M. R. James: The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral.
#MRJames: #TheStallsofBarchesterCathedral #GhostStories #EnglishGhostStories
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I am now watching #MarkGatiss adaptation of #MRJames story #CoumtMgnus: A #Christmas Ghost Story. It is on #BritBox
There are more of these seasonal tales there as well.
A Christmas present to myself, an M.R James figure made by the marvelous Hobbs Lane
Now to find a suitably spooky bookshelf for him to reside on.
Whistle and I’ll pounce like a lion on you.
#ghosts #ghoststories #mrjames #gothic #books
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This crisis of love and personal relationship plays out against the borderline of faerie; what Dunsany referred to as “beyond the fields we know”. Runhill Court straddles this borderline. Early on in the novel, Isabel, in an attempt to understand her odd experience and memory loss, seeks more information about Runhill's history. She discovers that according to legend, in the 6th century a man named Ulf dared to build a home on Troll cursed land. It came to pass that he and part of the tower how his abode were taken away. The haunted room was once called Ulf's Tower/Goblins' Tower. For some, access to the lost rooms and what awaits within and beyond is very real. And so, the danger for the central characters is to become lost in the land of faerie, either psychological or in a metaphysical manner.
While there is definitely an element of supernatural horror that suggests an M. R. James dénouement, Lindsay is intent on writing a metaphysical fantasy that is an exploration of love, passion, and the self-exploration of inner truth, that veers to the metaphorical/allegorical narrative style of #GeorgeMacDonald. As a consequence, I found some of the building tension, and supernatural horror was undercut by Lindsay's desire to suggest that Isbel's psychological-spiritual journey was one of personal growth, that was demanding, but not without hope.
Overall, The Haunted Woman is a fascinating novel that challenged the writer, and challenges the reader both in its mixed genre style and the questions it raises. I hope others have found my reader's response of value.
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0608401h.html
https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20190218
#PicturePromptBingo #BookReview #Book #Books
#DavidLindsay #MRJames #SupernaturalHorror #GhostStory #Faerie #FairieRealm #LordDunsany #TheHauntedWoman #Mystery #MetaphysicalFantasy #Fantasy
gutenberg.net.auThe Haunted Woman
#newbook This book compiles for the first time decades of James’s correspondence. They provide an intimate and revealing portrait of a very private man who would become arguably the most legendary and influential of all authors of ghost stories.
5 Ghost Stories that scared #MRJames
https://www.litromagazine.com/literature/five-ghost-stories-that-scared-m-r-james/
Litro MagazineFive Ghost Stories that Scared M. R. JamesToday marks 150 years since the birth of the master of the ghost story, Montague Rhodes James. In the century since they were first published, James’s stories have never been out of print. In the general scheme of things, terror in literature doesn’t have a very long shelf life. New generations of jaded readers demand new thrills, and the jump-cuts and sound effects of horror in cinema and on television make the literary ghost seem rather tame. But James’s stories are still as terrifying now as they ever were.
"So he put his hand into the well-known nook under the pillow: only, it did not get so far. What he touched was, according to his account, a mouth, with teeth, and with hair about it, and, he declares, not the mouth of a human being." - #MRJames from Casting the Runes
"I tell you, he had a very nasty bald head. It looked to me dry, and it looked dusty, and the streaks of hair across it were much less like hair than cobwebs." - #MRJames from The Tractate Middoth
(Still from The Tractate Middoth, 1966, BBC series Mystery and Imagination).
"... with such a dreadful look on his face that I really thought he must be ill or even dead. I rushed at him and shook him, and told him to wake up; and wake up he did, with a scream." - #MRJames from The Rose Garden
"... he was beastly thin: and he looked as if he was wet all over: and," he said, looking round and whispering as if he hardly liked to hear himself, "I'm not at all sure that he was alive." - #MRJames from A School Story
(Photo of Montague Rhodes James)
"It hung for an instant on the edge of the hole, then slipped forward on to my chest, and put its arms round my neck." - #MRJames from The Treasure of Abbott Thomas
Still from BBC 1974 production of the same name.
"... the reader will hardly, perhaps, imagine how dreadful it was to him to see a figure suddenly sit up in what he had known was an empty bed." - #MRJames from Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad.
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"... they hear someone scream, just as if the most inside part of his soul was twisted out of him." - #MRJames from Count Magnus
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"It was a really horrible sound, and Anderson felt that if he had been alone he must have fled for refuge and society to some neighbour bagman’s room." - #MRJames from Number 13
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"A certain amount of interest was excited in the village when it was known that the famous witch, who was still remembered by a few, was to be exhumed." - #MRJames from The Ash-tree
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"What he saw made him very nearly drop the candle on the floor, and he declares now that if he had been left in the dark at that moment he would have had a fit." - #MRJames from The Mezzotint.
(Illustration by Clive Upton)
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"Whilst the girl stood still, half smiling, with her hands clasped over her heart, the boy, a thin shape, with black hair and ragged clothing, raised his arms in the air with an appearance of menace and of unappeasable hunger and longing." - #MRJames Lost Hearts
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“Once,” Dennistoun said to me, “I could have sworn I heard a thin metallic voice laughing high up in the tower. I darted an inquiring glance at my sacristan. He was white to the lips. ‘It is he—that is—it is no one; the door is locked,’ was all he said, and we looked at each other for a full minute.” - M.R, James, Canon Alberic's Scrapbook
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I’ve followed this woodcut vibe by hitting the woods, hills and Mesolithic flint quarries of the Chilterns to see if I can get some folk-horror frissons. The third photograph is from Monks Risborough - the top of a hill on which a bronze-age barrow contains a distinguished tomb. On the side of the hill I am looking over is the gigantic, carved chalk shape, perhaps 200 feet high and visible from miles around - of an inverted cross. It is thought to be more recent - 18th century villagers having carved it to cover some earlier design. What was so shocking that it had to be obliterated by an upside-down cruxifix shape? The wind whistles and kestrels hover in place. Then, on the way back, I met this lil’ tree defying the gloom by going out in a blaze of glory, and I am 100% here for its 900-foot attitude. #folkhorror #invertedcross #demonology #chilterns #buckinghamshire #hillfigure #bronzeage #neolithic #ancient #hillfort #barrow #countryside #autumnvibes #archaeology #ghoststories #MRJames #gothic #ruralgothic #hillfigures
