Original and Excellent: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Part 1

Montague Rhodes James is a memorable name, to say the least, which is part of the reason that I was so surprised that I had absolutely no memory of having heard it before I read Lovecraft sing the praises of his ghost stories in his essay, "Supernatural Horror in Literature."

James wrote quite a bit in his day, but he's apparently best known for his ghost stories. Several of them were collected in a two volume collection called Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, and today I'm talking about the first volume specifically.

This book contains eight ghost stories written between roughly 1894 and 1904. Some of them are kind of predictable, but some of them are quite original, and all of them are well-written and engaging. The style is an educated and lofty English gentleman storyteller, with lots of bits of Latin, a little French, and even a few words of Danish. However, despite the lofty tone and educated vocabulary, the book is extremely accessible and maintains a friendly, warm tone.

The tone, while friendly, is often quite serious, verging on the grave, but James also includes a few jokes here and there for relief, mostly about golf and the habits of people who play golf.

Let's take a quick no-spoiler look at each story--if you want spoilers, see the appropriate chapters of the embedded video.

First, we have "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book," which is original and quite interesting. It suffers from a somewhat calm ending, but the build-up and plot are intriguing.

"Lost Hearts" is a fairly predictable story, but it manages to create a lot of dark, oppressive atmosphere and some rather unsettling hints of gore.

"The Mezzotint" is a good story with a fun and mysterious progression, but it lost a bit of impact by maintaining too much distance between the narrator and the horror aspect of the story. Still, it was a very solid read and kept me guessing.

"The Ash-Tree" is another somewhat predictable story, and again it suffers a bit by keeping too much distance between the narrator and the horror. However, it contains some spine-chilling gory details that were intertwined into the action very effectively, and a trick ending that made me really sit back and look at it.

"Number 13" is very original, and while not especially scary, it had its moments, and was especially notable for the way it showed the conflict between superstition and the modern mindset. It also has a creepy, ambiguous ending that I enjoyed very much.

"Count Magnus" has a great, very relatable scare combined with a journalistic tone that helps to accentuate that scare when it happens. It combines old tales with modern skepticism in a fun way, too, much like "Number 13."

"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" is another very original story with a good scare, but it also has some elements which soften the scare, but only after it lands.

"The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" is notable for its inclusion of genuine mystery elements and combining them with a very solid, yet ambiguous scare that surprised me enough that I had to read it twice.

All of these stories are well-written and fun, with good attention to detail, strong atmosphere, and surprisingly well-developed characters for stories this short.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in ghost stories, especially because it's free. Follow the link up above to check out the Project Gutenberg version.