’tis (still) the Season, and that means ghost stories are in order. Any of you fine anons enjoying classic English ghost stories every Christmas as well?M. R. James was a Biblical scholar and author, considered the master of the English ghost story. All h

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Ghost stories Anonymous 12/31/20(Thu)13:01:56 No.888

'tis (still) the Season, and that means ghost stories are in order. Any of you fine anons enjoying classic English ghost stories every Christmas as well?
M. R. James was a Biblical scholar and author, considered the master of the English ghost story. All his ghost stories are available here: https://thin-ghost.org/collections/show/2
His first collection of ghost stories: https://archive.org/details/thinghostothers00jameiala (sepia) & https://archive.org/details/athinghostandot00jamegoog (b&w)
A Podcast to the Curious began covering all of James' ghost stories, and has since gone on to cover ghost stories in the Jamesian vein: http://www.mrjamespodcast.com/

E. F. Benson was a contemporary of James, and, like James he attended King's College, Cambridge and was a member of the Pitt Club. Benson came from a great literary family and published numerous books, including several collections of ~~ghost~~ spook stories, which are available here: https://web.archive.org/web/20180320201227/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/benson/ef/
Spook Stories by E. F. Benson: https://archive.org/details/spookstories00bensuoft
The Sanctuary by E. F. Benson (Online Text): http://archive.vn/uOzlf / https://web.archive.org/web/20190610063130/http://www.steve-calvert.co.uk/public-domain-texts/e-f-benson-the-sanctuary.html
Free readings of E. F. Bensons stories can be found here: https://corvidae.co.uk/benson/

R. H. Malden was a lifelong friend of James and published a collection of nine ghost stories in the Jamesian vein, titled Nine Ghosts in 1943. There are some nods and references to James' ghost stories, though one can easily enjoy them on their own, Malden's stories are perhaps the closest to James own antiquarian ghost stories.
Nine Ghosts: http://archive.vn/TaR0I / http://web.archive.org/web/20181226113218/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605461h.html
Article on R. H. Malden (1879-1951) by Roger Johnson from Ghosts & Scholars 9: http://archive.vn/wZwK / https://web.archive.org/web/20191101173806/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveMalden.html

H. R. Wakefield is considered the last great English ghost story writer, and wrote several collections of ghost stories in the Jamesian vein. Sadly most of his stories are not yet in the Public Domain. A fine old radio drama of his ghost story Ghost Hunt can be found here: http://www.relicradio.com/otr/2011/02/h292-ghost-hunt-by-suspense/ - this story was also adapted by EC Comics as Television Terror! in 1950 in The Haunt of Fear #17 (3), though without giving Wakefield credit. Like James he has an interesting story about a villanous Jew, and in the current year he has been accused of both racism and misogyny.
Strayers from Sheol by H. R. Wakefield: https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20200923
The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster by H. R. Wakefield: https://archive.org/details/Twilight_Zone_v04n04_1984-10_noads/page/n49/mode/2up
H. R. Wakefield: The Last of His Breed: https://archive.org/details/Twilight_Zone_v04n04_1984-10_noads/page/n55/mode/2up

M. P. Dare published only one collection of ghost stories, all featuring a duo of Sherlock Holmes/Dr Watson style bachelor scholars encountering ghostly going ons because of their antiquarian interests. Still reading through this colelction at the moment, and while they lack the punch of James' stories, they have all been a lot of fun so far, blending the comfy antiquarian bachelor life with ghostly shenanigans.
Unholy Relics and Other Uncanny Tales by M. P. Dare: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.186437/mode/2up
The Haunted Library: M. P. Dare ~ Antiquary, Writer… and Book Thief: https://archive.vn/eVNXs / http://web.archive.org/web/20201102040510/https://hauntedlibraryblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/m-p-dare-antiquary-writer-and-book-thief.html

Anonymous 12/31/20(Thu)16:58:37 No.891

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>no mention of E.G. Swain
I shiggy diggy, The Stoneground Ghost Tales are peak comfy.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44581/44581-h/44581-h.htm

Anonymous 01/01/21(Fri)02:13:15 No.893

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>>891
Only read two stories by Swain, I think, The Man With the Roller, which was covered on A Podcast to the Curious, and Bone to His Bone. The first was too much like James' story The Mezzotint, but without the weird ghostly figure and a rather blant climax.
After James I think I have enjoyed Benson & Malden's ghost stories the most. Malden in particular is very close to James in tone, subjects and climax. Benson has some very fine stories as well, though he has written so many stories you are found to come across some bland ones as well.
I would recommend seven of Malden's ghost stories; The Coxswain of the Lifeboat & The Priest's Brass did nothing for me, but the other stories are great. In particular I enjoyed The Dining-room Fireplace & The Sundial.
As for Benson, I would probably rate these the highest: The Room in the Tower, Caterpillars, The Thing in the Hall, The Outcast, Negotium Perambulans, "And No Bird Sing", The Temple & The Sanctuary.

Not typically associated with the typical ghost story, but John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, wrote some eerie weird stories as well, and H. P. Lovecraft spoke highly of these in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature:
<In the novel Witch Wood John Buchan depicts with tremendous force a survival of the evil Sabbat in a lonely district of Scotland. The description of the black forest with the evil stone, and of the terrible cosmic adumbrations when the horror is finally extripated, will repay one for wading though the very gradual action and plenthora of Scottish dialect. Some of Mr. Buchan's short stories are also very vivid in their spectral intimations; "The Green Wildebeest", a tale of African witchcraft, "The Wind in the Portico", with its awakening of dead Britanno-Roman horrors, and "Skule Skerry", with its touches of sub-arctic fright, being especially remarkable.

The Wind in the Portico: http://archive.vn/8KTgl#c04 / http://web.archive.org/web/20200629160039/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301381h.html#c04
Sidonius in Clubland: John Buchan's 'The Wind in the Portico' - Sidonius in Antiquity and Modernity: http://archive.vn/HQVsC / http://web.archive.org/web/20200123234213/http://research.shca.ed.ac.uk/sidonius/2016/06/10/sidonius-in-clubland/

Skule Skerry: http://archive.vn/8KTgl#c09 / http://web.archive.org/web/20200629160039/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301381h.html#c09
Orkneyjar - The Selkie Folk of Orkney Folklore: http://archive.vn/6XwK

The Grove of Ashtaroth by John Buchan: https://web.archive.org/web/20120414141659/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/buchan/john/grove_of_ashtaroth/index.html
The Grove of Ashtaroth by John Buchan: https://archive.org/details/blackwoodsmagazi187edinuoft/page/802/mode/2up

I have not yet read Witch Wood, but the three other stories listed above are top notch.
Witch Wood by John Buchan: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201849/page/n11/mode/2up

tbc 01/01/21(Fri)06:14:43 No.895

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diz izzuh rly gangbustarz threiad n awldoe eye haev nuttin 2 add 2 eet rly u've bookendid the yr just rite w/ the ephortpoastean u put 4ward OP - just wantid 2 giev u my heartfelt thanqs 4 solidifyean sum comfytime reedin materiyoolz n wish ewe a happy nu yr alawngsyde err1 else who mayde /lit/ a gr8 board 4 deez past 9 months %^D

Anonymous 01/01/21(Fri)17:45:17 No.896

>>893
>Only read two stories by Swain, I think, The Man With the Roller, which was covered on A Podcast to the Curious, and Bone to His Bone. The first was too much like James' story The Mezzotint, but without the weird ghostly figure and a rather blant climax.
It's better to take The Stoneground Ghost tales as one light mystery book rather than as multiple horror short stories. The book generally centers around one minister at one church, so you can't exactly have him die or go mad at the end of each story. The book is overall designed to be more subtle, contemplative, and cozy than the James circle's usual fare, but the fact that M.R. James himself enjoyed it is a decent sign that it's worth a read so long as you understand that it's a bit different in tone from something like Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.

Anonymous 01/02/21(Sat)11:15:33 No.897

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>>895
Thank you most kindly, BO! Seasons greetings to you, and the fine shitposters on this site, as well.
And if I may be so bold, you have a very colourful and original way of writing.

>>896
Talking about the James Gang, there is also Arthur Gray & Christopher Woodforde (https://archive.vn/erqL / https://web.archive.org/web/20200120040235/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveWoodforde.html), though I am wholly unfamiliar with them at present. From what I have read Woodforde's stories were written for children, so they, too, lack that extra punch/horror.

M. P. Dare's Fatal Oak was too similar to James' The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral for my taste. Barchester is a reference to the fictional place where some (or most?) of Anthony Trollope's novels are set. His novel Doctor Thorne (set in Barchester) was one of the books I got for Christmas; I have already seen the 2016 adaptation by Julian Fellowes, but Trollope really goes in-depth with the place and the characters.
Benson has some rather graphic scenes of horror in his stories, and Dare surprises too, with some quite nasty scenes, but hasn't yet given me that "pleasing terror" James did with some of his finest stories.

Two of James' unfinished story drafts, The Game of Bear & Merfield House can be read here: http://archive.is/CBi3Q / https://web.archive.org/web/20190814191954/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveHumphreys.html
The unfinished draft for Marcilly-le-Hayer: http://archive.vn/FNWXX / https://web.archive.org/web/20190228010948/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveMarcilly.html
And, finally, the unfished story draft for John Humphreys (eventually finished as Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance): https://archive.vn/exIoT / https://web.archive.org/web/20200214211122/http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveHumphreys.html
All of these unfinished drafts have been covered on A Podcast to the Curious as well.

Anonymous 01/04/21(Mon)04:31:01 No.907

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Finished M. P. Dare's ghost story collection, Unholy Relics and other Uncanny Tales, yesterday, and I thought it was a fine collection of ghostly tales, nicely bridging the gap between M. R. James & E. G. Swain. It has the same antiquarian touches and characters of James' stories, and the same two characters figure in each tale like the protagonist in Swain's stories.

These stories have a very cosy, comfy setting with these two bachelors of independent means who reside in a Leicestershire manor-house together with their two man-servants ("the Apostles", James & John) and can go about researching whatever catches their interest. Like Holmes & Watson they share a manor-house together and are frequently called out to examine some archaeological find or architectural curiosity and end up encountering ghosts (or "thought-forms") and other supernatural phenomena because of their curiosity. I wish there had been more punch to the horrors they encounter/experience in their researches to contrast the cosiness. The Haunted Drawers is a nice, mostly comedic tale, and The Nymph Still Lives is an entirely pleasant tale free of any horror whatsoever; The Forgotten Italian is limp and lifeless, and The Beam is just another variant of the Fatal Oak plot, i.e. James' The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral.
I very much enjoyed the description of the countryside in An Abbot's Magic; truly great stuff, very atmospheric. Sadly the payoff is very weak indeed; just the ghostly apparition of an abbot accused of alchemy!

Anyone who prefers the less ghastly tales à la E. G. Swain to the more grim ghost stories of H. R. Wakefield will likely enjoy M. P. Dare's collection of ghost stories a lot. While the collection has yet to pass into Public Domain it is up on the Internet Archive, so be sure to DL if it you want it, lest they take it down. The original edition is probably no easy to come by, and the Ash-Tree Press re-print might be even harder to track down, and is no doubt rather expensive.