Collected Ghost Stories by M. R. James, pt. 1

I've realised that I can't really write about my collections of ghost stories and not write about the Master, M.R. James.
For James, though, a quick run through the book mentioning the one or two best titles will not do. All of his stories deserve attention, so this is the first in a mini-series where I will look at a few stories at a time.
Having picked up my battered old Collected Ghost Stories, a Wordsworth Classics edition that cost me a pound- one of the best pounds I ever spent- and re-read the introduction I realise there are still three M.R. James stories that I haven't read, as they were written after this collection was first published in 1931. So I have a new goal in life: to track down these missing James stories!
The first eight stories of this collection were published as Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1904.

Canon Alberic's Scrapbook
A Cambridge man called Dennistoun arrives at the church in St Bertrand de Comminges to spend the day noting and photographing it. The verger insists on accompanying him around the church, much to the Englishman's annoyance; the Frenchman is tense and nervous, and several strange noises occur in the church.
'"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."'
This is a very good story; the tension builds up slowly to the climax, as the creepy atmosphere of the church combines with the fear of the verger and then of his daughter to create the sense that all is really not well, and that Dennistoun may not be wise to purchase the Canon's scrapbook.
This story has some typical James elements: an academic and heartily sceptical protagonist getting the fright of his life, and misdoings of the past leaching into the present.
As always with James, the story is well-written in clear and intelligent prose. Although obviously written by a highly educated man, the text is not self-conscious; there are no attempts to force facts or allusions into the text, but they are used when it is necessary to set the scene or build characters that convince the reader, such as when Dennistoun excitedly peruses the Canon's book and realises what a treasure he has.

Lost Hearts
If the first story is in familiar James territory, the second is more unusual. Firstly, it is set in the early years of the nineteenth century, whereas most James stories are set roughly around when he wrote them.
Secondly, the protagonist is a child, a boy of eleven. The orphaned Stephen Elliott arrives at the house of his distant cousin Mr Abney who has kindly invited him to live with him. Mr Abney has taken in two children in past years, a girl and a young foreign boy, both of whom are said to have run away.
As he settles in to the house, Stephen has a strange dream about a corpse-like figure in the bathroom:
'A figure inexpressibly thin and pathetic, of a dusty leaden colour, enveloped in a shroud-like garment, the thin lips crooked into a faint and dreadful smile, the hands pressed tightly over the region of the heart.'
This is the first of a number of strange occurrences during the lead up to Stephen's twelfth birthday, an event his elderly cousin is very interested in.
Lost Hearts is one of the scariest of James' stories and one of my favourites. The BBC dramatised it in the seventies, and over the past couple of Christmases have been showing them again late at night.
This was one I managed to stay up for, when J was out at a Christmas work do; I was alone with the cat at close to midnight on a cold, dark December night watching this very scary ghost story. It was wonderful.

The Mezzotint
Occasionally James uses similar story lines in more than one story and this is one of those occasions. James later expands the idea in The Haunted Dolls' House which is, I think, slightly better.
This story begins by reminding the reader of Dennistoun from Canon Alberic's Scrapbook, to establish that we are dealing with the same kind of man here, a University man called Williams. This particular scholar receives a mezzotint of a manor house on approval; it was recommended as being interesting but with a high price, so he expects much from it. On receiving it, however, he is not impressed. It is just an ordinary engraving of a house.
When he examines it later with a friend they notice a figure in the corner of the engraving that they did not notice there before. Then, later still:
'It was indubitable - rankly impossible, no doubt, but absolutely certain. In the middle of the lawn in front of the unknown house there was a figure where no figure had been at five o'clock that afternoon. It was crawling on all fours towards the house, and it was muffled in a strange black garment with a white cross on the back.'
This grotesque figure then continues its progress towards the house whenever the picture is unwatched - what does it intend to do there? This is a nice story but quite light, especially in comparison with Lost Hearts.