around, other people can see the creature walking alongside the victim while the poor person on whom the runes have been cast, cannot.  (Casting the Runes)

    Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad is one of the more famous.  A man finds a tin whistle out on some sand dunes.  He takes it back to his hotel room and innocently blows on it.  He soon finds by doing so he has beckoned an unwelcome visitor.

    Other stories are about vampires walled up in church alters, evil monks that have achieved some kind of perverse immortality through the architectural design of their abby, or mezzotints (old prints made of sepia) that reenact supernatural crimes as the observer looks on. (Actually, the mezzotint is more frightening than that- every time the observer returns to the painting, the figures are in a different position.)

James even uses Greek mythology in a story about a man who inherits a country estate with a garden maze.  He soon discovers that the maze is designed in such a way-not to keep people from finding their way back out, but to keep other things within the maze from escaping.

I recommend his books not just because they give you a good scare, but because they are so well written.  His stories have lasted for over a hundred years because his caliber of writing is on the same level as any Victorian writer.  I think that anyone could enjoy a good scare at the hands of M.R. James'  but I think those of us who love antiquarian history stemming from a Christian heritage will especially appreciate James' use of the history and culture of the European dark ages.

M.R. James (1862-1956)

And if you're wondering why I'm recommending a book I threw away, I retrieved the stories by downloading them on my Kindle.  I feel safer knowing that they're out there in Cyberspace rather than in my house.  Hey,  I told you I was sensitive.



     

In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu

It’s October so I thought I’d write a couple of reviews about book collections of ghost stories.  I like to be scared as much as the next person but I don’t find the violence and gore of today’s stories about the occult scary.  They’re just gross.  Also, today everything’s been turned upside down and now “evil is called good”, as is evidenced by the books and movies whose heroes are vampires and witches.

In order to experience genuine horror one has to reach all the way back to the 19^th century.  That’s where writers really knew how to write a scary ghost story.  The great thing is that not only were the stories truly scary-as opposed to today’s  predictable butchery- they held deeply psychological messages.  These authors knew how to keep you thinking about their stories for days after you’d finished reading them.

And on top of all that, they were brilliant writers.  There’s a reason why their books are still in print after a hundred years.

Everyone is familiar of course with Mary Shelley’s tragic monster created by Frankenstein as well as Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula.  What many readers may not be familiar with are the stories written by Sheridan Le Fanu.

 Sheridan Le Fanu, an Irish author born to a Protestant clergyman, grew up on the supernatural legends of Ireland.  He was especially fascinated with stories that involved encounters with demons and fairies.  Many of these stories were orally transmitted from one generation to another and are unfortunately not written down.  Le Fanu, however, has preserved them in a sense because they served as an inspiration for his own works.  There are many collections of his writings available online.  The book I bought is titled, In a Glass Darkly.

Many of his stories come from a first person’s perspective so the reader is never sure what is real or what is perceptual. Is the man truly being stalked by a demon or is he insane?  Le Fanu explores this theme in many of his stories.  Sometimes it seems there are truly malevolent forces at work.  Other times it appears the person is tormented by their own guilty soul.

In Green Tea, a pastor seeks the help of a doctor because he believes he’s going mad.  There is one scene in particular that is disturbing and I don’t recommend reading the story at night or in the house alone.

The man is sitting in a carriage in the evening and it is dark.  He comes to realize that something is in the carriage with him.  At first he sees just red glowing eyes staring at him.  To get a better look he draws closer to the eyes until he finds himself face to face with a monkey.  He doesn’t understand how the animal came to be in his carriage and pokes him with his cane.  His cane goes through the monkey’s body. The animal is actually a spectre.

No matter where the pastor goes, the monkey is with him.  At first it is silent but eventually begins to speak to him.  It urges the pastor to kill himself.  The rest of the story is extremely suspenseful and it’s ending impossible to predict.  Many of Le Fanu’s writings deal with man trying to fight against evil urges and often losing.

One of the best stories is Carmilla.  This has to be one Le Fanu’s most powerful and horrific tales.  The protagonist is a young girl who begins to fall ill.  As the story continues it becomes apparent that she is being made sick because something is preying on her.  There is one moving scene when the girl’s dead mother communicates with her through an angelic being.

I am going to tell you now of a dream that led immediately to an odd discovery. 

One night...I heard a voice, sweet and tender, and at the same time terrible, which said, “Your mother warns you to beware of the assassin.”  At the same time a light unexpectedly sprang up and I saw Carmilla, standing, near the foot of my bed, in her white night dress, bathed, from her chin to her feet, in one great stain of blood.”

This is another story that not only holds suspense but fascination because it is not merely a story of “Satan masking as an angel of light” but a study in how humans are deceived by external appearances and our own longings that we allow ourselves to be seduced by evil which can eventually lead to our own demise.

Next week, I’ll review the works of M.R. James who received his inspiration from Le Fanu and is today regarded as the foremost Victorian ghost teller.

or on Kindle for $4.99