Collected Ghost StoriesM. R. James was a scholar who flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. PaleoJudaica has mentioned him from time to time with reference to his still-valuable work on the New Testament Apocrypha and Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. See here and quite a few links.
(OWC Hardback)
M. R. James
Edited by Darryl Jones
Oxford World's Classics Hardback Collection
- The only one-volume edition to include all the published stories included in M. R. James's 1931 Collected Ghost Stories, plus three uncollected tales.
- Includes a lively introduction that explores James's conservative, donnish background and the character traits that contributed to the extraordinary power of his closely focused tales, whose terrifying narratives are discussed.
- The most accurate and comprehensive annotations to James's stories elucidate his antiquarian, classical, and literary references as well as providing interesting publishing history details.
- An Appendix reprints the prefaces and introductions to James's individual story collections together with three short articles by James about the ghost story, which present the fullest first-hand account of his approach to the genre.
- Up-to-date bibliography and chronology.
He also published entertaining ghost stories, many of which were informed by his scholarly work. I'm pleased to see that they are out in a new, annotated edition. At the OUP Blog, the editor, Darryl Jones, gives an excerpt from his comments in the new edition.
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