Peter Haining - M R James Book Of The Supernatural

[dem bones]

Peter Haining (ed.) - M. R. James Book Of The Supernatural (Foulsham, 1979)

Foreword - Sir John Betjeman
Peter Haining - The Haunted World Of M. R. James

Dr. Montague R. James - Some Remarks On Ghost Stories (Article)
Peter Haining - M. R. James As Sherlock Holmes! (Article)
Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories collected by M. R. James
Anon - The Vampire Of Kring
M. R. James - The Novels And Short Stories Of J. Sheridan Le Fanu (Article)
J. Sheridan Le Fanu - The Little Red Man
Erckmann-Chatrian - The Black And The White
The Story Of The Bulbul: Based On An Indian Fairy Tale
M. R. James - My Dream Of A Murderous Ghost (Article)
" A Warning To The Curious" (Article)
M. R. James - The Experiment
M. R. James - A View From A Hill
M. R. James - The Mystery Of A Satanist Picture (Article)
M. R. James - A Vignette
Christopher Lee - A Tribute To M. R. J.

Bibliography
Acknowledgements

Haining applies his winning The Dracula Scrapbook formula to this one and, while it's in no way as wild - quite simply, there's not as much material to play with - he comes up with a likable coffee-table job, and even treats the reader to some M. R. J. semi-rarities. Without wishing to quibble, we should point out that, whatever Haining's claims to having rescued these stories from oblivion, Hugh Lamb beat him to both Experiment and James's translation of Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories, while Richard Dalby included A Vignette in his 1971 collection, The Sorceress In Stained Glass. As you'd expect, there's a wealth of gorgeous illustrative material, some of it perhaps not entirely relevant - the striking cover for a WDL paperback of Henry James's The Turn Of The Screw is captioned in part "about which his namesake is strangely reticent" - but welcome just the same. There's also a brilliantly executed full page portrait of "M. R. James - Master Of Fantasy" from Famous Fantastic Mysteries whose only flaw is that it looks nothing like him. Sir C. Lee's Tribute is doubtless heartfelt, but his intro's, prefaces and forewords get a bit samey once you've read a few, most likely because they are and he just rearranges the sentences every once in a while.

Apparently, M. R. J. thought The Vampire Of Kring was an influence on Stoker's Dracula, but after reading it here I'm still trying to get where he's coming from. Surely le Fanu's Carmilla and the Anonymous The Mysterious Stranger have a better claim? His lauded Some Remarks On The Ghost Story is certainly intriguing as far as it goes, and makes you wish he'd written a full length treatment on the subject, but be fair - and i'm going to hide behind the couch once i've posted this - when he pronounces forth from his lofty perch on proper horror, he can come across as the most insufferably pompous snob! The Not At Night' are "merely nauseating, and it is very easy to be nauseating"; Wakefield's They Return At Evening? "a mixed bag ... I should remove one or two which leave a nasty taste." Ambrose Bierce is "sometimes unpardonable" while - i can barely bring myself to repeat this blasphemy! oh, alright then - The Monk is "odious and horrible without being impressive". Is he having a laugh?

[cw67q]

Hi demonik.

What is this piece: J. Sheridan Le Fanu - The Little Red Man?

one of the short folky tales? An extract from a novel?

- chris

[dem bones]

A super-short, barely two sides of large print, extracted from Stories Of Lough Guir in Madam Crowl's Ghost by the looks of it.

[Michael Connolly]

I'm going by memory here, but I think a recent M.R. James Newsletter showed that M.R. James, when he referred to the story (which he did not name) influencing Dracula, meant The Mysterious Stranger. Peter Haining mistakenly identified the story as The Vampire of Kring.

Haining's M.R. James Book of the Supernatural is light on material. However, it was published just after Rosemary Pardoe's Ghosts & Scholars had started. I just received her latest M.R. James Newsletter yesterday, and it shows that since Haining's book, a lot more material on M.R. James has been made available.

The M.R. James Newsletter is worth subscribing to, with details available on the Ghosts & Scholars Website.

[cw67q]

Thanks demonik - chris

Mar 10, 2010 13:17:32 GMT dem bones said:

A super-short, barely two sides of large print, extracted from Stories Of Lough Guir in Madam Crowl's Ghost by the looks of it.

[shonokin]

Mar 10, 2010 13:55:13 GMT Michael Connolly said:

The M.R. James Newsletter is worth subscribing to, with details available on the Ghosts & Scholars Website.

Is it sent out more regularly then the website is updated, which was in 2007?

[dem bones]

thanks codex, having gone back to Some Remarks On Ghost Stories that certainly makes sense. The exact quote runs:

"There is Dracula, which suffers by excess. (I fancy, by the way, that it must be based on a story in the fourth volume of Chamber's Repository, issued in the fifties.)"

obviously Peter's research wasn't quite "considerable" enough in this case. The worrying thing is, i re-read Some Remarks ... early this morning to extract the quotes about Wakefield, M. G. Lewis & Co., and i still came away from it thinking M. R. J. mentioned The Vampire Of Kring by name!

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

I think it must be the vaguely annual size of this one that keeps me referring to it as "The M.R. James Bumper Fun Book". Some of the research is a bit dubious - his claim about "The Vampire of Kring" being found in a November 1856 issue of "Chamber's Repository", a magazine no longer published by November 1856 - but there are some nice, obscure items and a good selection of illustrations.

Mar 10, 2010 17:05:39 GMT shonokin said:

Mar 10, 2010 13:55:13 GMT Michael Connolly said:

The M.R. James Newsletter is worth subscribing to, with details available on the Ghosts & Scholars Website.

Is it sent out more regularly then the website is updated, which was in 2007?

The Newsletter comes out twice a year, and is still packed with fresh material (my own 'umble TV and radio reviews aside). The website fell behind when the editor's computer suffered severe technical problems, and (for a number of reasons I can't go into) she's not felt it a major priority to keep it updated. Good to know the new Newsletter's out, though. I'm looking forward to getting my copy.

[cw67q]

Can I just add my recommendation of the G&S newsletter to those above. Rosemary Pardoe makes a great job of producing a very interesting publication.

As an OT-ish aside: G&S, and Rosemary albeit off-screen, feature in one of Phil Rickman's later "Merrily" novels "The Fabric of Sin" which has strong (and explicit) Jamesian themes. An earlier novel in the series also involved slightly Algernan Blackwood through his freindship with Elgar (who featured more centrally).

- chris

[monker]

Greetings shonokin, love the name.

[dem bones]

Mar 10, 2010 20:54:44 GMT The Lurker In The Shadows said:

I think it must be the vaguely annual size of this one that keeps me referring to it as "The M.R. James Bumper Fun Book". Some of the research is a bit dubious - his claim about "The Vampire of Kring" being found in a November 1856 issue of "Chamber's Repository", a magazine no longer published by November 1856 - but there are some nice, obscure items and a good selection of illustrations.

Ah, now that sounds less a case of sloppy research than Peter Haining up to his old tricks - massaging the date to fit his convenient theory!

my guess is that, once he compiled all his MRJ material, he realised he only had half a book and, with deadline impending, padded accordingly. Compare the two and you'll note how much of the illustrative content is either recycled direct from The Dracula Scrapbook (much of the Le Fanu content) or looks as if it were left over from it.

i don't think i will ever be able to look at my copy again and not think "The M.R. James Bumper Fun Book"

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Mar 11, 2010 7:59:00 GMT dem bones said:

i don't think i will ever be able to look at my copy again and not think "The M.R. James Bumper Fun Book"

Oops! Sorry about that.

Now with Creepy Crosswords, Demonic Dot-to-dots, Petrifying Puzzles and more Krazy Komic Kapers with "Karswell's Krackpot Kurses" ('He always gives 'em a rune for their money!').

[shonokin]

Thanks for the info Lurker, I've read some of the online articles time and again and may have to subscribe then. The immediacy and breadth of the internet is fine, but there's something about paper in hand that is far more satisfying and even comforting.

Thanks Monker, I've been a Wellman fan for a couple of decades and started the website 11 years ago.

[Michael Connolly]

I must check your website as I'm a great Wellman fan myself.

As the Lurker notes, the Ghosts & Scholars website has not been updated, but it still has much interesting content on it. It includes details on how to subscribe to the M.R. James Newsletter which has appeared regulary twice a year since 2002.

The link is: www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/GS.html

[monker]

Yep, Wellman would be in in my top ten favourite authors, easily. The 'John' stories would be his best but I will be forever intrigued by the whole 'Shonokin' phenomenon. My take on the whole 'race older than man' thing has always been convergent humanoid rather than cthulhoid.

About the website; I particularly like the bestiary, Wellman's fiction lends itself to that sort of thing.

I'm glad that dem isn't one of those people who gets all agitated when people start to go a bit off topic - touch wood!