A review by ilseoo
Ghost Stories by M.R. James

4.0

The ghost stories of M.R. James are chilling even though the horror is understated and sometimes only hinted at. The antiquarian setting, where old church engravings and library manuscripts contain demons from the past, create an element of terror where history comes back to haunt us. I enjoyed all these stories individually and would recommend this collection to lovers of (classic) ghost or horror stories. I do think that, when read together, you start to notice some returning narrative elements and settings and quite an unvarying template which is used as the basis of almost every story. Although the template is very effective, recognizing it can take away some of the tension or the impression of originality. Therefore, I would recommemd reading his stories on at a time, rather than back to back.