Classic Horror Lovers discussion

I will be finishing this one up today. Do we continue with A Thin Ghost and Others and then A Warning to the Curious Ghost Stories?

Five short stories in "A Thin Ghost and Others":

"The Residence at Whitminster"
"The Diary of Mr Poynter"
"An Episode of Cathedral History"
"The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance"
"Two Doctors"

And six more in "A Warning to the Curious":

"The Haunted Dolls' House"
"The Uncommon Prayer-Book"
"A Neighbour's Landmark"
"A View from a Hill"
"A Warning to the Curious"
"An Evening's Entertainment"

I have been excited about how this is going but I don't want to fatigue the rest of you guys. If you want to take a break from James, maybe we could hit Le Fanu or something and come back to James. I am more of the mind to finish these and then move on. But, that's just my OCD.

Discussion of "Martin's Close".

Ken wrote (in part):

(view spoiler)[After Martin was found guilty, he tried to get off on a technicality. My name was misspelled on the indictment. It should be a "y" not an "i". That was discarded by the judge as a technicality and there was some evidence that the accused had used both spellings in the past.

Just to provide a bit of background, James scholar Michael Cox notes that this aspect of the story had a historical counterpart. During the 1660 trial of Henry Marten, one of the Commonwealth commissioners who signed the death warrant of Charles I, Marten similarly noted that he had also been know by the name Martin. This stratagem was disallowed, but his death sentence was, in fact, commuted to life imprisonment. All of this is recounted in C. V. Wedgwood's 1964 A Coffin for King Charles (which, coincidentally, I re-read earlier this year).

Similarly, the indictment against George Martin includes the phrase “of which wound [i.e., the cut throat] the said Ann Clark did then and there die”. This inclusion was necessary given an actual case involving a faulty indictment brought against someone who brutally killed his a servant. “In about 1630 Sir Thomas Holt murdered his cook by hacking his head in two with a cleaver. The indictment stated that this had been done, but failed to add that the man had died of it. Sir Thomas was acquitted.” (hide spoiler)]

Just a brief, additional note on Night of the Demon, the 1957 film based on James’ “Casting the Runes”. In a recent article posted on the Daily Beast web site, Martin Scorcese (director and film historian of sorts) lists what he believes to be the 11 scariest films of all time. Night of the Demon shows up at Number 9. The entire list can be seen here.

Ken wrote (in part):

I will be finishing this one up today. Do we continue with A Thin Ghost and Others and then A Warning to the Curious Ghost Stories? [snip] I have been excited about how this is going but I don't want to fatigue the rest of you guys. If you want to take a break from James, maybe we could hit Le Fanu or something and come back to James. I am more of the mind to finish these and then move on. But, that's just my OCD.

Either tack is fine with me, Ken. Maybe wait until this weekend or early next week in order to give everyone a chance to catch up with More Ghost Stories ?

I think I'm the only other one participating, so please don't wait on me. I do have a copy of the complete ghost stories here somewhere, so I assume the other stories you mentioned are in there. Please go ahead, and I will catch up. I promise. :)

Okay, lets do it.

General comments on James (only minor spoilers).

I was reading last night S. T. Joshi's introduction to Volume 1 of the Penguin edition of James’ collected stories ( Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories , 2005). I haven’t always been a fan of Joshi, especially when it comes to his earlier views on James, but I think he makes a number of interesting observations on certain aspects of James’ ghostly tales. In particular I had always noted (but had never reflected deeply on) the tendency for the bad guys in James’ stories to be scholars and religious figures. Hence we have the abbot in “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”; the frustrated scholar Karswell in “Casting the Runes”; another learned figure, Mr. Abney, in “Lost Hearts”; Archdeacon Haynes from “The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”, etc. It may be that James was simply writing about what he knew best, but Joshi makes a perhaps deeper point that such characters may embody the author’s deep hostility towards the “ungodly” colleagues who had begun to contend for control of the intellectual culture at Cambridge during James’ time there (e.g., James George Frazer and Bertrand Russell). In the emerging struggle between the religious conservatives and those who, following in the footsteps of Darwin, began to question the literalness of the bible, James was decidedly in the former camp. In Joshi’s words, “James uses such devices as occultism (the perversion of religion into impious magic and sorcery) and the misuse or miscontrual of biblical passages as a warning on the dangers of straying from orthodoxy”.

******"Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance"******

I think James left a lot more than usual on the table in this one. So many questions about (view spoiler)[the maze, the beings that pursued Humphreys' ancestor through the maze, the bush under the window, why Humphreys' uncle gathered the stones from out of the maze, the origin of the globe, etc. (hide spoiler)]. The one just didn't gel with me as I felt it was pretty incomplete.

Anyone who wants to jump into the group, this is a good entry point. We will be starting discussion of the third collection of MR James short stories, "A Thin Ghost and Others" on Monday 11/18. Join us!

*The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral*

I liked this one, though it was a little wordy. (view spoiler)[ I went back and looked at Ken's comments on this one. I, too, enjoyed that Byron, Shelley and Voltaire were blamed. As I said, I enjoyed it, but this tale didn't knock my socks off or anything. Since you guys seem pretty knowledgeable about James, did he have something against these authors? (hide spoiler)]

3 of 5 stars.

Canavan wrote: "Discussion for “The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”.

I think of this story as very good — if not great — James. It starts a little slowly for my tastes (even for Monty), but if that’s a blemish, i..."

(view spoiler)[ "One of the entries includes one of my favorite lines from a James tale, chilling in its simplicity: “There is no kitchen cat.” I noted that line in the book and it gave me chills. "There is no kitchen cat." Excellent stuff right there, in just one neat little sentence. (hide spoiler)]

Charlene wrote: "Canavan wrote: "Discussion for “The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”.

I think of this story as very good — if not great — James. It starts a little slowly for my tastes (even for Monty), but if tha..."

I loved that line too! Creepy!!!!

Discussion of “The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”.

(Only minor spoilers follow.)

Charlene wrote (in part):

(view spoiler)[I went back and looked at Ken's comments on this one. I, too, enjoyed that Byron, Shelley and Voltaire were blamed. [snip] ….did he have something against these authors?

Hmmm, I dunno for sure, Charlene. At the conclusion of “ ‘Oh, Whistle’ “, the Colonel remarked that “the whole thing…served to confirm his opinion of the Church of Rome”. In that specific instance it’s fairly clear that the views expressed are not James’ own and that he is instead adopting a slightly mocking tone. (According to Cox, MRJ had at least a “sympathetic interest in Catholicism and ritualism from an antiquarian point of view”.) James may again be flexing his comedic muscles in the passage you and Ken reference, especially since the fictional obituary from which the narrator is quoting seems to go out of its way to emphasize Haynes’ conservative religious views. But as I think more about it, I doubt that James himself would have been all that crazy about the beliefs espoused by this trio, even though he was writing “Barchester” a century after the time in which it was set. Both Byron and Shelley were well known for their atheistic views and, while Voltaire considered himself a deist, he loathed organized religion. (hide spoiler)]

Canavan, how is it that you've come to know so much about James? Is it just a personal pursuit or do you teach this subject or something similar?

Martin's Close

I liked this one a lot. I liked the way in which the story was told, and I actually laughed in a couple of spots. (view spoiler)[ I loved the vague description of the escapee from the cupboard. My imagination filed that in quite nicely. (hide spoiler)]

Charlene asked:

Canavan, how is it that you've come to know so much about James? Is it just a personal pursuit or do you teach this subject or something similar?

If I’m to be honest I’ve long had a sort of literary obsession with James dating back to my discovery many years ago of a library copy of his 1931 Collected Ghost Stories . Most readers can point to one or more authors that for whatever reason just “click” with them. For me, one of those writers is James; when I first read his stories I felt a strong and immediate affinity for both his style and his themes.

As for my knowledge on the subject matter, I’ll confess to merely parroting the facts gathered by individuals who are far, far more informed that am I. I’ve been relying in the main on two sources. I’ve already mentioned the first one in a couple of previous comments, but — at the risk of sounding like a shill for the publisher — I will once again recommend Ash-Tree Press’ annotated A Pleasing Terror (2001). The Kindle version is available for $10; that may seem a bit steep for an e-book (especially given that the stories are freely available), but it really contains a wealth of information. There are are other annotated versions of some or all of James’ stories, but this is the one to buy.

A second source is Rosemary Pardoe's The Ghosts & Scholars M.R. James Newsletter. It has existed in one form or another since 1979 and currently comes out a few times a year. Many of the articles have been archived on-line here.

It’s a great source of information for all things Jamesian — not only for insights about James (his life and works), but also on others writing in James’ style. I doubt that anyone is as versed on MRJ as is Ms. Pardoe.

Discussion of “Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance”.

(No real spoilers.)

I was speaking in a very recent comment about resources for M. R. James. I should have also mentioned a podcast I have only recently started listening to entitled A Podcast to the Curious (hosted by Will Ross and Mike Taylor). I listened this morning on the way in to work the episode for “Mr. Humphreys”, which can be found here. The episode spends a bit of time (mostly the last 15 minutes) discussing different ideas about just what Mr. Wilson might have been up to, making frequent reference to a Ghosts & Scholars article (Issue 24) written by Rosemary Pardoe and Jane Nicholls. That article can be read here. I won’t go into detail; suffice to say that, as noted earlier by Ken, there are loose ends here upon which to ponder.

Thanks for responding and for providing those links. :)
I might check out that podcast later on tonight.

Apologies if it seems that I’m babbling on and on about the Ghosts & Scholars web site, but I thought you guys might be interested in seeing how your likes and dislikes (thus far) match up against those of others James fans. G & S has twice surveyed its readership, once in 1995 and again in 2007.

Top two favorites:

1995
1. " 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' "
2. "Casting the Runes"

2007
1. " 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' "
2. "Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book"

Least favorite:

1995
1. "Two Doctors"
2. "After Dark in the Playing Fields"

2007
1. "After Dark in the Playing Fields"
2. "There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard"

Most overrated:

1995
Not asked.

2007
1. " 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' "
2. "The Ash-Tree"

The results should be taken with a grain of salt given the sample size, but are still fun to consider. If you want to look at the full details, check here and here.

Well, I have to say that of the first collection "Oh Whistle, and I'll Come..." was my favorite.

I will have to finish this last story in the second volume to decide which will be my favorite.

Mr. Humphries.

I think this was my favorite of the bunch. (view spoiler)[ What a chilling scene that was when he was looking down the hole in the map! And the scene where they found the man in the road, who felt he had been chased by a whole slew of things unseen. For those extra creepy bits, this is my favorite. (hide spoiler)]
5*

Picking a favorite from each is difficult. I think I have to go with:

"Lost Hearts" and "Martin's Close"

I just checked and my complete James edition has these stories in just the same order, so I'm moving right along. :)

Discussion of “The Residence at Whitminster”.

(I’m posting this a day early; sorry! Feel free to ignore for the time being.)

With A Thin Ghost and Others we start to consider stories that are, if not bad, at least do not quite stack up to those in James’ first two books. Of course, that’s just my opinion; others disagree. In fact, there are those who think “A Warning to the Curious” (which appears in the fourth collection) ranks as the author’s best work.

I would give “The Residence at Whitminster” a passing grade, but kind of a grudging one. I like the basic premise here (as I typically do with James’ stuff), but felt the execution was a trifle subpar. (view spoiler)[I had two basic problems. The first relates to the narrative arc. We have a two-part structure. In the first, James outlines a rather prototypical situation in which our Bad Guy (in this instance, the young lord, Saul) is dabbling with dark forces best left undisturbed. Saul’s immoral actions result, not only in his own death, but also that of an innocent, the Ashton’s young nephew, Frank. This section, while containing a few nifty moments, seemed rushed to me — one second Frank lays sick in bed; the next, both he and Saul are pushing up daisies. The second (and concluding) section is basically a coda to the first and, as such, is a bit anticlimactic. Taking place about a hundred years later, this part of the story focuses on Dr. Oldys and his niece, who undergo experiences and learn information that serve to fill in a few of the blanks left over from Section 1.

My second problem is that the story’s spookier incidents are conveyed to the reader in a way that moderates their impact. This is especially true, I think, in the Oldys section. James is once again having fun with his characters, especially Mrs. Maple (who at one point takes almost a full page to tell her employers that she can’t find a key). The reader may or may not find this stuff amusing, but for me it nearly ruins the key points — for example, one of the stories best moments, the description of Saul as “thin ghost” at the window of the Simpkins house. (As an aside, in the Podcast to the Curious episode for this story, one of the hosts comments that this passage reminded him of the great scene in Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot (1979) where Danny Glick appears floating outside his brother’s window. (hide spoiler)]

3.0* (of 5)

"The Residence at Whitminster."

(view spoiler)[ That sure was a lot of reading, for just the one chilling scene, when the guy passed through the unused bedroom. Though I did like the fact that the press went unopened. (hide spoiler)]
3 stars.

*********"The Residence at Whitminster"**********

(view spoiler)[Saul seemed like Damien Omen meets Severus Snape. Sneaky little bastard.

James had a thing with the creepy crawly critters. What is this, the third or fourth story along those lines?

The scene with the loquacious maid was indeed annoying. (hide spoiler)]

Ken wrote: "*********"The Residence at Whitminster"**********

I totally agree about the maid!!

**********"The Diary of Mr Poynter"**********

I propose another name for this short story (view spoiler)[


"Cousin It Attacks"



(hide spoiler)].

Discussion of "The Diary of Mr. Poynter".

Meh. In many ways this comes off as a very typical James story. (view spoiler)[Mr. James Denton, if not a scholar, is a bibliophile (as was James, of course). We also have Mr. Denton's aunt — the sort of unsympathetic female character that seems to populate many of James' tales. And in Mr. Cattell we have another stock James character, a person of lower class (dropping his 'aitches) who is semi-amusing (in this instance prattling on about Shakespeare at the drop of a hat). Unfortunately, while the story follows the typical Jamesian blueprint, it isn't developed as well as it could be. In the case of our previously discussed story — "The Residence at Whitminster" — I complained that perhaps too much was going on, with some of the explication being quite unnecessary. In the case of "Poynter" I thought that not enough was going on. (I'm just never satisfied!) Specifically, once the author lays down the story's foundation, we get a one brief mention of Denton's uneasiness when in the room with the new curtains and then — bam! — the appearance of the revenant. That section is kinda cool (although as Ken and others have noted, the fact that the hair monster evokes the image of Cousin It from the old Addams Family sitcom works to limit its impact on the reader). But there is no real build-up of tension — everything happens so quickly. Related to this issue, I felt that this story might represent an instance where I would agree with Ken's general criticism of James that we don't learn enough about the Big Bad Guy. In his seeming rush to complete "Poynter" we learn virtually zilch about Charlett other than his obsession with his own hair. I don't want to know everything about the person, but a teensy bit more would, I think, have helped the story.

I listened recently to the "Poynter" episode from Podcast to the Curious. The hosts made a few interesting observations that I thought to pass along. The first has to do with the fabric sample found in the diary. The fact that Denton has it reproduced highlights the fact that it not (as is usually the case in a James story) the original object which is (for lack of a better word) "haunted", but rather something intrinsic to the pattern itself. That seems (to me anyway) to embody a more modern conception of horror and recalls Lovecraftian notions about alien geometries.

The podcast's hosts also pointed out the at least superficial similarities between "Poynter" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's classic 1892 story, "The Yellow Wallpaper". I don't think that James' story is as sophisticated or multi-layered as the Gilman one, but the comparison is an interesting one.

Lastly, I found on the web two illustrations for this story, one by Paul Lowe (who has to his credit a number of James-inspired images) and another by Alisdair Wood. Both, as will be seen, depict the same scene.

Lowe:



Wood:


(hide spoiler)]

3.0* (of 5)

**********"An Episode of Cathedral History"**********

This seemed to follow what is becoming a formulaic pattern in some of James' short stories: (view spoiler)[an academic research into a building or text, the uncovering of an old mystery, investigation into the mystery, then left hanging with no real closure or explanation.

I was a little disappointed by the ending. I had really hoped that the men would discover what exactly was in the tomb and give a more satisfactory explanation or conclusion.

For a moment, from the description given of what came out of the tomb ("Black it was and a mass of hair, and two legs, and the light caught on its eyes"), I was reminded of Cousin It from "The Diary of Mr. Poynter".

The inscription on the cross left the conclusion wide open. IBI CUBAVIT LAMIA "there the lamia lay down" with lamia meaning anything from a night bird to Lilith or anything in between. The story is a lot scarier with Lilith wondering the close than some screech owl. (hide spoiler)]

The Diary of Mr. Poynter

Meh? I loved it! Loved. It. :)

(view spoiler)[ The entire sequence where he wrote up from dozing and reached down? And how it followed him to the red door...and what about the hand (or something worse than a hand), that seemed to strengthen at his back? I thought his descriptions, or more importantly vague descriptions, really shined in this story. I'm kind of bummed that you didn't like it. (hide spoiler)]

*****"The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance"*****

I didn't get this one at all!

(view spoiler)[So, the Punch and Judy performers killed the old man? Motive? I'm sure I missed something. (hide spoiler)]

Canavan wrote: "Discussion of "The Diary of Mr. Poynter".

Canavan said (in part) Meh. In many ways this comes off as a very typical James story. Mr. James Denton, if not a scholar, is a bibliophile (as was James, of course). We also ha..."

(view spoiler)[ I enjoyed reading your notes, Canavan. I am a HUGE fan of The Yellow Wallpaper, but I don't really see anything similar between the two. I view TYW as a commentary on women and what passed for medical/mental health care at the time. What were the superficial similarities? (hide spoiler)]

Discussion of "The Diary of Mr. Poynter".

Charlene wrote (in part):

Meh? I loved it! Loved. It. :)

Well, I didn’t really dislike the story, Charlene. You're probably correct in implying that my use of “meh” may have been unduly dismissive. I did indeed admire and enjoy the passage you describe. But I do come away from this one feeling that it (like other stories in the last two collections we’ll be considering) are somehow “lesser” James.

HA! We posted at the same time. :)

Discussion of "An Episode of Cathedral History".

I last read this story a year or so ago and felt at that time that it fell somewhere in the bottom 50% of the James canon. But (for whatever reason) upon re-reading it last night, I found it better than I remembered. (view spoiler)[I enjoyed (more so than in the previous two stories) the way "Episode” unfolds. Worby is, I think, treated much more sympathetically than many of James' other lower-class characters; for example, it's noteworthy that both Worby and Lake (who is, I presume, another one of those stand-in's for Monty) both share a like of Edwin Drood and a pronounced dislike of the Gothic revival. And the build up to the final confrontation is more effective than in other stories in this collection. I liked, for example, the interaction between young Worby and his dog and also the episode involving Worby and his buddy Evans poking stuff into the altar tomb.

The ending is a bit problematic. First of all, just who or what has been trapped beneath the pulpit? I know that Ken has been fairly consistent in complaining about James' tendency to leave too many loose threads. While I have generally defended the author in this regard, this penchant seems more pronounced in this latest clutch of stories. I don't need or want all of the dots connected, but I might have expected at least a hint about the origin of this beastie. Mike Taylor and Will Ross (A Podcast to the Curious) note that the Isaiah passage (34:14) has been variously translated over time (e.g., see here), and in looking at the alternatives one suspects that the original authors were probably not thinking about actual screech owls.

I also found myself wondering just what we are supposed to think about the monster's disposition at the end of "Episode". Is it gone for good? Presumably so, but James never makes this quite clear. (hide spoiler)]

3.0* (of 5)

Discussion of "The Diary of Mr. Poynter".

(view spoiler)[Charlene wrote (in part):

I am a HUGE fan of The Yellow Wallpaper, but I don't really see anything similar between the two. I view TYW as a commentary on women and what passed for medical/mental health care at the time. What were the superficial similarities?

Both stories center around the effect of "patterns", if you will, on the psyche of the protagonists. In the case of Gilman's story, the pattern in question is that of the wallpaper. "There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. It is always the same shape, only very numerous. And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern." In the case of "Poynter" the pattern (originally found on the fabric swatch in the diary and later used for the curtains in the manor) leads to a superficially similar visual illusion. "...as I was reading in bed last night they [the curtains] kept catching my eye rather. That is, I found myself looking across at them every now and then. There was an effect as if some one kept peeping out between the curtains in one place or another, where there was no edge, and I think that was due to the joining up of the bands at the top." Of course, I would agree that this point of similarity is a superficial one; the purposes of the two authors were radically different. In the case of the James story, I think we are meant to believe that the pattern acted as some sort of gateway allowing the "hair monster" to confront and attack our Mr. Denton. As you noted, Gilman's own interpretation of her story eschewed the supernatural and instead focused on the character's descent into madness as a result of aberrant medical practices with respect to women that prevailed at the time. (hide spoiler)]

Canavan wrote: "Discussion of "The Diary of Mr. Poynter".

Charlene wrote (in part):

I am a HUGE fan of The Yellow Wallpaper, but I don't really see anything similar between the two. I view TYW as a commentary on..."

Ahhh, I see, it's the patterns. Thanks for taking the time and even including quotes. Nice!

Discussion of "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance".

This is, I'm afraid, my least favorite story of those found in A Thin Ghost . Oddly, it turns out that it was something of a favorite of the author. According to Rosemary Pardoe, James "revived it for his final Christmas ghost story reading at Cambridge in 1934" (Ghosts & Scholars, Issue 14). And in James' 1931 essay "Ghosts, Treat Them Gently!", he mentions that Punch and Judy sparked his early interest in ghosts: "In my childhood I chanced to see a toy Punch and Judy set, with figures cut out in cardboard. One of these was The Ghost. It was a tall figure habited in white with an unnaturally long and narrow head, also surrounded with white, and a dismal visage. Upon this my conceptions of a ghost were based, and for years it permeated my dreams."

(view spoiler)[The story has a few things going for it — particularly the very disturbing dream sequence involving Punch and Judy. (This story elicited my own early memories of P & J. As a five-year-old I recall that even the sanitized story lines we were exposed to were kinda disturbing.)

The landlord, Mr. Bowman, is sort of a male version of Mrs. Maple — whether one finds his repeated ramblings on the beer and cheese incidents amusing or not is, I suppose, a matter of taste. I think I could have done without it.

So what exactly happens to Uncle Henry? I presume that Punch's nefarious actions in the dream somehow symbolized those of Kidman and Gallop, although why exactly those two might have been motivated to commit murder is left completely unclear. James' description of the actual Punch and Judy show, with the reappearance of Uncle Henry, seemed a bit confused as well; I remember having to re-read this a few times before I could grasp something of what the author intended the reader to understand. (hide spoiler)]

1.5* (of 5)

Canavan wrote: "Discussion of "An Episode of Cathedral History".

I last read this story a year or so ago and felt at that time that it fell somewhere in the bottom 50% of the James canon. But (for whatever reason..."

I don't want or need all of the dots connected either. In fact, in most instances, leaving a question hanging out there adds to the mystique of the story. I am more upset because I like the direction a story is going and would like more of it.

Canavan wrote: "Discussion of "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance".

This is, I'm afraid, my least favorite story of those found in A Thin Ghost. Oddly, it turns out that it was somethin..."

So I didn't miss anything? He left a whole lot unanswered or addressed in this one.

*****"Two Doctors"*****

If its not (view spoiler)[spiders or creepy crawlies, its secreted away documents. James gets a little formulaic at times.

I like how he tells you up front in this one "The dossier is not complete". I think that ought to be a disclaimer on almost every story we have read up to this point.

"Death by the visitation of God"...got to like that. (hide spoiler)]

Discussion of "Two Doctors".

Like "An Episode of Cathedral History", I read "Two Doctors" not that long ago (last year I think), so I only gave it a quick skimming this morning rather than read it through carefully. As noted in an earlier comment, this story enjoys the dubious distinction of being voted as the worst of James' tales by his fans in a Ghost & Scholars poll (see here).

(view spoiler)[The story has a reputation of being one of the author's most impenetrable, continuing a trend demonstrated by earlier entries in A Thin Ghost. I think that a few re-readings are sufficient to provide the reader with at least the broad outlines of what is going on, but even if one grants that the story may satisfy as a puzzle piece, it doesn’t seem to me to be very interesting or effective as a tale of the supernatural. The only genuinely eerie moment (and not a very eerie one at that) is Quinn’s dream description. (hide spoiler)]

2.0* (of 5)

To sort of sum up my reaction to this collection, I think the authors' critics are justified in characterizing the contents as "lesser James", but upon re-reading, the only two that I would really give a thumbs down to were the final two — "Two Doctors" and "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance". The first three were actually better than I had recalled, especially "An Episode of Cathedral History". While not ranking with some of the best in the first two collections, they were nevertheless pretty decent stories.

An Episode of Cathedral History

I didn't like this one very much. (view spoiler)[ I enjoy ambiguous stories, but there's not enough here to even formulate a theory. All that story telling for not much of a story , IMO. (hide spoiler)]

2.5 of 5

Discussion of "The Haunted Dolls' House".

(view spoiler)[At the end of "The Haunted Dolls’ House", James offers a species of apology — an acknowledgement that the story bears perhaps more than a passing resemblance to his earlier tale, "The Mezzotint". I’m not sure there’s really all that much to add to that coda. "Dolls' House" has a few nice moments, but in my opinion it's a somewhat pale imitation of its more accomplished predecessor. (It's interesting to note that some folks — a minority, I think — while recognizing the overlap, prefer "Dolls' House".)

A couple of interesting sidelights about this story. The hosts of the James podcast, A Podcast to the Curious, made the observation that the lengthy (maybe too lengthy?) sequence in which the dolls' house replays the past has the visual and aural flavor of watching a silent film. (There are some sounds — e.g., early on from the stable and later when the frog-person makes his appearance — but Dillet seems to hear none of the conversations involving the principal "actors".) Chittenden reinforces this impression when, near the story's end, he refers to the drama as "a regular picture-palace-drama in reel life of the olden time, billed to perform regular at one o'clock a.m." I suppose I find the analogy interesting because I tend to connect the antiquarian James more with the 19th than the 20th century, even though almost all of his stories appeared during the first part of the 20th.

If you want to take a peek at the dolls' house that sparked this story — the Queen Mary's Dolls' House — you can check here. It's pretty amazing. (hide spoiler)]

3.0* (of 5)

Discussion of "The Uncommon Prayer-Book".

This particular story is not one that I remembered all that well prior to re-reading last evening. It proved to be a bit of a disappointment. (view spoiler)[James mines familiar territory here — once again we have a case where a book (or in this case, books plural) are guarded by something nasty. Mr. Davidson is our stand-in for M. R. James. We have yet another garrulous working-class type, this time in the person of old Mr. Avery (who seemingly can't help but repeat himself ad infinitum). This latter trope is one James seems to have become increasingly fond of over time, perhaps because he enjoyed mimicking accents when orally reciting his stories, but as we've plowed through James' oeuvre, my irritation with it has grown; I find it a bit condescending. (Although I will admit in the case of the present story, I did chuckle when Avery's daughter assures Mr. Davidson that "Father ain't a talkin' man.")

The background of the story (which dates back to the passions excited by the Commonwealth era and the subsequent Restoration — a period which features in quite a few English ghost stories) is okay, but not great. The big climax is actually a bit anti-climactic. I had at least two problems with it. First, the bogey (presumably Lady Sadleir — a real person, by the way) is not all that well developed, even for James. Second, the description of the Sadleir's supernatural vengeance is filtered through another of these lengthy conversations, this one between two police inspectors and a couple of Poschwitz' employees. The way in which this conversation moderates the horrific impact of the supernatural element reminds me of Mrs. Maple's contribution in "The Residence at Whitminster". To go a bit further, the conversation per se is clumsily handled — it starts out entirely one-sided (with the inspectors both asking and answering their own questions), and then the point view abruptly shifts to that of one of Poschwitz' employees, Mr. Watkins.

As per usual I afterwards listened to the guys doing A Podcast to the Curious for this particular story. They discussed in some detail the character of Mr. Poschwitz and whether James' treatment of him possibly represents the author's anti-Semitic views. This isn't an idea original to the hosts, I might add — it's been around for a while and has been been chewed over by various Jamesian enthusiasts. To begin with, Michael Cox, in his notes for the story, makes the claim that "Homberger/Poschwitz is the only deliberately Jewish character in MRJ's fiction and is painted in decidedly uncomplimentary terms". It's hard to argue with the second part of this thesis, but as to the first — Poschwitz' identity as a Jew — there seems room for disagreement. Poschwitz seems likely to have some sort of Germanic origin, but there's nothing really concrete in the story to establish him as Jewish. (At least that was my opinion and the podcast hosts seemed likewise skeptical on that score.) Even if one concedes the point that Poschwitz was Jewish, it's difficult to generalize from James' treatment of a single character. Moreover, Steve Duffy, in an article which appeared in Ghosts & Scholars, is similarly dubious concerning any proposal that James was an anti-Semite, basing his view on James' nonfiction writings. Specifically, in 1896 James (along with Augustus Jessopp, who we have mentioned before) annotated and introduced a translation of Thomas of Monmouth's 12th-century The Life and Miracles of St William of Norwich. As part of the introduction, James discusses that aspect of William of Norwich's life dealing with accusations that the Jews of Norwich were responsible for the ritual murder of Christians. Jessopp and James end up dismissing these virulent conspiracy theories involving ritualistic murder. Steve Duffy's essay can be read here. The Wikipedia article on William of Norwich can be read here.

As a final note: If you enjoy Jamesian pastiches, Duffy's earlier work tends to fall into this category. I would particularly recommend The Night Comes On (Ash-Tree Press, 1998). The hardcover has long been out of print and used copies are prohibitively expensive, but a reasonably-priced e-version is available. (hide spoiler)]



2.5* (of 5)

**********"The Haunted Dolls' House"**********

My first thought was how similar to (view spoiler)["The Mezzotint" (hide spoiler)] that this story was. Then the author adequately addressed that idea in the afterword.

I liked the story. I thought it was pretty straightforward.

And, as Canavan mentioned might be the case in his review, I prefer this one over the other.

**********"The Uncommon Prayer-Book"**********

I liked this one up until the end. Like Canavan stated (view spoiler)[it was very anti-climatic (hide spoiler)].

Happy Thanksgiving, guys!

You too Charlene! Happy Thanksgiving to all our Classic Horror memers!