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5.0 out of 5 stars
The definitive collection of M.R. James's supernatural works, Nov 3 2002
Ghost-story fans will buy this book, no matter how steep the price, because it contains all of Montague Rhodes James's ghost stories, both finished and unfinished, his fantasy novella "The Five Jars," his parody of "Doctor Faustus," all of his commentary on ghostly literature, and much, much more. I shelled out the big bucks when "A Pleasing Terror" was first published by Ash-Tree Press (August, 2001), not because I cared about first editions, but because I had to have this book. It's the only complete collection of Monty's supernatural fiction.All of the stories are heavily annotated. The Latin tags and obscure scholarly references that pepper Monty's writings are explained for the non-classically-educated reader (most of us I should guess.) And his stories reverberate with his own special brand of horror--a muffled scratching within the tomb--not the gothic bombast of a Poe, or the eyeball-stomping aggression of a Stephen King. The scene in "Count Magnus" where the last padlock falls from the medieval coffin, or the cobwebby face that peers over the assistant librarian's shoulder as he reads from "The Tractate Middoth" are typical Jamesian touches. This Edwardian Prevost of King's College, Cambridge specialized in antiquarian settings, and scholarly heroes who open the wrong book or peer into the wrong sarcophagus. Some of the most interesting tidbits for M.R. James fanatics can be found in the multiple appendixes to "A Pleasing Terror." Those of us who were lucky enough to subscribe to Rosemary Pardoe's "Ghosts and Scholars" (a journal devoted to M.R. James and his imitators) before it ceased publication after thirty-three editions, will recognize her contributions, most especially in Appendix I: "James Wilson's Secret," and Appendix II: "The Black Pilgrimage." If this is not enough to satiate true M. R. James addicts, "A Memoir of Montague Rhodes James" by S. G. Lubbock is also included, as is a selected bibliography, and Rosemary Pardoe's "M.R. James on TV, Radio, and Film." I've never seen or heard any of the dramatizations of his stories, as most of them were done in England, but "Night of the Demons (1958)" whose screenplay was 'adapted' from Monty's "Casting the Runes" might have worked its way onto video by now. Monty fans, "A Pleasing Terror" is 'the' big kahuna. It doesn't get any better than this.
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