Edited by Christopher Roden and Barbara Roden. Introduction by Steve Duffy.
The ghost stories of M. R. James need
no introduction. They are widely considered the very best classical supernatural tales
ever committed to paper, and a testimony to their quality and universal appeal is the fact
that James's Collected Ghost Stories has remained
in print since its first publication in 1931. James's ghost stories are a
towering achievement, and they continue to dominate the genre more than a
century after they first began to appear.
Ash-Tree Press has published
collections by many of the writers who followed James and sought to emulate him, and is
now proud to have published A Pleasing Terror, which collects all of M. R.
James's writings on the supernatural. In addition to the thirty-three stories from
Collected
Ghost Stories, this volume includes a further three stories, seven story drafts left
amongst his papers, all of his introductions and prefaces to his various collections, and
his article 'Stories I Have Tried to Write'. In addition, there are the texts of twelve
medieval ghost stories discovered and published by James, all of his articles about the
ghost story, and his writings on J. Sheridan Le Fanu.
James's many letters also discussed
supernatural matters, and A Pleasing Terror includes a selection written to his
friend Gwendolen McBryde; and those he wrote to the young Sybil Cropper — which touch
on many of the ideas he later developed into his fantasy novel for younger readers,
The
Five Jars. The complete text of this novel is included, together with James's spoof
of Doctor Faustus, the play
Auditor and Impresario, which is reprinted
here for the first time in almost seventy-five years.
Much important Jamesian scholarship
has been produced in recent years, and some of the more important articles are reproduced
in A Pleasing Terror. The thirty-three completed ghost stories are fully
annotated, and a bibliography provides a starting point for further research. Biographical
details are provided by S. G. Lubbock's A Memoir of Montague Rhodes James, and
the volume is introduced by Steve Duffy, and has a preface by Christopher and Barbara
Roden. Each story is illustrated by Paul Lowe, who has shown himself to be one of the
finest interpreters of the ghostly vision of M. R. James.
The 712 pages of
A Pleasing
Terror bring together all of James's collected ghost stories, and much more besides.
The full list of contents is as follows:
Preface by Christopher Roden and
Barbara Roden; Introduction by Steve Duffy; A Memoir of Montague Rhodes James by
S. G. Lubbock;
GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY: Preface; Canon Alberic's Scrap-book; Lost Hearts; The
Mezzotint; The Ash-tree; Number 13; Count Magnus; 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My
Lad'; The Treasure of Abbot Thomas;
MORE GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY: Preface; A School Story; The Rose Garden; The Tractate
Middoth; Casting the Runes; The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral; Martin's Close; Mr
Humphreys and his Inheritance;
A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS: Preface; The Residence at Whitminster; The Diary of Mr Poynter;
An Episode of Cathedral History; The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance; Two
Doctors;
A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS AND OTHER GHOST STORIES: Acknowledgments; 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;
OTHER GHOST STORIES: Preface to Collected Ghost Stories (1931); There was a Man
Dwelt by a Churchyard; Rats; After Dark in the Playing Fields; Wailing Well; The
Experiment; The Malice of Inanimate Objects; A Vignette;
FRAGMENTS: The Fenstanton Witch; Marcilly-le-Hayer; John Humphreys; A Night in King's
College Chapel; The Game of Bear; Speaker Lenthall's Tomb; Merfield House;
TWELVE MEDIEVAL GHOST-STORIES
ARTICLES: Stories I Have Tried to
Write; Some Remarks on Ghost Stories; Ghosts—Treat Them Gently!; Ghost Story
Competition; Introduction for Ghosts & Marvels; The Novels and Stories of J.
Sheridan Le Fanu; MRJ's Prologue to Madam Crowl's Ghost; MRJ's Epilogue to
Madam
Crowl's Ghost; MRJ's Introduction to Uncle Silas; Letters: MRJ to Gwendolen
McBryde; Letters to a Child;
THE FIVE JARS: MRJ's delightful
supernatural novel for younger people;
AUDITOR AND IMPRESARIO: A spoof on Dr
Faustus from the pages of The Cambridge Review
APPENDICES: I: James Wilson's Secret
by
Rosemary Pardoe and Jane Nicholls; II: The Black Pilgrimage
by Rosemary Pardoe
and Jane Nicholls; III: Irony and Horror: The Art of M. R. James
by Samuel D.
Russell; IV: Ghosts in Medieval Yorkshire by Jacqueline Simpson; V: An M. R.
James Letter Introduced and annotated by Jack Adrian
M. R. JAMES: A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. R. JAMES ON FILM, RADIO, AND TELEVISION.
A Pleasing Terror annotates
all of the stories written by M. R. James, and there are thirty-three illustrations by
Paul Lowe.
